Consolidation Talk

Looks like members of the County Commission and the City Council will meet tomorrow at 1:45 p.m. in City Hall to hear what Memphis mayor Willie Herenton has to say about consolidation.

County mayor A C Wharton was initially scheduled to attend, but he will be in Nashville instead.

From an e-mail from Myron Lowery: "County Commission Chairman Deirdre Malone and City Council Chairman Myron Lowery both agreed to schedule this meeting and to invite all elected officials in Shelby County to attend. While we realize this is a short notice, this is the beginning of many conversations on this issue."

I'll be interested to hear what Herenton has to say this time around. I'm just reciting from memory, but he's already made the argument for functional consolidation and a consolidated school system in previous conversations and neither of those went anywhere ... Will he have a new take or fall back on old arguments?

And, not to get ahead of ourselves, but if the city surrenders its charter and Wharton has already reached his term-limit as county mayor, that would put local leadership (in which its wildly assumed that Wharton will run for city mayor and win) back in play.

Here are some of my previous takes on consolidation, as well, here and here.

I'm also expecting the suburban mayors to be out in full force, so it should be interesting.