MLGW's Lee, Horton resign; Herenton accepts

Memphis Commercial Appeal ^ | 5/3/7 | Michael Erskine

[SmithL]

Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division president and CEO Joseph Lee III and general counsel Odell Horton Jr. will resign effective Friday, Mayor Willie Herenton announced this morning.

Herenton said he was accepting their resignations because the city-owned utility had developed a "public relations problem." He said he made the moves in order to allow MLGW to move forward. "Ratepayers deserve calm," said a solemn Herenton.

The mayor earlier had rejected Lee’s offer to resign, but he was now accepting it because he had come to a "different point of view."

MLGW, the mayor’s office and the City Council have been in turmoil for months since it was revealed the utility allowed City Councilman Edmund Ford to accumulate more than $16,000 in debt on three accounts.

MLGW board chairman Rick Masson, Herenton’s longtime supporter and former city chief administrative officer, will be acting CEO until a permanent CEO is found, Herenton said.

[SmithL]

Now would be a good time for Edmund Ford to resign, too.

[SmithL]

Follow-up to: MLGW turmoil getting personal - Board member accuses Lee of trying to blackmail him

[Coldwater Creek]

My guess is that Lee had become too much of a liability to Willie, as he just yesterday announced that he was going run for Mayor again. Said, that even though some had tried to buy him off with high paying jobs, his duty was to the city. HAHAHAH

[AxelPaulsenJr]

What is happening, why is Willie doing what seems to be the right thing?

[SmithL]

Memphis being Memphis, I suspect he already has a very high-paying job.

[billhilly]

Fords don’t resign, they reign.

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

Also MLGW has paid $61K in legal fees at last count.

[thelastvirgil]

About damned time. Lee isn’t qualified to mop the lobby floor at the MLGW headquarters. This scandal will not end King Willie’s career as sovereign, though. The dumbed-down electorate will keep him in as long as he wants.

[SmithL]

How's your sense of irony?

Bush signs bill to honor elder Horton by renaming Memphis' federal building

You can't make this stuff up.

[Coldwater Creek]

Things are never dull in Memphis! I went to do some much needed housework and look what happens!

The funny (not haha) thing is that Herenton fired a top notch fellow to replace him with Lee, who had made a total mess out of the city's finances.

Now, he is distancing himself from the whole mess, saying that he is not going to involve himself in pettiness. Herenton is the main problem, and the stupid lemmings just keep on putting him back in City Hall.