For one, in Memphis they won't get their electricity turned off, no matter how often they neglect to pay their bill.

Everybody has to pay the light bill, an unpleasant maxim lately made even more so here, knowing the powerful do not always observe it.

Month after month, Memphis Light, Gas and Water allowed City Councilman Edmund Ford to forgo paying thousands of dollars in overdue bills without having his power cut. Meanwhile, other prominent politicians — council members, a judge, a state representative — were on a protected list, supervised by a senior utility official, intended to prevent them from having their power cut off in case of nonpayment.

Even the mayor, Willie W. Herenton, was on the list, though Mr. Herenton says he did not know about it and never got any favors. It is not clear that anyone but Mr. Ford was allowed to pile up unpaid bills. Still, the whiff and practice of favoritism — detailed for the last several weeks in the local news media — is upsetting many in a city where nearly a quarter of the people are poor, and the local utility is publicly owned.

Hmmm. . . another corrupt Memphis politician named Ford. Yep, that is another member of the family of former Rep. Harold Ford, Jr. I wonder how long it will be until some scandal or another ensnares him, given the culture of entitlement in which he seems to have been raised.

Posted by: Greg at 10:18 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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