Will there be a Republican call for public transparency and financial oversight? The Shelby County Republican Convention is this weekend, which is the only reason to call out out just Republicans. Anyway, should Republicans believe in transparency and oversight, the public should soon hear about it as Shelby County is plagued by widespread public fund mismanagement.

Low hanging fruit for Republicans is just to demand adequate staffing of the Republican State Comptroller’s office in Memphis. That is baseline state provided public financial oversight services that were due Shelby Countians long ago in the State’s largest municipality. Not only is Shelby County losing due to inadequate financial oversight, but the entire state is also losing.

Meanwhile, the Taxpayer Justice Institute continues to prod the TN Department of Labor for public information regarding historic workforce development fund mismanagement. A new Greater Memphis Workforce Development Board (GMWDB) financial management issue was recently disclosed in County Commission.

This report forced the Institute to look back to the abruptly shut down Workforce Midsouth that like the previous Workforce Investment Network was to also have had financial mismanagement issues. But no formal explanation has ever been provided to the public of what financially happened with Workforce Midsouth or the Workforce Investment Network (WIN). Just like with MATA, Memphis and Shelby Countians are due public documentation and an explanation on what happened with public workforce development !

Like with the recent Feagins bullying, GMWDB financial mismanagement concerns surfaced in County Commission with the bully termination of the GMWDB Executive Director Amber Covington, with only 6 of 24 board votes. What happened? No one knows. GMWDB funds are fiscally administered by the Greater Memphis Chamber. It is a fact that the Chamber and their leaders are often in close proximity to various Memphis public botches and ripoffs. Another even larger concern is that the private Chamber was granted fiscal authority over public workforce development by the Shelby County Mayor Harris Administration.   

Unfortunately, repeated workforce development system failures have contributed to deficient Shelby County employment outcomes, with the County at the bottom of its peer group, in year over year employment growth. Shelby Countians are due complete documentation and answers to what has historically financially occurred with public workforce development to avoid the same pitfalls going forward. To add to the misery, feeding the workforce is K12, and Memphis Shelby County Schools are a disaster.

It seems MSCS academically peaked out the day that Representative became House Education Chair. MSCS has been in a tailspin ever since White took the Chair. Recently, on the Ben Deeter show, White said he wanted to announce a “Vision” for High Schools.

PLEASE Representative White, no more “visions”. Shelby County has yet to recover from a cornucopia of public visions. Better would be just to stop the public botching and adequately staff the local Comptroller’s office to facilitate public financial oversight. Another PowerPoint of a glorious future is unneeded. Please no more visions !

Sure, Shelby County has its role in its current challenges, but the State is a big part by looking the other way and accommodating public funding debauchery by not providing baseline public financial oversight services. With 600 Comptroller employees, Shelby County needs public transparency and a past due adequate staffing of 30 in the Shelby County State Comptroller’s office.....