A Shelby County Commission and/or City Council resolution requesting adequate staffing of the Memphis State Comptroller’s office is immediately needed. Shelby County has been neglected for years of its fair share of State Comptroller public financial oversight resources and its showing.

Think in terms of the Riverfront, failed workforce boards, ripped off Cobblestone Landing project, EDGE Depot rip off, a ripped off MATA public transit system and now concerns around the motivations of the recent untimely termination attempt of Memphis Shelby County Schools (MSCS) Superintendent, Dr. Marie Feagins.

Public commenters, on 1/13/25, in Shelby County Commission were pointing to contract disputes as the driver behind the Feagins 12/17/24 termination attempt. In response, the State has signaled they may takeover MSCS. But that will fail as it did with the Achievement School District. At the same time, adequate staffing of the Memphis Comptroller office could help get financial matters in the $2 billion+ MSCS district in order.

In May 2024, through public information request, I asked for the Comptrollers directory. And here were the Comptroller staffing levels across the State of Tennessee:

Of course, Davidson has the most staffing at 441 with the State Comptroller’s headquarters in Nashville. But other regions are robustly represented as shown above. Having 16 in Murfreesboro Rutherford County makes no sense with 441 in Nashville Davidson. Nor proportionally does it make sense to have 39 in Cookeville Putnam. Given the backlog of public financial issues in Shelby County, at least 50 Comptroller staffers are needed in Shelby County.

Some history here. At the end of 2019, I started filing Comptroller complaints with no responses. Later at the end of 2020 with the $62M PILOT Extension Fund regarding the funding of downtown garages being questioned by local public officials, Comptroller Justin Wilson moved to open a Comptrollers office in Memphis. That was about the time former University of Memphis used car salesman President in Dr. Rudd was resigning after rumored disputes with the State.

Strangely, soon after Comptroller Wilson moved to open the Memphis office, he stepped down and Jason Mumpower was elected by the General Assembly as State Comptroller. But here is the problem. Mumpower never staffed the Memphis office! Mumpower is a clown that needs to go. Not staffing the office of the largest municipal county in the state, with widespread public finance issues, is intentional negligence.

Further, there have been recent open records requests that have been ignored by both the TN Department of Labor and the Comptroller related to the Greater Memphis Workforce Development Board (GMWDB). These requests are linked to the recent surprise termination of the GMWDB Executive Director, Amber Covington. Covington was oddly terminated, which already seems forgotten, with only 6 of 24 board votes on 11/13/24. This absurdity coincided with the reckless year-ending termination attempt of Dr. Feagins a month later, on 12/17/24.

Additionally, there have been a string of workforce development related failures to include the Workforce Investment Network, Greater Memphis Alliance for Competitive Workforce and Workforce Mid-South. Now this with the GMWDB; what is going on?

Anyway, the Comptroller website makes this statement: “The Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury has a wide range of responsibilities to ensure fiscal integrity within the State of Tennessee. The Comptroller is essentially the state’s Money Cop.”

The Comptroller has the following office functions: 1) state audit, 2) local government audit, 3) investigations, 4) property assessments, 5) state assessed properties, 6) local government finance, 7) research and educational accountability, 8) open records counsel 9) small business advocate and 10) higher education resource officer. The Comptroller takes Tennessee Citizen complaints on their website or by calling 1-800-232-5454 regarding:

Fraud – An intentional deception that violates a law or the public trust for personal benefit or the benefit of others.

Waste – Behavior involving the extravagant, careless, or needless use of government funds, property, and/or personnel.

Abuse – Behavior involving the use of government funds or property that a prudent person would not consider reasonable and necessary business practice given the facts and circumstances.

Mumpower, a clown, needs to go as Comptroller and local government needs to demand through resolution, adequate Comptroller staffing of the Memphis office.