October 14, 2024 • 21 mins
This episode we're diving into the 6 rederendums on the november ballot for Memphis residents. I'll explain each referendum and give my opinion on what you should support. Follow me on Facebook and Instagram for more content @TheLawAccordingToAmber
*Note: I stated "this referendum would allow open carry" mistakenly, I meant would not allow open carry of guns in Memphis City limits
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-law-according-to-amber--4167414/support.
*Note: I stated "this referendum would allow open carry" mistakenly, I meant would not allow open carry of guns in Memphis City limits
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-law-according-to-amber--4167414/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hey guys, and welcome to the Law according to Amber.
Every other Monday, we'll discuss controversial topics with the mixture
of opinion and legal facts. Thus the Law according to Amber.
Be sure to give me a follow on Facebook at
the Law according to Amber as well as Instagram. Same name,
The Law according to Amber. What's up, y'all? Welcome back
(00:30):
to another episode of the Law according to Amber. And
this episode we got a lot to talk about because
it's a lot happening with these elections, and folks are
asking me questions, and so I thought it would be
just easier to put it all in a single episode.
So I know, previously I've talked about the gun reform
referendums and Memphis that are on the ballot, but there's
(00:52):
actually six referendums on our November ballot, yes six. And
I know I personally was overwhelmed at the thought of
Sik's referendums, to be honest, and I, you know, am
very politically active, so I know that other people who
are as politically active are probably just as overwhelmed as
the thought of that as me, And I want to
(01:14):
make sure y'all go informed it too. The voter booth,
So let's get into it. So, yes, there are six
referendums on the ballot. Three of those referendums are specifically
about gun reform. Like I said before, there's a gun
reform referendum that would not allow open carry within city limits,
(01:36):
so within the Memphis city limits. Now, like I said
before on the previous episodes, these are all really just
a public poll because we have current state laws that
won't allow us to have open carry. But I agree
with you know, city councilmen JB. Smiley Jr. And the
other city council members and that we should still have
(01:58):
these on the ballot so that people can still let
their voice be heard. I think it's important that our
state legislature that continues to push legislation that would kind
of pre empt well not kind of, we push legislation
that would specifically preempt things that we want to do,
like what we're seeing with the gun legislation. So I
(02:21):
think that it's important that we are, you know, at
least able to let our voices be heard because that
keeps being taken away from us. And like, what do
we have if not our own voice and opinions? Right,
So you have those three referendums about gun reform. The
second one undergun reform would be make it unlawful and
(02:44):
prohibited for a person to possess or carry openly or
concealed any assault rifles in the City of Memphis, and
it would ban the commercial sale of assault rifles within
the City of Memphis like city limits. But that would
not count for people who already had have assault weapons
or who already who already bought those, so pre existing
(03:05):
owners that can demonstrate that the commercial cell of assault
rifle was completed prior to the effective date, which would
have been January first, twenty twenty five, if these were
actually going you know, into law, and then they would
actually have to fill out an application and have a
receipt for the purchase order for that said purchase without
regard to whether the purchaser has physical possession of the
(03:27):
assault rifle. So as long as you can show receipt
for it, even if you don't have the physical position
of the rifle in that time, which I was stupid,
but yeah, and then you know, you would be it'd
be fine for you to have that assault rifle, which
I thought was a realistic exception to make because we
know a lot of people you know, of course, probably
have assault rifles, especially considering we're in Tennessee where there's
(03:50):
a lot of hunting hunting and people go out you know,
around this time, especially since it's getting cold to hunt
deer and other stuff, especially with Memphis being so close
to Mississippi, which is where a lot of people go
and hunt. So yeah, I thought that was realistic. And
then the third one that's specifically about gun reform is
for extreme risk protection orders. So this will authorize city
(04:13):
ordinances that would allow court to order immediate, temporary, and
extended protection from a person who is determined to be
in possession or receipt of a firearm and will pose
significant danger or extreme risk of personal injury or death
to another person or to himself or herself. And then
only those only specified persons can seek an extreme risk
(04:34):
protection order from a court, such as a law enforcement
offer officer, a member of the family or household of
the respondent, a dating or intimate partner of the respondent,
a health care provider who has provided health services to respondent,
or an official of a school or school system in
which to respondent is enrolled and has been enrolled in
within the preceding month. So that will just allow for
(04:56):
extreme risk protection orders, which are really common in some
other states, which is something we've been trying to get
here in Tennessee, would allow them to be allowed within
City of Memphis limits. And like I said before, of
course these can go into effect because of the state
laws that we have. But I do think that it's
important to have a public opinion poll where people can
(05:17):
vote on this and say, like, these are things that
we want, because I mean, although I feel like the
majority of people in Memphis say they want this, that
might not be true, and so we should allow this
kind of poll to like play out. And then the
next ones are specific to like functions of our government
and elections. So the first one, it's Referendum Ordnance number
(05:43):
five eight eight four, which on your ballot when you're
going to vote, this is the first one that you're seat.
It says, shall the Charter of the City of Memphis
be amended to provide that the majority run Our provision
in the City's Charter Referendum Number seventeen ninety four shall
apply to any election for the office mayor. So currently
there are no runoff elections or mayor. If you agree
(06:06):
that we should have a runoff election, then you would
select for the amendment. If you agree that we should
not have runoffs, so you would select against the amendment.
I personally think that we should have run off elections
for mayoral races only because so many people run for
mayor in Memphis. This last mayoral election, there were nineteen
people running. And because of that, a lot of times
(06:29):
the person who is a top vote getter doesn't actually
have to focus on the full city of Memphis. They
don't have to focus on the full demographic. They're literally
mostly targeting the majority of people who go out and
vote in elections, or some some people who are voted
but not voted as commonly, like maybe they voted once
or twice but haven't voted in every election, or they
(06:51):
vote every other year like in generals, but not necessarily
in federal elections. They don't target every single person, And
I think that when you do that not actually getting
the full opinions of the entire city, and it would
make candidates have to actually work to win the elections
because so many people are running that they really just
(07:12):
developed these strategies that exclude a lot of folks and
y'all know that I'm not about that. I think that
everyone should have access to the ballot, just like I
think that fellas should be allowed to vote. And I
think that everyone running should make it accessible for them
to be contacted, for them to outreach, and for this
to actually be in the community doing that work. And
I will say there were several candidates who actually did that,
like our current Mayor poly Young. He worked hard for
(07:34):
that win. He was actually out places campusing his canvas,
was actually campus my own house twice and they were
the only candidate that did that. So I definitely think
he worked hard for his win. But I do think
when you look at previous elections, like when Mayor Strickland
won his first race, in his second race, he didn't
get the majority of the vote, like over fifty percent.
(07:58):
He got less than that, but it was technically the
majority because we don't have runoffs, and so when you
win with twenty or thirty percent of the vote, neuralistically
you weren't who people wanted. But because there were so
many people running, the vote was just split so much.
So I would encourage you toople to vote for this amendment.
I think that it's something that we need, and it
(08:18):
would really force candidates to do a little bit more work.
The second ordinance that's going on your ballot is Referendum
Ordnance number five eight nine three, and this ordinance asks,
shall the City of Memphis Charter be amended to authorize
the City Council by ordinance to fix and determine the
salaries of the Mayor, City Council, Chief Administration Officer, and
(08:42):
appointed directors and deputy directors. And if you agree that
they shall, then you'll vote for the amendment. If you
agree that they should not, you'll vote against the amendment.
But I do want to give a little backstory for
this one, because this one hasn't really been talked about
a lot at all. And I think it's also interesting
because this already exists, so currently, this is what our
city council is allowed to do. Has our city council
(09:03):
always set these salaries? No? But I really think that
they're putting this referendum up because there was a big
deal made about the salaries that were set this last
budget season. So although our charter already allows us to
do this, they had not been doing it. They had
(09:24):
not been our city council had not been setting the salaries.
And this year they set the salaries. Chairman JB. Smiley
Junior made sure to like make people like put them
on notice that hey, we are going to actually do
this year because we should be filling our duties as
a city council, which I agree with. I think that
our city council already doesn't have as much power as
(09:45):
the mayor. We have a very heavy mayor power versus
city council power like legislative government, and so I think
that they should be doing everything that they're already, you know,
supposed to be doing as elected and this is one
of those things that they are like assigned to do
within our charter. So and this previous budget season, our
(10:07):
police chief salary was lowered to match the fire chief.
And I agree with that. One our police chief sucks.
She is not doing a good job. And two, she
was making the most money of any director in any
department while failing at her job, while having a failing
police department that currently has three officers on trial, several
(10:30):
lawsuits against the police department, not considering the one against
from Tyrie Nichols family, but several other lawsuits because of
things the scorping union has done, and also other units
like the OCU unit and MGU who are still committing
police brutality every single day. So her salary should have
been lowered, and I think it was a wake up
call for her. But also I don't think that she
(10:52):
should have been making more money than a fire chief.
Fire Chief Gina Sweat, who has been in that position
way longer than any o. The director, I think they
said when we were in the meeting, and has more experience,
and it's actually good at her job. The police chief
is only managing the police department. The police department, the
(11:13):
fire chief also handles the paramedics, the nine to one
one operators are house and they're building, They're doing a lot,
and so I think that she should be making money
to reflect that. And I thought that they made a
good decision by learning the police chief salary. But I
also think that stirred the pot a little bit and
so they thought, well, let's put it on the ballot
(11:34):
and see how people feel about it, which I was like, okay, whatever,
But I think that y'all should vote for this amendment.
I would agree that our city council should be able
to do that because our city councilors who we have
direct influence over as well, right like our mayor. He's there,
he will listen, you know. But the legislative power is
within our city council, and so we want something to
(11:55):
change on someone's salary, we would have to lobby the
city council, so they would have to have that power.
And then the third amendment that's not gun reform related
is Referendum Ordnance number five nine one three, and it says,
shall the Charter of the City of Memphis be amended
to read No person shall be eligible for the office
(12:16):
of Mayor who is not at least eighteen years of age,
and who has not been a bona fide resident of
the City of Memphis for at least two years preceding
the date of the municipal election for mayor, or who
at the time of this election and qualification hosts any
other office, or who is directly or indirectly interested in
any contact with the city. No person should be eligible
(12:37):
for any office of the City Council who is not
at least eighteen years of age, and who has not
been a bonified resident of the City of Memphis for
at least two years preceding the day of the municipal election,
and then see all existing provisions of the charter to
establish qualifications for the mayor are hereby expressly repealed. And
if you support that, you will vote for the amendment,
(12:58):
and if you are against that, you vote against them.
I would encourage y'all to vote against the amendment. I
do not think that we should change the residency requirement,
because I will say, there's a lot of words here,
but this entire amendment is about the residency requirement. There
was a huge issue when the previous mayoral election happened
(13:20):
last year, where Van Turner and Floyd Bonner had not
lived in the city within the amount of time they're
supposed to. So the thing that was being argued is
that there was a five year residency requirement for people
to run for mayor in the City of Memphis. The
argument is that that was struck down by a referendum
in like nineteen ninety six, and then the charter was
(13:40):
just never changed. But also consider that Floyd Bonner, who
was running from mayor at the time, and Van Turner,
neither of which lived in City of Memphis limits. So
they decided to run for city mayor. But Floyd Bonner
lived in Bartlett, which has their own mayor. It's its
own separate city, and Van Turner lived in unincorporated Shell County,
so not within the city limits. Ban Turner's argument was
(14:03):
that he expected to be annex into the city when
he moved there in two thousand and four, but the
state law was changed around annexation. To me, if you
knew you want to run for mayor after you were
a commissioner, because he was a Chevy count commissioner for
a while, if you knew you want to run for mayor,
then you should have bought a house and lived in
city limits. And for Floyd Bonner, he should have bought
a house in the city limits too, he lived in Bartlett.
(14:24):
If you want to be the mayor of the city
that you live in the you should run from mayor
of Barlett, not for mayor of Memphis. But a transfer
re court did strike down that residency law because they
said that there was a referendum that passed, but the
charter wasn't updated. So this referendum that's written right now
in the ballot would set the residency requirement to two years.
And I don't agree with that. I think The residency
(14:46):
requirement should be five years. You should want someone to
run for mayor that's actually listed in the community, and
a two year residency requirement will not let that happen.
If someone can run for city council or mayor after
living here for two years, then you'll just get any
Joe blow who wants to run, who wants to be elected.
I want people who are running for office to truly
(15:09):
be vested in the city, in the community, and this
is an example of people who weren't right. Boy Barnard
did not live in the city of Memphis limits. He
lived in Bartlet, which is a city in Shelby County.
Because he was the current he's still the current Shelby
County mayor, so he only had to live within the
county for the previous position he was in, and so
he did not live in the city. I honestly thought
(15:30):
it was an insult that he even ran for city
mayor knowing that he did not live in the city.
And then Van Turner also did not live in the city.
He lived in unincorporated Shelby County, and he knew that
his Shelby County Commissioner term was coming to an end.
Because you have term limits for commissioner. So to me,
what's realistic is that if you know you want to
run for mayor next, you would have bought a house
(15:50):
in the city limits. I really just don't have time
for all the excuses, and we have a really big
problem like most cities in most states, where you have
these career politicians who run for something and then their
term limiteds, they just run for something else, and so
they don't actually become vested in where they live. They
don't actually have a commitment or a purpose for wanting
(16:12):
to run other than just wanting to be elected. Like
Foy Bonner just wanted to be elected in another office.
He would not have been a good mayor. He's not
vested in our community. He doesn't view things the way
that most people here view them. He wants to lock
everybody up and complaints twenty four to seven about the
youth instead of actually offering solutions for you know what's
happening here. So he wasn't going to be a good option.
(16:34):
And so considering all of this, I think that you
should vote against that amendment because it will change the
residency requirement that really should be five years to two
years or city council and mayor, and I just think
that that's not realistic and that's not in the best
interest of Memphians, because we want someone who's going to
run for office that really truly has the heart of
(16:55):
Memphis at the forefront of their mind and truly wants
what's best for us. And I think that you would
get that from someone who has lived here for five
plus years. All right, So we've gone through all the
referendums and I also will post a self a ballot
on my social st y'all can see what the referendums
actually look like. You can see all the wording. Please
(17:17):
do not be discouraged or swayed by all the wording.
I know that it's a lot. They're long. They're detailed
for a reason because these are going into our actual
chartear for the City of Memphis. So it's important to
their detail that they have everything in it that you
could possibly consider when looking at these topics. Because what
we don't want is for some of them to pass
(17:37):
and then they need to be a mended later on.
We want them to actually pass and be what we
need from jump or not pass. Like I said before,
I don't think all these should pass. I think everyone
should vote. Know on the residency Requirement Ordinance and yes
on all the other ones. So yes on one and two,
no one, three, and yes on four, five, and six.
(17:58):
And you know, if you have more questions, you can
always hit me up and ask them. I'm always gonna,
you know, make sure that people feel prepared when they
go into the ballot box. This is the November ballot,
so you'll also be voting for president and the state
House of Representatives. So in Tennessee we have several folks
who are running for the first time, like Norah Nordstrum
(18:19):
and Jesse Huston, who can flip two Republican seats, and
so I'm really excited to see what happens there and
the other counties, like outside of Memphis, like Millington and
other places they have they have school board seats up.
It's been very interesting from the outside looking in to
see all the drama because they have all these crazy
like moms for liberty Republicans who are running, and then
you have the super like more moderate Republicans running against them,
(18:45):
and they're all attacking each other and at the post
calling each other cunts and all kinds of shit. It's crazy,
like y'all be thinking that politics is like really stuffy
and convoluted, but actually it's really messy and funny. And
one of my favorite thing to do is to watch
the white people argue with each other on the internet
and at the polls because they'd be going at it
(19:07):
and it be a lot. So I hope y'all get
out and vote. I know that this presidential election has
been stressful, but there are very specific local races that
are really important, like our state house, US Senate. The
person who's going to represent us in Congress, LAYD Johnson's
running against Marshall Blackburn. And if you are not comfortable
(19:28):
with voting for someone for president, at least vote down ballot,
vote for the US Senate races, vote for the state
house races, vote for these referendums because they will really
have an impact on us. And I know one thing
for sure, the Republicans are voting. They're going to vote
because they got to go. They want to go vote
that man's office, but they're going to vote on these
referendums too, and they don't care about us or our safety.
(19:49):
They don't care about the govern reform referendums. They don't
care about any of that stuff, so they're going to
vote against it. So we have to make sure that
we go on like our voice is heard if we
support it, and I do. I support the government reform referendums.
I think that JB is doing the right thing. I
think that there are lots of organizations who have talked
about this and why it's important. The youth. The Youth
Council for Micah just did a press conference this past
(20:11):
week talking about like why it's important that we address
gum reform and this residency requirement is really going to
be a big issue. I just think that we need
to make sure that we make our voices heard and
vote no, because we do not want someone to be
able to run for office who does not care about us,
and that continues to happen a lot, especially in Memphis.
(20:34):
So y'all gott to vote. Early voting starts on October sixteenth.
Election day is November fifth, and yeah, it's time to
shake shit up and you got a chance to do that.
So thank you for listening. As always, you can follow
me on Facebook and Instagram. Same name. The law according
to Amber and if you check out my ig. You
(20:55):
might see some some rap ciphers I dropped lately, but
one of my friends Dan, because we're trying to get
y'all into the voting mood, and what better way to
do that than to, you know, make some parody rap
songs about voting. So yeah, go check those out. Peace,
Hey guys, and welcome to the Law according to Amber.
Every other Monday, we'll discuss controversial topics with the mixture
of opinion and legal facts. Thus the Law according to Amber.
Be sure to give me a follow on Facebook at
the Law according to Amber as well as Instagram. Same name,
The Law according to Amber. What's up, y'all? Welcome back
(00:30):
to another episode of the Law according to Amber. And
this episode we got a lot to talk about because
it's a lot happening with these elections, and folks are
asking me questions, and so I thought it would be
just easier to put it all in a single episode.
So I know, previously I've talked about the gun reform
referendums and Memphis that are on the ballot, but there's
(00:52):
actually six referendums on our November ballot, yes six. And
I know I personally was overwhelmed at the thought of
Sik's referendums, to be honest, and I, you know, am
very politically active, so I know that other people who
are as politically active are probably just as overwhelmed as
the thought of that as me, And I want to
(01:14):
make sure y'all go informed it too. The voter booth,
So let's get into it. So, yes, there are six
referendums on the ballot. Three of those referendums are specifically
about gun reform. Like I said before, there's a gun
reform referendum that would not allow open carry within city limits,
(01:36):
so within the Memphis city limits. Now, like I said
before on the previous episodes, these are all really just
a public poll because we have current state laws that
won't allow us to have open carry. But I agree
with you know, city councilmen JB. Smiley Jr. And the
other city council members and that we should still have
(01:58):
these on the ballot so that people can still let
their voice be heard. I think it's important that our
state legislature that continues to push legislation that would kind
of pre empt well not kind of, we push legislation
that would specifically preempt things that we want to do,
like what we're seeing with the gun legislation. So I
(02:21):
think that it's important that we are, you know, at
least able to let our voices be heard because that
keeps being taken away from us. And like, what do
we have if not our own voice and opinions? Right,
So you have those three referendums about gun reform. The
second one undergun reform would be make it unlawful and
(02:44):
prohibited for a person to possess or carry openly or
concealed any assault rifles in the City of Memphis, and
it would ban the commercial sale of assault rifles within
the City of Memphis like city limits. But that would
not count for people who already had have assault weapons
or who already who already bought those, so pre existing
(03:05):
owners that can demonstrate that the commercial cell of assault
rifle was completed prior to the effective date, which would
have been January first, twenty twenty five, if these were
actually going you know, into law, and then they would
actually have to fill out an application and have a
receipt for the purchase order for that said purchase without
regard to whether the purchaser has physical possession of the
(03:27):
assault rifle. So as long as you can show receipt
for it, even if you don't have the physical position
of the rifle in that time, which I was stupid,
but yeah, and then you know, you would be it'd
be fine for you to have that assault rifle, which
I thought was a realistic exception to make because we
know a lot of people you know, of course, probably
have assault rifles, especially considering we're in Tennessee where there's
(03:50):
a lot of hunting hunting and people go out you know,
around this time, especially since it's getting cold to hunt
deer and other stuff, especially with Memphis being so close
to Mississippi, which is where a lot of people go
and hunt. So yeah, I thought that was realistic. And
then the third one that's specifically about gun reform is
for extreme risk protection orders. So this will authorize city
(04:13):
ordinances that would allow court to order immediate, temporary, and
extended protection from a person who is determined to be
in possession or receipt of a firearm and will pose
significant danger or extreme risk of personal injury or death
to another person or to himself or herself. And then
only those only specified persons can seek an extreme risk
(04:34):
protection order from a court, such as a law enforcement
offer officer, a member of the family or household of
the respondent, a dating or intimate partner of the respondent,
a health care provider who has provided health services to respondent,
or an official of a school or school system in
which to respondent is enrolled and has been enrolled in
within the preceding month. So that will just allow for
(04:56):
extreme risk protection orders, which are really common in some
other states, which is something we've been trying to get
here in Tennessee, would allow them to be allowed within
City of Memphis limits. And like I said before, of
course these can go into effect because of the state
laws that we have. But I do think that it's
important to have a public opinion poll where people can
(05:17):
vote on this and say, like, these are things that
we want, because I mean, although I feel like the
majority of people in Memphis say they want this, that
might not be true, and so we should allow this
kind of poll to like play out. And then the
next ones are specific to like functions of our government
and elections. So the first one, it's Referendum Ordnance number
(05:43):
five eight eight four, which on your ballot when you're
going to vote, this is the first one that you're seat.
It says, shall the Charter of the City of Memphis
be amended to provide that the majority run Our provision
in the City's Charter Referendum Number seventeen ninety four shall
apply to any election for the office mayor. So currently
there are no runoff elections or mayor. If you agree
(06:06):
that we should have a runoff election, then you would
select for the amendment. If you agree that we should
not have runoffs, so you would select against the amendment.
I personally think that we should have run off elections
for mayoral races only because so many people run for
mayor in Memphis. This last mayoral election, there were nineteen
people running. And because of that, a lot of times
(06:29):
the person who is a top vote getter doesn't actually
have to focus on the full city of Memphis. They
don't have to focus on the full demographic. They're literally
mostly targeting the majority of people who go out and
vote in elections, or some some people who are voted
but not voted as commonly, like maybe they voted once
or twice but haven't voted in every election, or they
(06:51):
vote every other year like in generals, but not necessarily
in federal elections. They don't target every single person, And
I think that when you do that not actually getting
the full opinions of the entire city, and it would
make candidates have to actually work to win the elections
because so many people are running that they really just
(07:12):
developed these strategies that exclude a lot of folks and
y'all know that I'm not about that. I think that
everyone should have access to the ballot, just like I
think that fellas should be allowed to vote. And I
think that everyone running should make it accessible for them
to be contacted, for them to outreach, and for this
to actually be in the community doing that work. And
I will say there were several candidates who actually did that,
like our current Mayor poly Young. He worked hard for
(07:34):
that win. He was actually out places campusing his canvas,
was actually campus my own house twice and they were
the only candidate that did that. So I definitely think
he worked hard for his win. But I do think
when you look at previous elections, like when Mayor Strickland
won his first race, in his second race, he didn't
get the majority of the vote, like over fifty percent.
(07:58):
He got less than that, but it was technically the
majority because we don't have runoffs, and so when you
win with twenty or thirty percent of the vote, neuralistically
you weren't who people wanted. But because there were so
many people running, the vote was just split so much.
So I would encourage you toople to vote for this amendment.
I think that it's something that we need, and it
(08:18):
would really force candidates to do a little bit more work.
The second ordinance that's going on your ballot is Referendum
Ordnance number five eight nine three, and this ordinance asks,
shall the City of Memphis Charter be amended to authorize
the City Council by ordinance to fix and determine the
salaries of the Mayor, City Council, Chief Administration Officer, and
(08:42):
appointed directors and deputy directors. And if you agree that
they shall, then you'll vote for the amendment. If you
agree that they should not, you'll vote against the amendment.
But I do want to give a little backstory for
this one, because this one hasn't really been talked about
a lot at all. And I think it's also interesting
because this already exists, so currently, this is what our
city council is allowed to do. Has our city council
(09:03):
always set these salaries? No? But I really think that
they're putting this referendum up because there was a big
deal made about the salaries that were set this last
budget season. So although our charter already allows us to
do this, they had not been doing it. They had
(09:24):
not been our city council had not been setting the salaries.
And this year they set the salaries. Chairman JB. Smiley
Junior made sure to like make people like put them
on notice that hey, we are going to actually do
this year because we should be filling our duties as
a city council, which I agree with. I think that
our city council already doesn't have as much power as
(09:45):
the mayor. We have a very heavy mayor power versus
city council power like legislative government, and so I think
that they should be doing everything that they're already, you know,
supposed to be doing as elected and this is one
of those things that they are like assigned to do
within our charter. So and this previous budget season, our
(10:07):
police chief salary was lowered to match the fire chief.
And I agree with that. One our police chief sucks.
She is not doing a good job. And two, she
was making the most money of any director in any
department while failing at her job, while having a failing
police department that currently has three officers on trial, several
(10:30):
lawsuits against the police department, not considering the one against
from Tyrie Nichols family, but several other lawsuits because of
things the scorping union has done, and also other units
like the OCU unit and MGU who are still committing
police brutality every single day. So her salary should have
been lowered, and I think it was a wake up
call for her. But also I don't think that she
(10:52):
should have been making more money than a fire chief.
Fire Chief Gina Sweat, who has been in that position
way longer than any o. The director, I think they
said when we were in the meeting, and has more experience,
and it's actually good at her job. The police chief
is only managing the police department. The police department, the
(11:13):
fire chief also handles the paramedics, the nine to one
one operators are house and they're building, They're doing a lot,
and so I think that she should be making money
to reflect that. And I thought that they made a
good decision by learning the police chief salary. But I
also think that stirred the pot a little bit and
so they thought, well, let's put it on the ballot
(11:34):
and see how people feel about it, which I was like, okay, whatever,
But I think that y'all should vote for this amendment.
I would agree that our city council should be able
to do that because our city councilors who we have
direct influence over as well, right like our mayor. He's there,
he will listen, you know. But the legislative power is
within our city council, and so we want something to
(11:55):
change on someone's salary, we would have to lobby the
city council, so they would have to have that power.
And then the third amendment that's not gun reform related
is Referendum Ordnance number five nine one three, and it says,
shall the Charter of the City of Memphis be amended
to read No person shall be eligible for the office
(12:16):
of Mayor who is not at least eighteen years of age,
and who has not been a bona fide resident of
the City of Memphis for at least two years preceding
the date of the municipal election for mayor, or who
at the time of this election and qualification hosts any
other office, or who is directly or indirectly interested in
any contact with the city. No person should be eligible
(12:37):
for any office of the City Council who is not
at least eighteen years of age, and who has not
been a bonified resident of the City of Memphis for
at least two years preceding the day of the municipal election,
and then see all existing provisions of the charter to
establish qualifications for the mayor are hereby expressly repealed. And
if you support that, you will vote for the amendment,
(12:58):
and if you are against that, you vote against them.
I would encourage y'all to vote against the amendment. I
do not think that we should change the residency requirement,
because I will say, there's a lot of words here,
but this entire amendment is about the residency requirement. There
was a huge issue when the previous mayoral election happened
(13:20):
last year, where Van Turner and Floyd Bonner had not
lived in the city within the amount of time they're
supposed to. So the thing that was being argued is
that there was a five year residency requirement for people
to run for mayor in the City of Memphis. The
argument is that that was struck down by a referendum
in like nineteen ninety six, and then the charter was
(13:40):
just never changed. But also consider that Floyd Bonner, who
was running from mayor at the time, and Van Turner,
neither of which lived in City of Memphis limits. So
they decided to run for city mayor. But Floyd Bonner
lived in Bartlett, which has their own mayor. It's its
own separate city, and Van Turner lived in unincorporated Shell County,
so not within the city limits. Ban Turner's argument was
(14:03):
that he expected to be annex into the city when
he moved there in two thousand and four, but the
state law was changed around annexation. To me, if you
knew you want to run for mayor after you were
a commissioner, because he was a Chevy count commissioner for
a while, if you knew you want to run for mayor,
then you should have bought a house and lived in
city limits. And for Floyd Bonner, he should have bought
a house in the city limits too, he lived in Bartlett.
(14:24):
If you want to be the mayor of the city
that you live in the you should run from mayor
of Barlett, not for mayor of Memphis. But a transfer
re court did strike down that residency law because they
said that there was a referendum that passed, but the
charter wasn't updated. So this referendum that's written right now
in the ballot would set the residency requirement to two years.
And I don't agree with that. I think The residency
(14:46):
requirement should be five years. You should want someone to
run for mayor that's actually listed in the community, and
a two year residency requirement will not let that happen.
If someone can run for city council or mayor after
living here for two years, then you'll just get any
Joe blow who wants to run, who wants to be elected.
I want people who are running for office to truly
(15:09):
be vested in the city, in the community, and this
is an example of people who weren't right. Boy Barnard
did not live in the city of Memphis limits. He
lived in Bartlet, which is a city in Shelby County.
Because he was the current he's still the current Shelby
County mayor, so he only had to live within the
county for the previous position he was in, and so
he did not live in the city. I honestly thought
(15:30):
it was an insult that he even ran for city
mayor knowing that he did not live in the city.
And then Van Turner also did not live in the city.
He lived in unincorporated Shelby County, and he knew that
his Shelby County Commissioner term was coming to an end.
Because you have term limits for commissioner. So to me,
what's realistic is that if you know you want to
run for mayor next, you would have bought a house
(15:50):
in the city limits. I really just don't have time
for all the excuses, and we have a really big
problem like most cities in most states, where you have
these career politicians who run for something and then their
term limiteds, they just run for something else, and so
they don't actually become vested in where they live. They
don't actually have a commitment or a purpose for wanting
(16:12):
to run other than just wanting to be elected. Like
Foy Bonner just wanted to be elected in another office.
He would not have been a good mayor. He's not
vested in our community. He doesn't view things the way
that most people here view them. He wants to lock
everybody up and complaints twenty four to seven about the
youth instead of actually offering solutions for you know what's
happening here. So he wasn't going to be a good option.
(16:34):
And so considering all of this, I think that you
should vote against that amendment because it will change the
residency requirement that really should be five years to two
years or city council and mayor, and I just think
that that's not realistic and that's not in the best
interest of Memphians, because we want someone who's going to
run for office that really truly has the heart of
(16:55):
Memphis at the forefront of their mind and truly wants
what's best for us. And I think that you would
get that from someone who has lived here for five
plus years. All right, So we've gone through all the
referendums and I also will post a self a ballot
on my social st y'all can see what the referendums
actually look like. You can see all the wording. Please
(17:17):
do not be discouraged or swayed by all the wording.
I know that it's a lot. They're long. They're detailed
for a reason because these are going into our actual
chartear for the City of Memphis. So it's important to
their detail that they have everything in it that you
could possibly consider when looking at these topics. Because what
we don't want is for some of them to pass
(17:37):
and then they need to be a mended later on.
We want them to actually pass and be what we
need from jump or not pass. Like I said before,
I don't think all these should pass. I think everyone
should vote. Know on the residency Requirement Ordinance and yes
on all the other ones. So yes on one and two,
no one, three, and yes on four, five, and six.
(17:58):
And you know, if you have more questions, you can
always hit me up and ask them. I'm always gonna,
you know, make sure that people feel prepared when they
go into the ballot box. This is the November ballot,
so you'll also be voting for president and the state
House of Representatives. So in Tennessee we have several folks
who are running for the first time, like Norah Nordstrum
(18:19):
and Jesse Huston, who can flip two Republican seats, and
so I'm really excited to see what happens there and
the other counties, like outside of Memphis, like Millington and
other places they have they have school board seats up.
It's been very interesting from the outside looking in to
see all the drama because they have all these crazy
like moms for liberty Republicans who are running, and then
you have the super like more moderate Republicans running against them,
(18:45):
and they're all attacking each other and at the post
calling each other cunts and all kinds of shit. It's crazy,
like y'all be thinking that politics is like really stuffy
and convoluted, but actually it's really messy and funny. And
one of my favorite thing to do is to watch
the white people argue with each other on the internet
and at the polls because they'd be going at it
(19:07):
and it be a lot. So I hope y'all get
out and vote. I know that this presidential election has
been stressful, but there are very specific local races that
are really important, like our state house, US Senate. The
person who's going to represent us in Congress, LAYD Johnson's
running against Marshall Blackburn. And if you are not comfortable
(19:28):
with voting for someone for president, at least vote down ballot,
vote for the US Senate races, vote for the state
house races, vote for these referendums because they will really
have an impact on us. And I know one thing
for sure, the Republicans are voting. They're going to vote
because they got to go. They want to go vote
that man's office, but they're going to vote on these
referendums too, and they don't care about us or our safety.
(19:49):
They don't care about the govern reform referendums. They don't
care about any of that stuff, so they're going to
vote against it. So we have to make sure that
we go on like our voice is heard if we
support it, and I do. I support the government reform referendums.
I think that JB is doing the right thing. I
think that there are lots of organizations who have talked
about this and why it's important. The youth. The Youth
Council for Micah just did a press conference this past
(20:11):
week talking about like why it's important that we address
gum reform and this residency requirement is really going to
be a big issue. I just think that we need
to make sure that we make our voices heard and
vote no, because we do not want someone to be
able to run for office who does not care about us,
and that continues to happen a lot, especially in Memphis.
(20:34):
So y'all gott to vote. Early voting starts on October sixteenth.
Election day is November fifth, and yeah, it's time to
shake shit up and you got a chance to do that.
So thank you for listening. As always, you can follow
me on Facebook and Instagram. Same name. The law according
to Amber and if you check out my ig. You
(20:55):
might see some some rap ciphers I dropped lately, but
one of my friends Dan, because we're trying to get
y'all into the voting mood, and what better way to
do that than to, you know, make some parody rap
songs about voting. So yeah, go check those out. Peace,
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