DEPOT: Board Dissolution Stopped, Memphis Corporate Community Leadership Measured

Without any representation from elected officials at the Depot Board meeting, the above community advocates showed up at the EDGE/Depot meeting to protest the dissolution of the Depot Board. The advocates included: Frank Johnson, Marquita Bradshaw, Doris Bradshaw, Mr Payne and another.

Advocates expressed concerns regarding the Depot Board’s lack of community engagement, transparency and public fund use as well as concerns about public health and the environment. After a motion by Gerre Currie, the Depot Board delayed the vote and promised EDGE staff engagement with community advocates.

While the former are valid advocate concerns, transparent but locally unpublicized public documentation exists regarding historic Depot Board transactions. To that extent, public documentation proves core city disinvestment and coming AFTER Depot proceeds funded EDGE!!!

Public documentation reveals, pre-EDGE Depot Board commercialization proceeds, funding both EDGE and the new Depot Board, to be operated as a consolidated group of EDGE managed Boards. The initial funding included $15M for EDGE and $9.9M for the new Depot Board.

The Depot Board was to support inner city economic development to fill the gap left by the economic dislocation of the Defense Depot departure in the late 1990s. But that is not what happened.

Taxpayer atrocities routinely take place in Memphis. This is just one example of such atrocities and supports a community ask of EDGE of approximately $15M for inner city and community directed economic development efforts as a whole.

Below is a summary of transactions that proves systemic inner city disinvestment and depletion of Depot Board funds. The below table references those transactions with public documentation links in the following reference section. See below:

HISTORIC DEPOT BOARD TRANSACTIONS