- (female announcer) Production funding for Behind the Headlines is made possible in part by the WKNO Production Fund, the WKNO Endowment Fund, and by viewers like you, thank you.

- Candidate for Mayor JW Gibson, tonight, on Behind the Headlines.

[intense orchestral music] I'm Eric Barnes with The Daily Memphian, thanks for joining us.

I am joined tonight by JW Gibson, businessman, candidate for mayor.

Thanks for being here.

- Thank you for having me.

- Absolutely.

- Thank you.

- Along with Bill Dries, reporter with The Daily Memphian.

Before we get to questions with JW, I want to remind everyone, over the last few weeks, we have started profiles with the leading candidates for mayor, that we've identified the top eight based on the limited polling available, the financial viability, and their prior election success.

That includes Floyd Bonner, Karen Camper, Frank Colvett, JW Gibson, Willie Herenton, Michelle McKissack, Van Turner, and Paul Young.

There is no particular magic to the order.

It's just been a scheduling and reaching out to people and making the schedules work.

Michelle McKissack, Van Turner, and Paul Young are all coming up in the coming weeks.

We recently, I think last week Karen Camper was on, as well as Frank Colvett was on a few weeks ago.

Those prior interviews, all the interviews will be on WKNO.org or you can search for Behind the Headlines on YouTube.

All of this leads up to a debate that we are doing here on WKNO.

August 15th at 7 PM.

More information coming on that, but mark your calendar if you're following this very important mayoral race.

So far, of the eight candidates I just listed, six of them, including JW Gibson, have committed to be there on August 15th.

Willie Herenton has not responded.

Floyd Bonner is not committed at this point.

We are also still hoping to get Willie Herenton, former mayor, on this show for a one-on-one profile.

He's not responded.

He is doing an interview with our Sam Hardiman in The Daily Memphian in the coming weeks, so that'll be available.

We have not been able to work out the scheduling with Sheriff Floyd Bonner to get him on this show for a one-on-one profile, but we still hope to do that.

The election is October 5th, but early voting starts September 15th, so not that far away.

And with that, JW Gibson, thanks for being here.

- Absolutely.

- You are, I think, I mean, right now, the only candidate of this top eight that we're focused on, unless I'm forgetting something, who hasn't held elected office.

You've been a businessman.

You've been involved with a lot of nonprofits, community organizations, governmental and quasi-governmental boards.

What does your, within this field, this more, this different experience, what does it bring to the role of mayor?

- Well, so Eric, I have to correct you.

This early in the game.

I did serve elected position.

- Okay.

- 2006 to 2010, I was actually a county commissioner.

- My bad.

- I only ran for one term, did one term and went back into the private sector.

Yes, sir.

- Okay.

What did you learn from that?

I mean, did the one term, didn't run for reelection, apparently didn't like the taste of it.

[laughs] I don't know.

I'm not sure what it was.

But again, that limited experience, but it's more than I said, and I apologize for that.

- No problem.

- What does your business experience, this amalgamation of experiences, bring to the mayor's office?

- Well, I think there's a different approach to how we view resolving issues.

I think there's a different approach when we talk about accountability and responsibility and efficiency.

I think those things are thought about totally different from a business perspective.

And the piece that really excites me is the ability to leverage.

You know, Memphis is a rich city.

Memphis has a lot to offer, and I don't think often enough we take advantage of those things that we have to offer and leverage those things.

When we talk about recruitment of businesses coming to the city, sports events coming to the city, those type of things concerns me and I believe that's a different approach that a business owner, business person would bring.

- And again, to own my mistake on the County Commission, the time you were on there, what did you learn?

What did you like about that?

What did you not like about that?

About being in elected office?

County Commission's very different than the mayor's office.

- Absolutely.

- But still there's some commonalities of elected, of constituents, and so on.

What did you like?

What did you not like?

- So, what I enjoyed was the opportunity to be front and center of hoping to bring answers to the table to resolve issues that our constituents brought to us.

The thing that I didn't like mostly was it seemed as if within that 13-member body, everybody had different agendas, and it took an enormous amount of time to get some of the easy and simplest issues resolved because of the various different agendas.

So that was a little bit frustrating.

And as a business owner, military guy, I don't come to a table with a whole lot of patience for the, you know, the [clears throat].

So that was difficult for me.

- Bill.

- So let's talk about bringing the business approach to something that's on everyone's minds, and that is the problems that we continue to have with our infrastructure, our utility infrastructure, Memphis Light, Gas, and Water Division.

What can the mayor do about this?

What influence can the next mayor exert over this continual problem?

- Well, as you very well know, Memphis Light, Gas, and Water is a division of the city government.

They work separately, under their own autonomy.

One of the things I really like with Doug McOwen going over to serve as president and CEO, he has brought the utility to the table with city government.

That weekly meeting that the directors have with the mayor, Memphis Light, Gas, and Water's at the table.

I think that's a very, very good idea.

We need to have more engagement.

You know, the City Council kind of oversees the budget.

There's a very far disconnect between city government and how it operates.

The ideals, the thought, the visions that are brought to the table that could perhaps make things a lot more conducive, a lot more efficient.

That opportunity is not realized because of the distance between the two organizations.

I would like to see that continue and even brought closer.

- Do you think that this is a process of getting things better in terms of the infrastructure?

I mean, is this gonna take some time, do you think?

- I believe it will get better.

There's no doubt in my mind.

I think with collaborations between, again, city government and Memphis Light, Gas, and Water.

People talking together, transparency behind the conversations, allowing everybody to have their input given.

I'm even one of those people who are kind of interested in being able to bring some of our suburbanites to the table to hear their input, collaboration is gonna be the key.

And yes, I do think we're on our way to a better infrastructure, a better Memphis Light, Gas, and Water.

- The other issue that seems to travel somewhat with that is the state of solid waste pickup, garbage pickup.

Where would you grade the city as being and what can make some difference in that response?

- So that's an area that I'm not that familiar in, familiar with.

I would grade them probably a C+.

From what information I've been given, the information I've read, we're doing a pretty decent job.

So I would like to be able to stay on top of it.

Again, holding those responsible, accountable for their work.

I would like to see a strategic plan to start out about the future of solid waste, the direction we should be going with solid waste, and then be able to put forth some KPIs that ensure that we track in that direction and to continue to improve things.

- Right, right.

One of the things that you've talked about is kind of the city's approach to economic development.

You feel like there are some things lacking there.

I mean, you can always improve on what's being done in any task, but how would the city's pursuit of economic development change under your administration?

- Well, so one of the things that I know that I would do would be right there by the side of the Chamber as they go about their recruiting efforts.

When they bring individuals to the table to solicit their moving to Memphis, my administration would be there.

When they talk about moving even closer to the reality of moving to Memphis, the procedures, the processes that take a long time currently, we will be there to ensure that we can effectuate a process that would expedite getting those tasks done.

So we will be a cheerleader for Memphis.

We'll be a partner in the recruiting efforts with the Chamber of Commerce.

And when we talk about those subsidies, or those expenditures that we want to offer to CEOs and companies coming to Memphis.

We wanna do a better job of negotiating those.

That's truly in a place for PILOTs and other subsidized offering, we need to do a better job.

Again, in my humble opinion of negotiating how that lays out.

What's given, what's taken.

- Is it a matter of being more specific in those terms or is it a matter of being more accountable for the incentives that are there?

- I think it's all of that.

I think we need to be more specific.

I think we need to be more accountable.

I think everybody who's watched these PILOTs and the reciprocates of the PILOTs exit our community on an earlier timeline than originally thought would say, "Yeah, there's more accountability that could be held."

So yeah, it's all of that.

- Fifteen minutes here.

We'll stay in the infrastructure space.

Bill talked about MLGW, another big...

It is not maybe in the most high-profile responsibility, but obviously Jim Strickland, if you've ever talked to him, he's been on the show-- roads, roads, paving, streetlights, sidewalks, all that bread and butter stuff at the mayor's office.

How would you grade the administration in terms of the last eight years in terms of improving the roads or not?

And does more money need to be spent?

Is it an issue of spending more money to pave and fix roads faster?

- I think everybody will attest that the road situation is pretty sad.

It's definitely not one of those situations of being "brilliant at the basics".

I think more money needs to be spent.

And I'm not suggesting to you that it all comes from city government, as you will hear people talk about when they describe the condition of the roads and who's responsible.

Some of these roads are the responsibility of state government.

I think that goes back to the lack of a real positive and strong relationship between Memphis and the state.

If we had a better relationship ongoing, getting our roads into a time schedule would be a lot more conducive than it is today.

So it's about building relationships, creating those collaborations that allow us to not only take care of our infrastructure, but other needs that this community has.

- Well, two parts, you talked about other needs, the state, we are dependent on the state or subject to the state's decisions in a lot of areas.

What are those other areas where you'd like to build better relationships?

And how do you build better relationships with a legislature that sometimes doesn't like Memphis, sometimes doesn't want to think about Memphis, that we can be an afterthought to the priorities of state government.

How do you improve that relationship and what are those other priorities?

- Well, one of the interesting things that come to my mind when I think about the relationship between state and the city of Memphis.

Right now, there's this divide.

They want to put it all around either race or politics.

The Republican control of the state and Democrats are mostly in Memphis, so that's putting us at odds.

But if you think back when the Democrats controlled the state, we still didn't receive much better attention here.

It has been a lack of understanding how to build that relationship.

And I'm not one who looks to point fingers, but I would suggest to you that our delegation has an opportunity to improve the building of the relationship between us and the state, us and federal government.

- Yeah.

- And that local delegation is typically inspired in their acts, by the local municipality leaders, city and county mayors.

They kind of turn the wheel, if you will.

They kind of get that delegation motivated to do the right thing or whatever as they go back up to Nashville.

So coming together, figuring out what it is we need here in the city of Memphis, in an early enough time span where we can start to set forth strategies around how we get what we need.

- Let me stay with the state and use that as a transition to crime.

We did a debate that you attended, and I think five of the candidates attended back, I think it was April or May-- it's available on YouTube or on The Daily Memphian site-- that was focused exclusively on crime and crime fighting.

So we talked a lot there, and people can go to that and get more of your positions and all the candidates positions.

But we'll talk about it here.

A lot of what, you know, happens around crime in Memphis and any city in Tennessee is dependent on the legislature.

The legislature sets laws.

Most immediately, in three or four weeks the governor-- we don't exactly know when-- will call a special session focused on guns.

One, what would you like to see come out of that special session on guns?

And what do you realistically expect to happen in a super majority Republican legislature and governor?

- Well, to be honest with you, I'll be proud if he's able to bring them back together for a special session.

I don't look for a whole lot to happen if that session does occur, I will submit to you that from my perspective, as we look at crime here locally, it's a very, very challenging topic.

And I have to say emphatically that it's not just an MPD issue, it's a community issue.

Very difficult issue to deal with.

From my perspective, we want to kind of segment this into five different areas.

Again, from my humble opinion, I would first create a crime summit that would bring some of the brightest and sharpest minds locally and nationally to the table.

We would advocate for stronger laws, especially around sentencing and bail.

Third, we will do our best to increase the police officer and invest in fighting crime through technology.

We will also do our very best to ensure that we keep our kids out of trouble.

Now, each one of those segments have layers and layers of additional things that could go into being, but those are the five pieces that I will submit to you that's the focus point by which we will attack crime.

- So the special session in general, I believe the call is going to be a special session on public safety versus a more specific call that would be around gun control measures.

But there might be some discussion of that, there might not be.

It just depends on who you talk to in Nashville about that.

Do you think that there is too wide an access to guns locally, given current state laws?

- Absolutely.

I don't think anybody-- well, let me take that back.

Just let me speak for myself.

I do think it's a travesty.

The fact that today you can walk around with AK-15, the fact that you don't have to have training in order to carry a gun.

The fact that the data shows that because of that lack of a permit, people are breaking into cars more to gain access to guns that they can't afford to pay for themselves.

And they're utilizing those guns in crime.

Too easy to put your hands on a gun.

Too easy to create a violent act utilizing that stolen gun.

We do need to do something different around gun control.

- Okay.

Pretty early in this campaign, there was a lot of discussion about whether the next mayor keeps or retains CJ Davis as the police chief.

And at the first forum that I was at that this came up, you said, "What a minute."

If someone's gonna give you an answer on that right now, at this early stage in the campaign, they may not be thinking that deeply about what's involved here.

And as it turns out, every mayor has, pretty early in the term, if not at the outset of the term, hired a new police director, regardless of what's going on with crime, regardless of what issues are out there.

So, still your outlook on this?

- Yeah, pretty much.

I hadn't had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with the chief.

I've had a couple conversations with her.

I'm still of the belief that we need to really analyze what we want out of a police chief, what we want out of MPD as a whole, whether or not the current chief can provide that.

I will say to you that from the outside looking in, what I'm hearing from talking to police officers is that they were very proud of her immediate action when it came to the Tyre Nichols issue.

Very proud of her.

And she got national recognition for the sort of acts that she took around that incident.

I'm also hearing that there's satisfaction with her from internal promotion.

Things are a little bit different.

I think that the DOJ analysis of operation is gonna pay dividends.

So I'm still of the position, Bill, that I need to wait and see a little bit longer.

To be able to see the outcome of the DOJ's analysis, to be able to actually sit and have some talks with the chief about her future strategies on how we improve the police department.

And lastly, I will submit to you, I'm extremely excited 'cause it seems like someone has shared the notion of the importance of communicating.

I'm seeing a lot more communications coming out MPD here recently.

- And you talked about one of the challenges of being on the Commission, which I've heard people talk about this on the County Commission and on the City Council, that you gotta get seven votes to do anything.

I'm wondering what this experience of running for mayor has been like, comparing that to what you're able to do in the private sector, what you're able to do in philanthropy, probably faster than a mayor can do.

Something even with all the powers in the city charter.

- Right, right.

- Is there an imbalance there?

Is that kind of an adjustment I guess I would call it?

- I think it's an adjustment that I would have to make.

However, I honestly believe that I will do that adjustment extremely fast and do it well.

One of the things we've been fortunate enough to have happen in our life, not only as a business owner, but in the non-for-profit philanthropic world, we've been able to bring coalitions together for development of the whole.

When we take a look at what we were able to do with Hattiloo Theatre, for example.

Taking a young man's dream of moving from a small facility on Marshall to being the heartthrob of Overton Square Theater District.

That's the same type of notion.

Nobody thought it was feasible.

Nobody thought it was something that needed to happen right then and there.

But we were able to bring together a coalition of right people, not only in city and county government, but in the philanthropic world and in the business community and in the theater arena.

We brought all those players to the table, and Ekundayo Bandele.

Bandele I believe is his last name pronunciation.

Ek was able to open that facility without any mortgage and he's doing a bang-up job on a national perspective.

That's just an example of our ability to bring people to the table to get things done, and we can do that at city government.

- Well, and also in particular with Hattiloo, from my conversations with Ekundayo, you told him specifically, you need to own the theater that you have.

You you don't want to rent.

You don't want a lease.

You wanna own it, right?

- Absolutely, absolutely.

And fortunate enough, he listened and we went about the business of making sure that ownership occurred for him.

- With a couple minutes left here, sticking with crime for a second, The Daily Memphian commissioned a poll on crime, a big survey of residents and folks in Shelby County outside of Memphis had a third-party objective poll done across attitudes and experiences and so on.

And one thing that I know some people were surprised by, but it jives with the things that you are saying, which is that across demographics, across young and old, black and white, male and female, there was a pretty strong desire to have tougher sentencing, which you talked about, to have more police, to also have more interventions, and also have more community policing.

It was not the divide that sometimes gets painted of it's more police or not, or it's community policing or it's something else.

It was more of an "all of the above."

People wanted to feel safer.

- Exactly.

- Did that surprise you?

Is that what you hear as you've been campaigning, as you work with, you know, in the business community, in the nonprofit community, in the civic space?

There's a lot more commonality than sometimes seems obvious.

- Absolutely.

Absolutely.

It was not surprising to me at all.

Not only from from my interacting with the Joe Blow citizens of the community through my philanthropic work, but as a businessman, it just made sense.

And then when you start having these one-on-one conversations with individuals, you hear it over and over and over.

This is truly one of those situations where politics gets in the way.

Politics gets in the way.

Communities coming together to deal with this issue I think it's gonna be our answer, and we have an opportunity to do that.

- You talked about your priorities around crime.

You talked about how, you know, again, more police, tougher sentencing, not forget our youth.

That gets into, for instance-- and not that the mayor has authority over this, but has some influence and a voice over this-- which is the transfer of youth, of young people under 18 into the adult court.

It was a very controversial issue.

It was an issue that Steve Mulroy, the current DA ran on, in part maybe, some say, that beat Amy Weirich on that issue.

But are there young people who just need to be transferred to adult court and where there simply isn't an intervention or an alternative to putting them into the adult system?

- Yeah, I don't think anybody will submit to you that there's an absolute on one side or the other.

Contingent upon the crime.

I think that should dictate whether or not the individual moves to an adult level.

I think everybody believes that.

One of the things, again, I submit to you is that if we take a little politics and finger pointing out of this conversation, we can get a lot done.

We have a huge crime commission, fifty-some people where city government, the mayor, county mayor, police chief, Shelby County sheriff, we got a lot of people serving on that committee, but they're not talking to each other.

There's such a divide and a finger pointing from silos that's prohibiting us from getting where we truly need to be.

And with that crime summit that you hear me talk about, we are gonna come to the table, open eyes, open hearts, open ears with thoughts and concepts of how we bring the community together.

- Another issue on this that people-- again, the mayor does not have direct influence over, but certainly the current mayor is very frustrated about it and others are frustrated about-- is, you know, how bail is implemented and when repeat offenders are released.

Be that violent offenders or less violent, but repeat offenders.

Would you like to see more repeat offenders?

Take the "violent" out for a second.

More people who are breaking into cars, breaking into homes, be held longer and for longer periods?

- So I don't want to say right now the particulars of how I would try to handle that situation.

And the reason I said it to you, Eric, is because again, I think too often right now, we find ourselves responding to sound bites in bits and pieces.

There's an opportunity for us to come together to talk about this in a holistic fashion, and that's where we should be focusing our attention.

Bringing together a summit of people who understand this industry.

From the justice system to policing, the whole gamut needs to be brought to the table, talked about, and concurred upon how we move forward.

That can be done.

- Okay.

Thank you so much, candidate for mayor and former county commissioner, JW Gibson.

[JW laughs] Thank you, Bill.

Again, if you joined late, we are in the midst of trying to have the top eight candidates on the show for one-on-one profiles.

We've had Frank Colvett and Karen Camper.

Coming up soon is Paul Young, Van Turner, and Michelle McKissack.

We were trying to work out a date with Floyd Bonner.

We have not heard from former Mayor Herenton.

All this leads to a debate as you see on the screen, August 15th at 7:00 PM on WKNO with hopefully all eight of those candidates.

For more information, go to DailyMemphian.com.

If you missed any of the show, go to WKNO.org.

Thanks very much and we'll see you next week.

[intense orchestral music] [acoustic guitar chords]