Questions remain after de-annexation talks

Meeting is short in wake of heated November Q&A

Upset by the higher taxes she’s paid since Memphis annexed a house she owns in South Cordova, Janie York drove 21⁄2 hours to hear city officials explain a plan to de-annex seven areas, her neighborhood included.

What she and the more than 150 other people at the input meeting received was a brief presentation and a look at placards with information about the potential impact of de-annexation on residents — but no public question-and-answer session or discussion. York — who lives in Camden, Tennessee, and whose daughter lives in her South Cordova house — wasn’t pleased.

“The thing is, by the time we got here, it was already over,” she said.

That was a common reaction after the meeting at First Assembly Memphis in the South Cordova area, the first of four information sessions over the next week to glean feedback from citizens about the de-annexations proposed by Mayor Jim Strickland’s administration Feb. 2. City officials said they made the call not to have a discussion period or Q&A because they wanted to steer people toward a survey available at the meeting and on a new website, rightsizememphis.com, to make sure “every voice” is heard.

“We make a lot of decisions based on numbers,” Memphis Chief Operations Officer Doug McGowen said in the meeting. “But what do people have to say?”

The decision to abbreviate the meeting came after an at-times heated Q&A at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library

in November as advocates for de-annexation of South Cordova and SouthwindWindyke shared their frustrations with the city. Since then, Strickland’s administration has recommended de-annexing seven areas, including those two neighborhoods, whose residents fought their annexation and have continued their fight by lobbying for state legislation allowing them to petition for a vote on their de-annexation.

The city presented some new information at the meeting at First Assembly Memphis in the South Cordova area in the form of placards with information about the impact of de-annexation on residents. On one placard, the city calculated de-annexed residents in a singlefamily home appraised at $150,000 would save about $68 a month — $816 a year — if their taxes stay the same and they opt to keep the same level of services as they receive in the city. Also, residents would have to pay a $46.54 fire service fee that’s already included in city taxes, higher ambulance fees, and possibly wait longer for ambulances, another placard said.

What wasn’t on the placards was that Memphis City Council members are also researching the possibility of charging additional fees for non-city residents who use city-subsidized amenities like the Memphis Zoo or the Botanic Gardens.

County Chief Administrative Officer Harvey Kennedy, who lives in the unincorporated part of the county and attended the meeting, said the cost difference between living in the city versus the county isn’t as great as some people may think, and “kind of balances out.”

Patricia Possel, a leader in the South Cordova de-annexation movement, said the city’s numbers were misleading, that de-annexation would give residents the option to choose the services that make sense to them.

“We’re Americans; we should have freedom of choice,” she said.

Meeting organizer Brian Stephens of Caissa Public Strategies, speaking after McGowen, pointed out the many unanswered questions in the de-annexation process, including what happens to legacy costs like the installation of streetlights or construction of a community center, debt the city will continue to shoulder after the residents benefiting from those amenities leave. He said the state legislature may need to act to settle that question.

McGowen and Stephens also emphasized the timing of the de-annexation isn’t set in stone, even though the administration already said it wouldn’t recommend any de-annexations before 2021 to allow the city and county time to plan for the transition.

The Strategic Footprint Review Task Force, which the City Council last year assigned to study the feasibility of voluntary de-annexation, will use residents’ input to make recommendations on deannexation to the council. The task force was created following the state legislature’s near approval of a controversial bill allowing any areas annexed since 1998 to petition for referendums to deannex themselves.

City Council member Frank Colvett Jr., who was at the meeting, said most of the questions he got afterward were about the process. The council can either vote to de-annex areas or allow referendums to let residents decide, according to state law.

“Just getting to a vote is going to require a lot of steps,” he said.

But the information about the potential impact didn’t convince Doyle Silliman, a Southwind-Windyke resident who sued the city over annexation. He maintains, as many advocates do, that de-annexation is mutually beneficial for affected residents and the city, and reiterated his skepticism that the city is serious about de-annexation.

“I think it’s another phase of the dogand-pony show,” he said.

Reach Ryan Poe at poe@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter at @ryanpoe.