Joy Touliatos: Next Shelby County mayor should be a ‘bridge-builder’
After more than 24 years in Shelby County government, the past eight as the elected clerk of Juvenile Court, Joy Eftehia Touliatos has a new role in mind: county mayor.
The next mayor should be a “bridgebuilder,” someone who can bring together the experts of Memphis and Shelby County and focus their brainpower on solving the community’s three biggest issues: crime, education and jobs, Touliatos said.
“There’s no one there to spearhead that, and that’s what we’re missing,” she said.
Touliatos, 45, and the only woman in the race, faces County Trustee David Lenoir and County Commissioner Terry Roland in the May 1 Republican primary. Former county commissioner Sidney Chism and state Sen. Lee Harris are vying for the Democratic nomination.
Early voting in the primaries begins Wednesday. The general election is Aug. 2.
The daughter of Greek immigrants, Touliatos said she often worked at her family’s restaurant, The Fairview on East Parkway.
There and at home she was taught by her family, including the three grandparents who lived with them, to be respectful to others.
“There were so many times I saw my family feed people who couldn’t pay,” she said.
Those lessons stuck, said Touliatos, who lives in Bartlett with her husband, Steve Steckler, an auto mechanic. Most people would probably describe her as “nice,” she said. She loves baking and works a booth at the annual Memphis Greek Festival hosted by her church, Annunciation Greek Orthodox, on Highland. She has a yellow lab, Governor. (“It’s not my aspiration,” she adds. “We just liked the name.”)
As mayor, she would put the lessons from her faith and family to work on the county’s biggest issues, Touliatos said. She wants to spur the faith community to action.
“I think citizens are looking for someone to let them know what’s available out there,” she said. “… Churches are doing one thing, businesses are doing another. We could do so much better as a whole than piecemeal.”
Because of her more holistic approach to problem-solving, Touliatos’ solutions can lack definition. Instead of a five-point public safety plan, she said she wants to work with the sheriff’s office and district attorney’s office to find out what they need to reduce crime. She approaches economic incentives the same way, saying she wants to work with the business community to craft a policy that will create not just more jobs, but the right jobs.
Touliatos also wants to work with Shelby County Schools leaders to give the county more oversight on how county tax dollars are spent, and help connect schools with faith communities to spawn more initiatives like Teen Read.
Better education could solve many of the county’s problems, she said. Better education leads to better jobs, which leads to more economic development and wealth.
“Everything goes back to education,” she said.
An important piece of the county’s education puzzle is prekindergarten, she said. The county already gives $3 million a year to pre-K and could give even more in the future as Memphis and the county team up to offer needs-based pre-K to the entire county.
Touliatos is a product of the local schools, graduating from Lausanne Collegiate School in 1990. She graduated from the University of Memphis with an English degree in 1994 and began working full-time at General Sessions Court as a program administrator specialist in human resources and payroll.
In 2002, she began working as chief administrative officer of the Shelby County Juvenile Court, and in 2010 was elected Juvenile Court clerk. She was reelected in 2014.
Asked why she decided to run for mayor, Touliatos said she had the experience in the private and public sectors, and the “determination to make a difference.”
“I build bridges and work across party lines,” she said.
Reach Ryan Poe at poe@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter at @ryanpoe.