Mayor Pro Tem Myron Lowery hosted a groundbreaking at the Mid-South Fairgrounds this morning, but now a City Council member and mayoral opponent has questioned how a groundbreaking can be hosted for a project that was never formally approved.
Lowery's spokeswoman Donna Davis sent a press release last night inviting the press to a groundbreaking of Phase 1 of a four-phase plan to revitalize the fairgrounds.
Phase 1 includes demolition of many unused and unsightly structures formerly used by the Mid-South Fair and will be funded by $2 million already approved by the City Council.
But the rest of the $175 million project - which Lowery's administration recently unveiled and which stands in competition to a rival project backed by developer Henry Turley - has not received formal council approval.
City Councilwoman Wanda Halbert, a Memphis mayoral candidate, has now questioned how such a groundbreaking could be billed as the launch of the project.
Halbert wrote an email to Davis, pointing out that the $2 million in capital funds allocated for fairgrounds cleanup was not specifically assigned to a particular project.
Davis responded in a terse email: "Talk to (chief administrative officer) Jack (Sammons) if you have questions. I'm busy. My release was accurate."
Incensed, Halbert fired off another e-mail to government officials and members of the media, calling Davis' tone "completely inappropriate and disrespectful."
"Furthermore, it appears a ground-breaking ceremony may be established for a project that does not exist because it has not been approved by council," she said. "Would someone from the administration please send this requested information to council ASAP..."
A call to Lowery was not immediately returned.
Wanda it might behoove you to read the Council minutes of past meetings in the past few months and then maybe you'd learn that the funds were for the cleanup of the Fairgrounds that the Council you sit on approved.
You are desperate but I hate to break it to you, you need to go home because you won't be elected today no matter what other bogus claim you come up with before the polls close.
I referenced the tie between Sammons, Lowery and Marshall in previous e mail and it appears no one cares. These three stooges are one of the many reasons this city is in the shape it is in today and Moron & gang want to get this MultiMillion Dollar project passed before he is defeated in the mayors race.
Please don't let this happen!
Just think Wanda, if you had not stabbed the school children in the back, how many more of their parents would be voting for you today. You screwed up on the biggest vote in your life when you tried to strip the already struggling schools of their funding. You have harmed the children and now you are costing the city tens of thousands in the form of attorney fees in a fight to harm them even more. Face it. You got into office promising to help our children and the first chance you got you did just the opposite