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The fight over annexation in the suburbs tonight

on "Behind the Headlines".

♪♪♪

I'm Eric Barnes, publisher of the Memphis Daily News.

Thanks for joining us.

We are joined tonight by State Representative Steve McManus

representing Cordova.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you!

Also Bill Boyd from the Memphis City Council.

Thank you for being here.

My pleasure.

Jim Tomasik from Cordova's Voice.

Thanks for having me.

Absolutely.

And Bill Dries, senior reporter with the Memphis Daily News.

We'll start with you, Steve.

The annexation is complicated.

We'll get in to some of the history of it.

We'll get in to where we are now.

But there's some change in the air.

The state legislature in this past session put a moratorium

in place.

Why a moratorium and what do you all hope to get out of this

moratorium?

Yeah, sure.

Um, there's a real sense going on in Nashville and you can

really feel it.

And the bottom line is that our constituents are really saying

we want more of a voice when it comes to annexation issues.

We are one of the handful of states in the United States that

still allows a municipality to really exercise their heavy hand

of government and simply come in and take a particular territory.

And there's no doubt about it that we've had a tough time when

it comes to the economy.

And we seem to be seeing more and more of this annexation

issues as the economy was in pretty tough,

you know, a pretty tough strain.

So that's what we're hoping for right now.

What we're considering is a moratorium for about a year to

see if really we want to change the law and become one

of the majority of states that will say,

"If a particular area is going to be annexed,

it's going to be done by referendum" meaning you have a

vote versus simply giving that power to the municipality.

And that's a vote of the people there,

being annexed, which right now doesn't exist.

And I think that's part of your concern,

Jim.

You are in an area that has not been annexed by the city of

Memphis?

No, we were just annexed recently.

And the situation is we were not even aware that this was going

on.

I guess we were minding our own business.

And next thing I know, we get a notice in the mail saying that

our..

We owed taxes.

But not only taxes starting at that time,

they're billing us for a period of time before that which drove

our house notes up in the south Cordova area up a lot.

There's no evidence that we received any services from the

city of Memphis prior to this time.

So I'm not exactly sure how in the world they could back tax

you for something that you did not receive.

And, uh, it really has the people in this area up in arms.

And we've had some meetings where 500 people showed up.

And these are the people who could make the meeting showed

up.

And they're all upset that this has happened without their

ability to have a vote to say we want to be a part of Memphis or

we don't.

Something that happened..

If I go too long just cut me off.

But something that happened in Millington would be a perfect

example about how this should be run.

Millington went to annex an area,

two areas: Lucy and Kerr.

Kerr is north of them.

Lucy is south of Millington.

And they gave the people a choice to be annexed.

This is, even with the current laws,

and this is not long ago.

They gave them choice to be annexed.

The people in the Kerr area said,

"No, we don't want to be annexed."

The people in the Lucy area said,

"Sure, we want to be a part of Millington."

Millington said, "Welcome aboard, Lucy.

"We'll talk to ya later, Kerr."

That gave the people a voice.

And one way or the other.

Right, right.

Um, Bill Boyd, where do you stand on annexation?

I mean right now, it's the city council that votes,

you know, and has areas that it's identified to annex.

It's taken areas over the past few years including this area.

Is it a proper role and a proper process right now for the city

of Memphis to annex this one?

Well I think it is.

Of course I'm the only one representing the city here.

So I presume I'm also representing the city

administration in a way.

So I can't speak for them but I can't speak for the rest of the

council.

But I'd like to correct a couple of things that Jim said earlier

and that's the tax.

The city administration is not taxing those people beginning

January 1.

It's a fiscal year and has been ever since I've been in city

government.

And Bill knows I've been in a long time.

But it's a fiscal year beginning July 1.

So that's when the taxation began through June 30.

Also, uh, the..

This is going back.

If he didn't know it and I don't doubt that you did not know it

was in the works.

It's been in the works since 2001,

year 2001.

And a group of about five citizens out there in south

Cordova area, they, um, came with a law suit.

And that thing was pending for a number of years.

It's finally in chancellor court here in Shelby County.

Finally the judge ruled on it and dismissed it,

the lawsuit in June of 2011.

So it was not promptly answered by the plantiffs in the case.

Those five individuals within a months time,

they were required to by July of 2011.

So it became annexed at that point.

But going forward, let's skip that for one second and say

going forward, would you be opposed to changes in the way

annexations are done in the future?

In the sense that people who are to be annexed would have a voice

in it in the way that Representative McManus and Jim

here are talking about how other states do it.

Well it's probably not politically prudent for me to

say this but, uh, I have been around a long time.

And I have witnessed the Frayser annexation and on down the line

from there.

Parkway Village, Whitehaven, Oakhaven,

Raleigh, all those leading up to the big Cordova annexation some

years back.

I think it is a proper way because I don't believe if this

passed in Nashville like, uh, Steve says these other states

have done recently gone in to.

I don't think the citizens would ever approve any annexation.

Would that be bad?

Well it's a fairness thing in my opinion.

Yeah.

You've got our city council attorney,

Allan Wade, made a statement that upset a lot of south

Cordova people by saying without being annexed and in an

unincorperated area, that they're taking advantage of a

lot of the services in the city.

Well I know some of the residents out there said,

"I've never seen a city police car,"

and all this kind of thing.

But no, they haven't.

But they..

All those citizens just have an imaginary line.

They're right across the street in some instance of a city.

Citizens who are paying all the taxes for the streets,

the street lights.

The people that those residents go to work.

They go to church.

They go to all the entertainment,

places in the city like doctors and all that.

So they utilize those services that only the city of Memphis

tax payer pays for.

So it's a fairness thing as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah, yeah.

Let me just say in response to that that,

you know, Bill just mentioned that if it were put to a vote,

that most citizens would not want to become a part of

Memphis.

What does that say about Memphis?

And that's even what the mayor said.

The mayor said, "Look, I think we've got to stop acting like

"this when it comes to this."

We've got to annex everything.

We've got to think more about what we can do to make Memphis a

better, more vibrant city.

And at that point, then maybe people will say,

"Yeah, I'd like to vote on it because maybe I would like to be

"a part of Memphis."

And that, I think, is critical to this conversation.

It's just give the people the right to vote.

And you know something?

If you need the money and people have the right to vote,

you are going to look within.

And you are going to do everything you can to make this

city a better city and a place to live.

So let me just say something, too,

about the process of this annexation in south Cordova.

It was a P-R nightmare for the city that they did what they

did.

It was a P-R nightmare.

Not one of us knew.

Not one of us knew and I'm the elected official out in that

area as a state representative.

I never knew it.

No body ever called me and let me know.

We woke up.

As you say Jim, we woke up that morning to find out that we had

been annexed.

And that was a horrible way to conduct the business of

annexation.

And you know something, too?

You'd be hard-pressed, too, to find anybody living in south

Cordova or Cordova that would say that Memphis came in and

annexed us, you know, for the benefit of our,

uh, welfare.

To all of us it was simply a land grab.

It was done to generate income.

ANd of course the city of Memphis will never say that.

But you know it didn't take long for us to know that the city of

Memphis's finances, thanks to the letters that we've received

from, you know, State Comptroller Justin Wilson,

proved just that.

Memphis is in dire straights.

They need the money.

And it all became crystal clear after we were annexed that that

was the case.

And Jim, respond.

As somebody who lives in south Cordova,

are there services you've been getting?

I mean do you feel like you should be paying for roads and

so on that you're using that, um,

that you weren't paying for before you were annexed.

That point, where we live across the line and there's services

that we cross across the line and therefore we should be

paying taxes..

If we're going to a business in that area,

we're paying taxes when we use that business whether we're

using sales taxes or whatever If we buy gasoline,

we're paying that taxes that have related to whatever product

or service that we're using over there.

And okay, so how close to the line is it that it becomes

relative?

There's people living in Mississippi who come to Memphis

to work.

Are you going to tax them?