MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The Memphis City Administrator who brought you Bass Pro and has big plans for redeveloping the Mid-South Fairgrounds was recorded saying what his boss, Mayor A C Wharton, may really think about a pending redevelopment project in Whitehaven.
Some said all of this could come back to haunt the mayor in the upcoming election only five months away.
“Anybody records a conversation and then a faceless coward sends an anonymous tape to media. It’s bizarre to me,” said Jack Sammons, Memphis CAO.
That’s about all Sammons would say about a recording leaked to the Commercial Appeal.
On the recording, Housing Director Robert Lipscomb said some at City Hall were throwing darts at a project the mayor said he publicly supported.
Instead, he said they’ve focused on a renaissance of the entire area.
“The administration is more focused on the overall Whitehaven project, continued renaissance, rather than one specific project,” said Sammons.
Now, Sammons said a renaissance may or may not include city-funded improvements to Southbrook Mall.
“We have not been funded when all of the other projects have been funded, and there have been double standards applied to our project,” said Janice Banks, the Southbrook Properties consultant.
Some said the mayor backing out on a deal he publicly supported just months ago wasn’t good.
Two of his opponents in this years mayoral race spoke up about what they call broken promises to Whitehaven.
“This has been a struggle to get resources and redevelopment in this community,” said Memphis Councilman and Mayoral candidate Harold Collins.
Councilman and Mayoral candidate Jim Strickland voted against the project because he thought it was using public money to fund a private business.
He said if the mayor wasn’t behind Southbrook Mall he should have been upfront in the beginning.
“Don’t say you’re for it and then behind the scenes drag your feet or move the money elsewhere,” said Strickland.
Sammons said the mayor has not purposely sabotaged the project and is looking at the bigger picture for Whitehaven, not just improvements at the mall.
“Is this is the highest and best use of our taxpayer dollars? And I think the people of Whitehaven want us to think big, and that’s what we’re going to do,” said Sammons.
Southbrook Properties had complained about the delays to the project but say the first they heard the mall might not get public funding was from WREG.