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Memphis City Attorney Commits to an Extended Public Comment Period
 People with disabilities concerned about the thin time period to make comments on the plan that will guide Memphis for the next twenty years won an expanded public comment period today.
“We will have a second public comment period,” said Memphis City Attorney
Robert Spence, “beginning sometime next week.”
People with disabilities collected more than 200 signatures of support for the extended public review the Americans with Disabilities Act Transition Plan for Memphis. Robert Spence had written earlier that the city would not extend the time.
The plan surveyed 55 public buildings to project the cost of compliance to more than 400 facilities owned by the City of Memphis. Although the plan states on page that the public may view these surveys at City Hall, less than half of those documents were made available to the public during the comment period.
“My first thought was that there has been incompetence and poor record keeping there in City Hall,” said Robert Morris who was not allowed to view all the surveys on June 20th and 28th. “It makes me think the whole public comment process was flawed.”
“It has taken the City more than 3,800 days to create the plan and they provided the public only 14 days to respond,” said Robert Morris of the Memphis Center for Independent Living. “More time to review the plan is only reasonable.”
Some of the possible problems in the plan that citizens have found so far include:
- The grievance procedure has no appeal or review process.
- The plan does not give details of compliance methods, a requirement of federal law.
- The plan does not appear to include such obvious public venues such as the new Arena, AutoZone Park, and the recipients of the Center City Commission “facelift project.”
- The City Schools are not covered in the plan.
- The document is not signed or dated.
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Memphis City
Attorney Robert Spence |
You may review the City of Memphis
1990 Americans with Disabilities Act Transition Plan as long as the city keeps it on their website.
Public comment should include your name and address and be submitted by to:
Robert L. J. Spence, Jr. City Attorney
ADA Coordinator
125 N. Main St. Room 314
Memphis, TN 38103
- Tim Wheat
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