While You Were Sleeping

At an hour when decent folks are fast asleep, the Memphis City Council was hard at work, still in session at nearly 11PM, revisiting issues most petitioners had thought closed.

The council's discussions about reconsidering all three issues took place near the end of a seven-hour meeting, when most of the 200 or so citizens in the audience had already left.

Some council members, including John Vergos, aren't crazy about rules that allow items to be reconsidered so routinely.

"To handle controversial items that way, by waiting until late at night before an empty council chamber, is cowardly,'' Vergos said.

On the pay issue, the council had previously voted to keep Herenton's salary at the same level when his new term begins Jan. 1.

This is standard practice for the Council. They constantly bring up old business opponents had considered settled, only to reverse themselves. It's led to the conventional wisdom around here that "We have to win every battle; they only have to win once." You can never assume something is over until the actual third vote has taken place and the minutes of that meeting have been approved. Otherwise, as folks discovered last Tuesday, you get screwed.