MEMPHIS CITY COUNCIL

   

   KEMP CONRAD
gg  I Chairman
ii. I Berlin F. Boyd Martavius D. Jones
.  Joe Brown Worth Morgan
. Frank Colvett, Jr. Bill Morrison

Dr. Edmund Ford, Jr. Patrice J. Robinson
Janis Fullilovc Philip C. Spinosa, Jr.
Reid Hedgepeth amita E. Swearengen

 

TENNESSEE

January 21, 2016

Chairman Terry Roland

Shelby County Commission

160 North Main Street, Suite 600
Memphis, TN 38103

Dear Chairman Roland:

I appreciate your continued dialogue with the City concerning Shelby County Schools?
OPEB liability. We had already begun our analysis of the issue internally before you notified us
about the Commission?s ad hoc committee.

Regrettably, we must decline your invitation to participate; however, we do applaud you
for initiating a study of the issue. Since the City of Memphis is not responsible for the OPEB
obligations of the Shelby County Schools for its retired employees, we believe that you have
aptly selected representatives of the entities that are directly impacted by the Shelby County
Schools? OPEB liability. The composition of your current committee is a fair representation of
those responsible.

In light of the suggestion by some of the participants that they are considering litigation
as an option, we are advised that the City's participation could prejudice the City?s trial
strategies in the event of litigation. Moreover, some of the members of the Council feel strongly
that any decision as to the OPEB liability of SCS is best made by SCS and its single source
local funding body, the Commission, which already derives a significant portion of school funds
from taxpayers within the corporate limits of the City of Memphis.

However, please do not take our declination as any indication that we disapprove of the
work to be performed by the ad hoc committee; rather we look forward to continuing our
dialogue with you, as Chairman of the Commission, on this issue.

Very truly yours,

1/



 

Kemp Conrad
Super District 9?1

cc: Mayor Jim Strickland
City Council Members
Council Attorney Allan Wade

Suite 514 125 North Main Street - Memphis, Tennessee 38103-2086 - (901) 576-6786