Memphis City Council Chair Jana Swearengen-Washington quietly tried this winter to shake up City Hall’s information-technology operation. Then, just as quietly, the effort vanished. Committee packets and agendas show proposals to carve the Program Management Office out of the IT division into its own unit appeared on early-year calendars, only to be scrubbed before any vote. Those on-and-off moves drew scrutiny after city records and reporting suggested the changes might have created a conflict tied to a relative working in the IT shop.
The draft measure is still visible in City of Memphis committee documents and lists Swearengen-Washington as the sponsor. The packet language describes transferring the ITPMO from the IT Division to a separate department that would report directly to the executive and would take on procurement and project-management duties, according to City of Memphis committee materials.
Emails and other records obtained and reported by the Daily Memphian show Mayor Paul Young’s administration warned Swearengen-Washington that moving ahead could violate the city charter. The same reporting says the legislation could have benefited the councilwoman’s niece, who worked as a business analyst in the city’s IT division.
The flap over the IT proposals is unfolding just as state leaders are preparing to place Memphis-Shelby County Schools under a nine-member, state-appointed board of managers. Eight appointees have been named and one slot remains open, and the new panel is set to take broad control of the district’s $1.7 billion budget starting this summer, according to Action News 5.
That looming takeover has already rattled elected school board members. “I found out about them like everybody else: in the media,” one MSCS board member told Action News 5, capturing complaints from local officials about how quickly the state intervention is moving and how little advance notice they received. A forensic audit that helped trigger the state’s move is expected to wrap up soon, turning up the heat on questions about who controls the money and how it is being spent.
Legal questions and ethics rules
Memphis’ municipal code includes a citywide code of ethics that bars officers or employees from outside employment or actions that conflict with their city duties and sets out procedures for reviewing alleged violations, according to the city’s ordinance collection on Municode. The same source notes the board of ethics and conflict-of-interest rules that govern city officials.
Whether Swearengen-Washington’s sponsorship of the ITPMO changes actually crossed a legal or ethical line would depend on the specific facts and any formal review. The warning from the mayor’s office, cited in reporting, indicates city lawyers saw at least a potential charter or ethics issue. With a state board slated to assume control of MSCS on July 1, the episode lands at a moment when local leaders are already under a microscope over how they handle public money and power.
For now, the ITPMO items have not reappeared on later council agendas. As the new school governance structure comes online, residents and watchdogs will be watching closely to see whether council rules, procurement lines and ethical boundaries are shored up or blurred in the weeks ahead.
