Saturday, March 13, 2010

Who's In Charge of Planning in Shelby County

We noticed the other day that Mayor A C Wharton had reappointed Rick Copeland as Director of the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development. This is an important joint city-county agency that houses the Office of Planning and Development (comprehensive planning and zoning); the Office of Economic and Resource Development (IDB and tax freezes); the Office of Construction Code Enforcement (building permits); and Regional Services (MPO and transportation planning).

This is curious because Wharton, as County Mayor, appointed Rick Copeland in the first place. Therefore, doesn’t Mayor Joe Ford get to decide who is in the position since Copeland is technically a Shelby County employee?

This is an example of the difficulties of having functional consolidation instead of full consolidation for Memphis and Shelby County. You don’t know who is in charge.