In a morning talk radio show today, Mayor Pro Tem Myron Lowery pledged to give up the mayor's Cadillac Escalade and otherwise open up City Hall to the public during his short stint as mayor.
Lowery also announced his appointment of Veronica Coleman-Davis, a former U.S. attorney, as deputy director of the city attorney's office until City Atty. Elbert Jefferson is formally removed from the top legal spot.
As we reported today, Lowery on Friday fired Jefferson, who later refused to leave City Hall. Jefferson, who was appointed by former mayor Willie Herenton, was eventually escorted out by Lowery's security detail but has since received a court order allowing him to return to his job.
Lowery said if his new pick for city attorney, Coleman-Davis, is confirmed Tuesday by the City Council, she'll automatically replace Jefferson.
"I didn't want this controversy to start off my term for mayor," Lowery said. "This has been a distraction that should have been avoided."
Lowery, who is running in the special election to replace Herenton, spoke for about 30 minutes on the "Drake & Zeke in the Morning" show, casting himself in starkly different light from the former mayor.
Lowery said on Friday at 2 p.m., he's hosting a town hall meeting at City Hall, after which members of the public can ask questions of the city's deputy division directors and even take a tour of the mayor's lavish seventh floor suite.
"We have many individuals, including city employees, who have never been on the seventh floor," Lowery said. "My office is their office and it's going to be open to the public."
He also said he's moving ahead with a long-range plan to consolidate Memphis and Shelby County Governments. He said he would meet with County Mayor A C Wharton in the near future to discuss the merger of the city and county fire departments.
As for the taxpayer-funded Cadillac, Lowery said he took his one and only ride in the company car last week.
"The Escalade is going back, the city will save money on that lease," Lowery said. "I'm not going to keep it."
That's The Drake and Zeke Show, mornings 6 - 10 on 98.1 the Max, just so no one gets confused about what radio station on which Drake and Zeke hosted Myron and will be hosting other Mayoral candidates, as well as Police Director Godwin on Tuesday, and our regular guest, City Councilman Shea Flinn.
Hopefully the mayor will also give up the "King Willie" style of violating traffic laws via his security detail. He should reevaluate whether he really needs a security detail or is it just for ego purposes and to hold elevators and open doors for him. The Security detail officers sure could be helpful back in uniform and on patrol to help reduce street crime.
Time will tell if the new mayor just keeps all the trappings of "King Willie" and talks a good game, but doesn't really make substantial changes that are positive. Just changing the name plates on the desk with the same type people filling the positions is not beneficial to the citizens of Memphis.
Again, follow the traffic laws mayor, you are not exempt from them even if your security detail is willing to violate the law for you.