PART 2: The conversation which began focused on minimum wage issues continued, with the discussion becoming much broader in scope including is the public thoughtfully engaged in important issues, is the public library serving to promote well read and well informed citizens, what is the role of the Internet in research and information, and much more. As always, we appreciate your listening to our conversation, but yours is more important! Discuss these issues with your family, friends, acquaintances, and legislators.
PART 1: Whether to raise the minimum wage required by law in the USA has, once again, become a topic of controversy with a number of employees of fast food restaurants staging protests demanding a $15 an hour minimum wage. One such worker wrote to The Commercial Appeal to outline her reasons she thought the minimum wage should be increased to $15. A high school class examined her arguments as we do along with other considerations in this Memphis Conversation. (Part 2 is below the audio link to Part 1.)
Length: 36 minutes, 49 seconds
PART 2 is the continuation of this conversation and is posted on this site.
Will there be a very large property tax increase in Memphis in 2016? That’s the question that kicked off this edition of A Memphis Conversation. Some city council members have predicted that possibility for the year after city elections primarily because of the contributions the city will be required to make toward pensions for retired city employees. Memphians, who pay both city and county property taxes, already have the highest property tax obligations in the state by far. Memphis city finances involve very complex choices and this broad ranging conversation reflects that. This discussion between Eddie Settles and Ken Welch touches on the pension debate, past city government integrity, city employee unions leadership, and a number of other issues.
What attributes should those seeking local public office have? That is the primary question being discussed in this Memphis conversation. While there may be many, this conversation focused on a couple of overriding qualities. The decision for the City of Memphis to further involve itself in the AAA minor league baseball franchise and its Redbirds Stadium (also known through purchased naming rights as AutoZone Park) became somewhat of a case study. Darrell Hugueley, Eddie Settles, and Ken Welch hope you will engage this issue in your own conversations. In the meantime, we invite you to list to ours.
A Memphis Conversation began exploring the proper role and function of local government. Beginning with a few examples of what the conversationalists though was proper and what was not, the discussion evolved into a broader exchange about the local and federal role and the people’s role. There were divided opinions among the participants. While their thoughts are important, the greater good might be that they addressed the issues with one another. This is what A Memphis Conversation hopes all of us will do. In a civil and informed manner, discuss the issues of our society. At least in one advocate’s position, it is hoped you will make your thoughts known to our governments on various issues with the intent to influence our governments to do the will of the people.
Should the Bus Stop?
At about $2,500 per passenger a year, is the current MATA service an appropriate public transportation model?
The conversationalists discuss public transportation in the Memphis area, specifically the Memphis Area Transit Authority. With the pending retirement of the long time administrator, is this a good time to conduct a comprehensive review of the local public transportation alternatives?
Length: 39 minutes, 27 seconds.
Start your own conversation: this is just one conversation. Memphis has room for many thousands. Become informed and discuss these and other matters of public importance with your friends and colleagues.
Update: Unofficial results on the referendum vote:
No 17,636 (60.2%)
Yes 11,659 (39.8%)
On November 21, 2013, voters in Memphis, Tennessee, will have the opportunity in a referendum to implement, or not, a one-half cent increase in the local sales tax in order to fund a city government created pre-kindergarten program with any money remaining from that revenue stream not used for pre-k going to lowering the property tax rate. On November 16 our three regular conversationalists discussed the property tax hike proposal, the need for pre-k in the city, and the value of pre-k education. Is it wise for the city to undertake such an endeavor?
Length: 44 minutes, 2 seconds.
BONUS MATERIAL: If you listened to the above conversation you know some of the issues involved. Now you can listen to a proponent of the referendum, Dr. Barbara Prescott, and an opponent of it, Rev. Kenneth Whalum, Jr. Both of the speakers are former members of the Memphis School Board. The League of Women Voters of Memphis and Shelby County sponsored a forum at the central library in Memphis the evening of November 18, 2013. The following is the discussion. Length 1 hour, 28 minutes.
Problem listening to the above audio? See the alternative below. Alternative: it is noticed that often when attempting to play the above audio the player remains in a “buffering” state beyond a reasonable time. Alternatively, if your system is configured to do so, you may listen to the audio by directly accessing the file at http://apronetwork.com/amc/tax-pre-k-debate1.mp3. In our testing, this method played the audio promptly.
“law of unintended consequences, ” $15-million more in school “savings,” does it affect Mississippi, Arkansas, West Tennessee, neighbors’ separated, jaywalking — just some of the aspects touched upon in this discussion
Ken & Eddie
Eddie Settles and Ken Welch engaged in A Memphis Conversation July 28, 2012. Once again it seems the pending merger of the city and county school districts and the imminent election of 7 board of education members is a major concern in the community. Apparently that includes Eddie and Ken because that’s mostly what they talk about in this edition of A Memphis Conversation.
We hope you will listen to A Memphis Conversation and it will encourage you to engage in conversations with those you know about important public issues.
Listen:
(If your browser does not support HTML5 audio for your uploaded format, or Flash Player is not installed, a direct download link will be displayed instead of the player.)
Length: 1 hour 56 minutes
Technical note for Firefox users: Mozilla reports that some users are having repeated crashes of the Flash player used to play the audio. “Adobe has recently updated Flash to version 11.3. Some users have reported that this version of Flash is crashing more frequently than previous versions of Flash. If you are experiencing excess crashes, please downgrade to Flash 10.3 or Flash 11.2.” See http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/flash-113-crashes
A Memphis Conversation 