August 2, 2007

WHO IS JOE SAINO AND WHAT DOES HE STAND FOR?

Joe Saino is a candidate for the Memphis City Council, Super District 9, position 2. Each and every voter can vote for a candidate from their council district (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) and also vote for three super district candidates, position 1, position 2, position 3) in either super district 8 or super district 9 depending on where they live. Therefore each Memphis voter gets to vote for 4 city council members.

I was born and raised in Memphis and Sainos have been here since 1856. I went to CBHS for high school and then to Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, transferred to Vanderbilt University where I graduated as an electrical engineer. I have been married for 44 wonderful years to Claire Sebralla and have been blessed with four wonderful daughters, two great and employed sons in laws and two great grandchildren.

I ran a successful manufacturing business here along with my brother from 1956 to 1993 when we sold the business to Chase Industries of Cincinnati, Ohio.

From 1977 to 1983 I was on the board of the Memphis Light Gas and Water Division and was chairman for one year.

Since retiring I have been an engineering consultant to Chase Industries. In addition I have served on the National Fire Protection Association Committee for 32 years helping to set the standard for fire doors and fire windows in the National Building Codes.

In 2004 I joined with John Lunt and John Malmo to oppose the disastrous January 2001 pension resolution passed by the City Council. We gathered 30,000 signatures and forced the City Council to revoke this expensive resolution which will cost the taxpayers over $60 million dollars when it finally runs it course. With the 30,000 signature petition we were able to authorize the Charter Commission which is studying possible changes in the City Charter to correct many costly provisions.

After the City Council tried to block the Charter Commission I started a website, memphiswatchdog.org and started sending out open records requests to the City of Memphis for public information. They refused at first to comply with state law and I filed suit in Chancery Court and forced them to comply. Since then I have filed many open records requests and published the results on my websites (memphiswatchdog.org and shelbywatchdog.blogspot.com). Some of the changes that I have been responsible for are as shown below.

• I published a salary and benefit spreadsheet on the City, County, MLGW, the Memphis City Schools and the County Schools. Through this publicity the City Council took away the automobile allowance for top City of Memphis executives.
• I have exposed the incompetence of Joseph Lee at the MLGW and contributed to his removal and revised their policy on open records presentation making it easier to get previously hidden information.
• I have published information on the Riverfront Development Corporation and contributed to the demise of the Wolf River $78 million dollar land bridge.
• Through open records requests to the County purchasing department I was able to force them to start buying computers from the Dell State contract rather than from friends of the former Shelby County Mayor which saved the County over 30% on their purchases of computers.

Over the last three years I have become very well informed about City Government, the City Charter and of course the MLGW operations and management. Because of this inside information and study I have become very concerned about the future of Memphis and after much thought decided to run for City Council against Tom Marshall, the longest serving City Councilman.

On Monday, July 16th, three days before the filing deadline I filed to run for this position. I wanted to challenge Mr. Marshall on his vote for the January 2001 pension resolution, his vote for Joseph Lee to head the MLGW and especially for his unethical multi million dollar contracts with the city school system. Friends said I was crazy to challenge Tom Marshall, that I could not win. On Tuesday, July 17th after I filed on Monday, Tom Marshall decided not to run. The next day a bunch of other candidates decided they would run. I welcome them. They represent the status quo and politics as usual.


JOE SAINO’S PLATFORM FOR REFORM OF CITY GOVERNMENT

I promise to push for no property tax increase w/o voter approval. Just last week we all got our city property tax bill and our county bill. My city tax rate is up 62% over the last 9 years and my county rate is up 88% over the same period. Inflation is up 24%. Nashville recently passed such an ordinance.

I promise to push for term limits for the Mayor and the City Council.

I promise to push for no sale of the MLGW without voter approval and also to recommend the separation of the MLGW from the politics of City Hall and the City Council and to expand the board with membership from the larger incorporated cities in Shelby County and the County government.

I promise to push for elimination of most of the Mayor’s 400 appointees

No elected official should be able to benefit from any contract where city taxpayer money is involved.

Reduce the Mayor’s contract authority for professional contracts to $50,000.

The Park Commission management should be returned to a private board and taken away from City Council management.

All financial information to be put on the internet so that the public can know what and how much each public contract costs. Perfect transparency is the only guarantee of honesty in government. Corrupt politicians hate sunshine on their actions.

No elected official should serve on boards and commissions.

The millions of dollars saved by these structural changes should be used to fight crime which is killing our city and its future.

The pension system should be reformed for future employees to a defined contribution plan and away from a defined benefit plan. No one in private industry has a defined benefit plan any more and this is what bankrupted the steel mills, the airlines and now the auto companies.

I ask you for three things.

1) Vote for Joe Saino

2) Work for Joe Saino, ask your friends to do the same and forward this message to your email list of friends. Volunteer to work for my election. You can contact me at 7540699, 2402689 or contact John Lunt at 6831011. I campaign literature for your use and can furnish as many as you are willing to pass out. Call or email and let either John or myself know how many you want to distribute to your friends.

3) Contribute to memphiswatchdog.org (my website name) for which John Lunt is the treasurer. Unfortunately, money is the mother’s milk of politics and in order to get the message out, I need money to organize and advertise. Honest government is not free. It takes work, organization and money. Send a check made out to memphiswatchdog.org to P. O. box 172301, Memphis, Tennessee 38187-6141 or to the attention of John Lunt, 718 Mt. Moriah, Memphis, Tennessee 38117. You can contribute up to $1000, no corporate checks. Also you can contribute by credit card through paypal on the memphiswatchdog.org website by entering an amount that you want to contribute. Thank you for your help in order to bring honest and transparent government back to Memphis.