Jackson Free Press

Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. told the Jackson Free Press that he is putting a priority on filling city boards or re-committing board members whose terms expired under the last administration.

"There are a number of terms that have expired, or are about to, and I'm concerned about the performance of the agencies that they're affiliated with, perhaps more so than the sheer fact that terms have been allowed to expire," Johnson said, adding that he will assemble a team in "the next week or so" to look at the make-ups of boards and commissions.

Council President Frank Bluntson said the council also acknowledged the growing issue and would be willing to work with Johnson on getting people to fill the vacant positions. Council members regularly suggest candidates to the mayor, who then has the option to take the nominees back before the council for confirmation.

"A lot of people on these boards have expired (terms), and they may be doing a good job, but we have rules and laws that they can only do four years. If they've done a good job then they should come in and we can re-appoint them, but you can't let them keep serving without getting re-appointed. A lot of folks are talking about that," Bluntson said.

The Associated Press wrote in July that 80 percent of nearly 200 people serving on the city's 28 boards are staying on as board members long after their four-year terms have expired.

"My own term expired March 2006," said Jackson Public School Board member Jonathan Larkin. "School board member Ann Jones' term expired March 1, 2008, while board member Delmer Stamps' term expired March 1 of this year."

State law allows school board members to continue to serve with all the authority and responsibility of a confirmed board member until the city council replaces them, but many board members have vacated their positions after their terms expired, forcing boards into disarray as they fail to make a quorum.

Ward 7 Councilwoman Margaret Barrett-Simon told AP that some boards, like the Library Administrative Board and the Historic Preservation Committee, are barely holding together and delivering few decisions on pending issues.

Some boards face complicated issues that are tough enough to solve without board members going missing. Memphis developer and Performa Entertainment CEO John Elkington—who had attempted to revitalize Jackson's Farish Street Entertainment District before ceding the project to local developer David Watkins—complained that getting decisions out of the Historic Preservation Committee on development inside Farish Street was a complicated process in 2006, even before board members started to fall away.

Bluntson added that many teachers are pushing members of the council to consider the school board a very high priority.

Former Mayor Frank Melton largely failed to appoint board members during his first year in office, after calling on all board and commission members to "resign their position(s) effectively immediately" to "assure (sic) that (Melton's) necessary policies and programs are initiated."

Board members who had not already vacated their positions out of indifference largely ignored Melton's call. The bulk of the board members serve on a voluntary basis, and many complained that they could not easily coax replacements to follow in their footsteps.

Melton grew disenchanted with the process of appointing board members after provoking enmity from the council in 2007.

Former Council members Marshand Crisler and Ben Allen, along with Barrett-Simon, told the Jackson Free Press in April of that year that city Chief of Staff Marcus Ward, under Melton's instructions, had threatened Larkin's re-appointment to the school board if he did not approve a bid for a contract by a company supported by the mayor's office.

According to the three council members and other sources connected to JPS, Ward told Larkin that the mayor's office would pull Larkin's name from the council for re-confirmation if he did not approve a contract bid by Jackson business Integrated Management Services PA, for work related to a $150 million bond project.

Melton, after first re-nominating Larkin earlier that year, followed through on the alleged threat and pulled his nomination after the board voted against the mayor's wishes.

Many council members abstained from voting on any of Melton's nominees for the school board after that incident. Most, like former Council President Leslie McLemore—who is married to an attorney who contracts with JPS—cited conflicts of interest.

Barrett-Simon, who had no connection to the local school district, said she abstained from the vote because she feared a federal investigation was underway into allegations of Melton's extortion attempts on the board.

A new mayor is in this year, and both the mayor and the council president are vowing to work together to fill slots.

"Obviously, we're going to do what we need to do to work with the mayor and address the situation," Bluntson said.