SPOONERGATE is about a closed, silver spoon elitist system that while using taxpayer money has strangely engaged in design for Memphis ecosystem decline. The most notable trait of this process is the lack of course correction amidst failed workforce development implementation and foreign contract awards all while excessive corporate/real estate incentives roar for the benefit of the small few. The rumor is the State is taking a close look at intervention. If this is the case, the State needs to know what they are dealing with in a closed rigged cycle of influence. Rigged doesn’t grow. Fred Smith missed this in his history studies.
Memphis corporate community leadership feels entitled, in a closed system, to rig the system for the same few while expecting to grow. Deficient workforce development efforts, over the last 5 years in Memphis are estimated to have cost Memphis/Shelby taxpayers $1B in wages and $30M in tax revenue. Further, taxpayer funded workforce development under Fred Smith and Pitt Hyde began about five years ago, starting out as a Chamber Chairman’s Circle iniitaive, then going to EDGE and now back to the Chamber.
Interestingly the failed efforts are circulating between the same famillies and inidividuals in a rigged Memphis cycle. First Willie Gregory headed reform efforts under the Chairman’s Circle, then the Greater Memphis Alliance of Competitive Workforce (GMACW) was handed off to EDGE and Jack Moore of the Wilson family after the Canadian contract failed.
Now workforce is making its way back to the Chamber with Richard Smith, Board Chairman and Spence Wilson, Jr. over the Chairman’s Circle. And now, Willie Gregory appears to be positioned to perhaps be the new Chamber Board Chair. Its a rigged system cycle and SPOONERGATE in all of its glory.
Below a list of events that reveal a closed rigged system bent on a lack of course correction and ecosystem decline. After all, it’s what they know under the FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow system. Having worked in communities, across the country, I have never seen anything this deficient and rigged. Its so offensive.
RIGGED SYSTEM AND ECOSYSTEM DECLINE
2015
Chamber Chairman’s Circle initiative in GMACW misses all State of TN LEAP Grant Deadlines
2016
The below events occurred as corporate/real estate incentives roar using EDGE bogus projection accounting.
January – Glen Fenter and GMACW staff, saddled by GMACW Board chaired by Willie Gregory, with unproven Canadian vendor for workforce development work. FedEx and Memphis Tomorrow both represented on Board.
March – State deadlines continue to be missed. I approach newly elected Mayor Jim Strickland with a solution to course correct and get the initiative on track. Nothing happens as Strickland joins GMACW Board.
April 2016 – ACT WorkKeys initiative launched and effectively goes unimplemented based on current data
July – Joined the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce and advocated a research based solution for connected, data driven career pathways and workforce development supported with common language development. Solution and local small business dismissed as connected workforce development goes unimplemented.
October – Met with the Hyde Foundation with solution in hand. No course correction.
2017
January- Fenter resigns from GMACW
March – Councilman Edmund Ford, Jr. opens up inquiry on unfilled jobs. I participate and propose a solution. Inquiry shut down without conclusion.
April – EDGE takes over GMACW and only has 3 GMACW Board meetings in 2 years while meeting every month to award excessive corporate/real estate tax abatements while saying workforce development #1 priority.
June – Meet with Jack Moore and nothing happens while raising implementation concerns with Chairman’s Circle Spence Wilson, Jr. Wilson implies I must EARN my right to raise concerns about taxpayer funded work.
June – I was kicked out of Greater Memphis Chamber without cause while having bylaws and annual membership review rights denied. This is a key indicator of the closed rigged Memphis system under the nationally embarrassing FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow complex
August – Let Fred Smith and the #1 local employer know of the problem. Still, no course correction.
2018
January – April – Continued to engage the EDGE Board while attending all meetings without any protest waiting patiently to substantively engage the EDGE Board. No engagement
June – Offended by the lack of service delivery, became publicly combative, as at this point, workforce development efforts are 3 years behind schedule
July – Engage Richard Smith of the Chamber. Solution dismissed and local efforts fall another year behind schedule
Later Summer – Met with bureaucrat Ted Townsend of the U of M. Nothing happens as he is dispatched to chase incentives around town as local workforce development efforts tank under the new FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow U of M Board of Trustees.
Later in 2018 – Smith is cited in the paper touting Talent Pipeline Management, a Washington DC solution, which is the same common language approach that I was advocating . In typical Memphis fashion, local small business dismissed.
2019
January – Legislative EDGE Tasks forces end without any changes to EDGE Board, not questioning excessive incentives or investigating deficient workforce development efforts.
June – Typical of a closed rigged system, Richard Smith, Greater Memphis Chamber Board Chair, publicly shuts me out based on my activist work
July – University of Memphis, The Memphis Economy project, abandons their peer city economic development measurement platform blinding the public from objective measurement
Currently, after almost five years, there is no published employer demand data, no centralized job board, ACT WorkKeys remains unimplemented, no plan and no measurable definition for career readiness. And the rigged cycle heads back to where it all started with Willie Gregory, Spence Wilson and Richard Smith at the Chamber.
Its a closed rigged FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow system that lacks the ability to grow and evolve operating with a design for ecosystem decline. Operates with a sense of entitlement to run the city into the ground while feeding on a Memphis community in need. All of the above occurs without objective public university thought leadership, press or legislative oversight. So pukin offensive…..