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Special Interest Groups and Conservatives have secured a majority of seats at the Local, State and Federal level by advancing candidates who seemingly exhibit a disdain for civil liberties and workers rights, oftentimes disregarding a given candidate’s potential conflicts of interest or possibly criminal activity.

In Memphis, our City Council is now dominated by such Special Interests Groups and enemies of Labor, creating an imbalance of power that has effectively silenced the voices of most Memphians, and specifically the voice of First Responders. This imbalance of power is one of the main reasons why I have run for a City Council seat, the first time in 2015 for Super District 9 Position 1 against incumbent Kemp Conrad, and the second time in 2018 for Super District 9 Position 2 previously held by Phillip Spinoza.

Although this year marks the third time I have run, with my name appearing on the ballot for Super District 9 Position 3, Democrats and Progressives should take notice of the Playbook being used by the Special Interest Groups and Conservatives, and counter it by electing candidates who are pro-labor and workers rights — not just supporting candidates they “like” or that they select according to gender or race.

Therefore, I am now endorsing Dr. Jeff Warren for City Council Super District 9 Position 3, and I encourage all of my supporters and constituents to vote for him. Dr. Warren is best positioned to return balance to Memphis City Council and the best person to represent all Memphians!

 

The Memphis Flyer posted the article, “Council Switch; New House Speaker; Legislative Alteration” by Jackson Baker featuring Charley Burch.

The article includes a quote by Charley Burch stating he and fellow pro-labor candidates and members of Labor who seek to represent workers and Memphians must bond together in support of common goals.A decision by the presiding officials of the local AFL-CIO on Sunday to prohibit speeches by political candidates at their annual picnic at AFSCME headquarters downtown — even by those whom the union has chosen to endorse — has stirred some disquiet.

It has also prompted some action on the city-council-candidate front. Charley Burch reacted to the unprecedented acton by arranging a press conference for Monday afternoon involving himself, state Representative G.A. Hardaway, and fellow council candidate Jeff Warren. The purpose of the press conference?

Said Burch: “It’s to make the point that couldn’t get made at the picnic because we didn’t have the opportunity to say it — that those of us friendly to labor have to bond together in support of common goals.”

In Burch’s case, those common goals would be served by his using the Monday press conference to endorse Warren, who, along with Burch, Cody Fletcher, and Tyrone Romeo Franklin, is on the ballot for Position 3 in Council Super District 9. Presumably Burch would have availed himself on this option on Sunday if allowed to.

Eighth District Congressman David Kustoff addressed a National Federation of Small Business group at Regions Bank on Poplar last week and, as he has in the past, made a point of backing as many of President Trump’s initiatives as possible, including one that has been somewhat overlooked in the crescendo of recent political developments.

Said Kustoff: “An issue that I’m going to continue to fight on is the U.S., Mexico, Canada Agreement (CAFTA), which will replace the old NAFTA. The president renegotiated NAFTA, I think, to the betterment of the United States. Mexico’s ratified it. Canada’s ratified it. So we need Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi to put it on the floor. And the challenge that I see right now — should we go back on September 9th in Washington — is that we’ve got 41 legislative days or something like that.

“You’ve got some Democrats who say they want to do it. But some who don’t, who say it’d be a win for Donald Trump. It’d be a win for the United States of America. But that’s the mentality. That’s the mindset. And I’m concerned that with the presidential election, which is already in gear, that the longer she waits, the tougher it’s going to be to to get it to get it done.”

At the same NFIB meeting, state Representatives Ron Gant (R-Rossville) and Tom Leatherwood (R-Arlington) both attested to their belief that Representative Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville), newly nominated by the majority Republican caucus to be speaker of the state House of Representatives, will be a positive antidote to the confusion and mistrust that accompanied the one year-reign as speaker of Glen Casada (R-Franklin), who lost a vote of confidence in his caucus to remain in that position of leadership.

Gant told an affecting story about how Casada called him to the front of the assembled House in the last session and tried unsuccessfully to get him to change his No vote on the issue of private-school vouchers. Eventually, the then-speaker did manage to get another representative to change his vote, breaking the tie and allowing the voucher measure to progress.

As it happens, new Speaker Sexton was a No voter on the issue and has expressed a desire to postpone implementation of the new voucher law, which, as written, applies only to Shelby and Davidson counties. Gant allowed as how he thought some “tweaking” on the law might occur in the 2020 legislative session, which begins in January.

Read the full article here.

The Memphis Flyer posted the article, “Money Talk: A Look at Council Race Funding” by Jackson Baker featuring Charley Burch.

The article includes information about how Charley Burch called attention to the Cody Fletcher campaign may be in violation of The Little Hatch Act, alleging potential or actual conflicts of interest stemming from Fletcher’s association with a TIF project in the University of Memphis area. Even though State Officials want to sweep this one under the carpet, the Memphis Flyer it’s not going to as this is the second time they have published the unethical and likely illegal actions by the Cody Fletcher campaign. The Fletcher campaign responded in true deflective Trumpian fashion.

To begin with a correction: In the Politics column for Thursday, August 1st, it was stated that Erika Sugarmon was a candidate for the Super-District 9, Position 3 seat. That was an unfortunate typo. Sugarmon and Chase Carlisle are paired in one of the few one-on-one contests on the council ballot. And they are contending for the Super-District 9, Position 1 (one) seat.

The actual contest for the Super-District 9, Position 3 seat involves four candidates — Jeff Warren, Cody Fletcher, Charley Burch, and Tyrone Romeo Franklin. Most observers see that race to be one between Warren, a physician and former Memphis School Board member, and Fletcher, a development specialist at the University of Memphis who is making his first political run.

Burch, who has run for several previous offices and is a security officer at Memphis International Airport, has raised the only real issue that has surfaced so far, alleging potential or actual conflicts of interest stemming from Fletcher’s association with a TIF project in the University of Memphis area, administered by the non-profit d University Neighborhoods Development Corporation. and involving some possible indirect oversight by a council-funded body.

Paul Morris, Fletcher’s treasurer, has responded that the charge is “ridiculous, reckless, false, and defamatory” and that a state law cited by Burch as his authority does not apply to employees of the university.

Resource-wise, Warren is a clear leader, with $142,000 on hand as of his second-quarter financial report. Fletcher comes in at $42,000, and Burch and Franklin are not even blips on the screen as of yet.

The aforementioned Sugarmon-Carlisle race for Position 1 is equally lopsided. Carlisle’s second-quarter report shows him with $129,000 on hand, while Sugarmon has $820. She has the asset of name recognition, though. Her late father, Russell Sugarmon, was a distinguished lawyer and civil rights pioneer who later served as a General Sessions Court judge. Developer Carlisle’s father, the late builder Gene Carlisle, is a well-known name, too, for that matter.

District 5 is the site of another bona fide one-on-one. The incumbent, Worth Morgan, a sales executive with a social pedigree and significant business support, has a campaign balance on hand of $117,000, according to his second-quarter report. Though Morgan did not shy away from public campaigning in scheduled forums and the like during his 2015 race, he was assisted mightily by a well-funded advertising campaign, and a recent Facebook post has alerted supporters that his latest yard signs and ads for this year’s campaign are plentiful and ready to go.

The assets, financial and otherwise, of Morgan’s opponent, lawyer John Marek, are at this point something of an unknown quantity. Marek has ample political experience as a cadre in numerous Democratic campaigns and managed one of 9th District Congressman Steve Cohen’s re-election campaigns. And he is a cannabis entrepreneur, with a stake in a potentially profitable Colorado farm.

Up until now, Marek has been devoting considerable time to the Colorado matter and has done little campaigning. But he arrived Sunday as a visitor to the headquarters opening of candidate Warren with news that he is ready to be a full-time campaigner in his second try for the District 5 seat. Marek has abundant panache but has only just begun to raise money. He has made clear that criminal justice reform is a major concern.

Read the full article here.

Alleges conflicts pertaining to TIF in University of Memphis area.

The Memphis Flyer posted the article, “Council Candidate Burch Accuses Opponent Fletcher of Violating State Law” by Jackson Baker featuring Charley Burch.

The article includes a quote by Charley Burch in which he cites Tennessee Code Annotated § 8-30-306, also known as the Little Hatch Act. Let’s rebuild Memphis for ALL Memphians and return benefits to our City Employees and First Responders! Labor BEFORE Management!

Charley Burch, a candidate for the City Council in Super-District 9, Position 3, is taking aim at one of his opponents, Cody Fletcher, charging the Fletcher campaign with violating state law.

Burch cites Tennessee Code Annotated § 8-30-306, also known as the Little Hatch Act, which contains this provision: “No person holding a position in the preferred service shall solicit, directly or indirectly, or require any other person to solicit, directly or indirectly, donations or contributions for any political party, candidate, cause or purpose in order to acquire or deny a position in state service or to materially affect the retention, promotion or demotion of any employee in state service.”

He also cites TN Code § 2-19-203, which says: “It is unlawful for any public officer or employee knowingly to solicit directly or indirectly any contribution of money, thing of value, facilities or services of any person who has received contracts, compensation, employment, loans, grants or benefits, or any person whose organization, agency or firm has received such benefits financed by public funds, state, federal or local, for political purposes or campaign expense.”

Several candidates are contending for the District 9, Position 3 seat. Besides Burch and Fletcher, two others are Dr. Jeff Warren and Tyrone Romeo Franklin. Fletcher had originally proposed to run for the Position 1 position in Super-District 9 but was persuaded by consultant Brian Stephens to switch his venue.

Burch, a security officer at Memphis International Airport, said he intends to file a formal complaint with state authorities. He contends that Fletcher, a development officer of the University of Memphis, a state-supported institution, has run afoul of the provision by “directly or indirectly” soliciting campaign contributions from contractors of other persons with an interest in various building projects.

Burch specifically includes the University Neighborhood Development Corporation, a comprehensive redevelopment project focused on Highland Street and financed under the auspices of a TIF (tax increment financing) grant.

Fletcher is executive director of the UNDC, and, as such, says Burch, is empowered to distribute some $21 million “in city and county tax dollars over the next 15 years up and down the TIF area,” which runs from Poplar Avenue to Park Ave.

“Cody may not be fully aware personally of the problem,” said Burch. “But his campaign people should be.”

Burch pointed out that a well-attended fundraiser for the Fletcher campaign was held in March at the home of Ted Townsend, head of economic development and government relations for the University of Memphis.

“That compounds the issue,” said Burch, who pointed out that invitations to the March fundraiser “almost certainly” went out to “architects, engineers, and builders with existing or potential future contracts with the University.”

Asked if such individuals, many of whom subsequently contributed to the Fletcher campaign, didn’t have the right to contribute to political campaigns like any other citizens, Burch said, “Of course, and they’re perfectly fine people. The point is that they were solicited, and that’s a questionable gray area under the Little Hatch Act.”

Citing public information, Burch said major contributors to Fletcher with some degree of involvement with the UNDC TIF area included Bob Loeb of Loeb Properties, New York developer Zachary Channing, and representatives of the Bass, Berry and Sims law firm, the Makosky, Ringel, and Greenberg property management firm, and Looney, Kiss, and Ricks architects.

Burch also raised the issue of possible conflicts of interest involving Fletcher as a Councilman, given that the Council has ex officio representation on the EDGE board and certain powers of approval over that board, which initiates and oversees TIFs and other development projects.

Apprised of Burch’s charges, Fletcher responded, “‘My top priority is fighting crime. If my opponents are talking about me, I must be doing something right.”

Read the full article here.

The Memphis Flyer posted the article, “Notes on Council, School Board Races” by Jackson Baker featuring Charley Burch.

The article includes a quote by Charley Burch in which he indicates that he is running for City Council to fight against the special interests that seemingly control the current City Council.

Not to be forgotten (but largely overlooked, all the same) as we approach the August 2nd election date is a race to fill a vacancy on the Memphis City Council and four races for positions on the Shelby County Schools board.

By definition, these positions apply exclusively to Memphis, in the case of the council seat, and mainly so for the school board positions.

CITY COUNCIL, SUPER-DISTRICT 9, POSITION 2: The council seat, an at-large position for roughly the eastern half of the city, was formerly occupied by Philip Spinosa, who resigned in May to take a job with the Greater Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce. The seat is now occupied, on an interim basis, by funeral home director Ford Canale, who was appointed to the vacancy by a majority of the other council members. Canale and six other candidates are now seeking the right to fill out the duration of Spinosa’s term.

The other six are Charley Burch, Tyrone Romeo Franklin, Lisa Moore, Erika Sugarmon, Tim Ware, and David Winston. There have been two public forums to which all the candidates have been invited. Both were held last week — one at the Olivet Worship Center at Woodland Hills on Tuesday, the other at Mt.Olive C.M.E. Church on Thursday. Only candidates Burch, Moore, Sugarmon, and Ware took part, and, while no one bothered to mention Franklin and Winston, the absence of interim Councilman Canale drew significant attention from those present.

In fact, Canale’s ears had to be burning on Tuesday night. Music producer/realtor Burch talked about him at length, casting him as the “plant” in a saga whereby a cabal of business elitists, special interests, and council incumbents are determining who is and can be on the council — and pretty much everything the council does.

“The council knows how they’re voting before they come into the room [the City Hall auditorium],” Burch asserted. “There’s empirical evidence of it.” And Canale’s appointment was a case in point. “The fix was in,” said Burch. “I’m not running against one great candidate up here” he said, a sweep of his arm indicating the fellow candidates on stage with him at Woodland Hills. “But I am running against Canale, because he has a plan to keep us out. … I’m the main one they don’t want elected.”

Moore, who runs a non-profit called Girls, Inc., was of similar mind on Tuesday, speaking of active “collusion” between the council and City Hall on behalf of “a well-orchestrated plan,” where “the rich get richer and the rest of us just watch and struggle.” She called for “equity” efforts in every neighborhood, a crash program in public transportation, and a developed educational plan. Former teacher Sugarmon, the daughter of Memphis civil rights pioneer Russell Sugarmon and a self-proclaimed “people’s candidate,” called for community development programs that would “trickle up” economic progress. Tim Ware, who has had a lengthy career as an education consultant, called for the city to resume its spending on public schools, an idea that the others approved as well.

There was more from all four, much of it sound, some of it more freely speculative, and most of it was repeated at Mt. Olive on Thursday in a program sponsored by the NAACP via its VIP901 election-year campaign and shared with school board candidates. Burch, who has union support and promised to restore the lost pension arrangements of the city’s first responders, and Moore had sounded the leitmotif: that city government was in the clutches of a self-aggrandizing clique, for whom the newly named Canale was just the latest tool.

The Rev. Kenneth Whalum, pastor of the church sponsoring the first council forum and a former school board member, had joined in the verbal abuse of Canale, whom he ridiculed for the fact that the not yet elected councilman’s picture was said to have been mounted already on the City Hall auditorium wall.

Congratulating the other candidates, Whalum said, “All of them were very impressive. They‘re all eminently more qualified than Ford Canale, who didn’t think enough of you to show up. Vote for anybody but Ford Canale. … Put one of these people on the city council and make them take that picture down.”

Read the full article here.

Local 24 posted the story, “EXCLUSIVE: City Council Spending Taxpayer Money On Portrait Of A Temporary City Council Member“.

Local 24 is the only TV news source to cover this story!

Local 24 is watching out for your money. A $1,000 portrait of a Memphis City Council Member is raising questions. The framed photo was put up this week but might have to come down in just eight days.

Interim council member Ford Canale was never elected to the job. He was appointed to the District 9 seat a couple months ago. Voters will soon get their say in a special election on August 2nd.

Local 24’s Dave Detling asked the city why taxpayers paid for the portrait. It’s an exclusive story you’ll see on Local 24 News.

The city of Memphis said every elected council member gets a portrait to hang in council chambers. But the portraits cost more than $1,000 and you the taxpayer paid for it.

“I don’t think we should be putting people’s names and pictures on walls until they’re the actually city council person,” said Taylor Cook.

Cook is a voter and concerned Memphian. She was inside city council chambers when Ford Canale was appointed.

“I was disappointed because I thought there were other more qualified individuals,” she said.

Cook takes issue with the portrait of the interim councilman.

“$1,000 might not seem like a big expense to city council in the grand scheme of things,” she said, “but as a taxpayer and a person of moderate means, it definitely seems like a lot of money. I think it would have been smarter to wait a couple of weeks to see who actually wins the seat.”

That’s the issue voters see. If Canale is defeated by one of his seven challengers in the August 2nd election, his portrait will be taken down and a new one will go up. The city will just spend more money on a new portrait.

Read the full story here.

Charley Burch explains the reasons why he is running for City Council! Vote for Charley Burch in the Special Election on August 2, 2018, for Super District 9 Position 2.

Click here to support the campaign to Elect Charley Burch!

The Daily News posted the story, “Shelby County Early Voting Tops 4,300“.

A total of 4,324 citizens had voted early through Monday, July 16, the last day of the 14-day voting period confined to five sites. Early voting expanded Tuesday to 22 additional sites across Shelby County.

The 4,324 early voters compares to 7,838 three days into the early-voting period in 2014 for the same election cycle of county general and state and federal primary elections. By the third day of early voting in 2014, the balloting had expanded to 20 satellite sites after days of voting at the election commission office Downtown.

In the 2010 elections for the same cycle, 8,876 citizens had voted early by the third day of the period, which again marked the point at which 20 other locations opened.

All of the turnout numbers include absentee ballots cast.

The early-voting period continues through July 28 in advance of the Aug. 2 Election Day.

Read the full story here.

Charley Burch talks with Rick Thompson at the IBEW Local 1288 Picnic on June 30, 2018, about electing a labor-friendly City Council for a safer Memphis! Vote for Charley Burch in the Special Election on August 2, 2018, for Super District 9 Position 2.

Click here to support the campaign to Elect Charley Burch!