¹4HEY MIGHT DO IT HOLDING THEIR NOSE THEY MIGHT DO IT WITH A LITTLE BIT OF POLITICAL RHETORIC MIXED IN THERE BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY THE DEAL IS TOO GOOD FOR THEM TO PASS UP ON FOR POLITICAL REASONS ² ²0LVVLVVLSSL 'HPRFUDWLF 7UXVW 'LUHFWRU DQG IRUPHU VWDWH 5HS %UDQGRQ -RQHV RQ ZK\ 0HGLFDLG H[SDQVLRQ ZLOO KDSSHQ LQ 0LVVLVVLSSL
would serve as the final funding for the first phase of the project, bringing at least four entertainment venues and restaurants to the street. The Jackson City Council would have to approve the bond issue once the tax credits were in place. The new market tax credits hit a major snag, though, when engineers discovered the foundation problem with the building where developers planned to house the B.B. King’s Blues Club. The club, which the Farish Street Group hoped to be the first to open in the entertainment district, would be a three-story music venue and restaurant. Once architects finalized the plans for the club, engineers discovered that the current structure could not handle the load capacity. On further evaluation, the engineers discovered the building had no foundation,
only a 3-inch thick floor supporting it. What was an $8 million to $10 million phase just a few months ago, is now an $18 million first phase. Watkins said the added cost spooked the decision makers at the National Historic Trust, which was going to supply the new market tax credits. The trust needed to award all its tax-credit money by Dec. 31, or lose it. With the project suddenly doubled, the trust’s board members decided they wanted to have the city’s bond issue on the table before administering the tax credits. In October, Watkins went to the Jackson Redevelopment Authority, the quasigovernmental body that oversees the Farish Street development for the city, and asked to get the bond issue by the end of the year. “The JRA’s lawyer, Zach Taylor, said: ‘There’s no way possible we can do it. It’s just not possible. It would be February at the
¹/NE OF THE THINGS THAT ) ½ND IRONIC IS THAT HE WANTS TO EXPAND PORTS FOR BOATS BUT NOT HEALTH CARE FOR BABIES ² 6HQ +LOOPDQ )UD]LHU RQ *RY %U\DQWœV RSSRVLWLRQ WR 0HGLFDLG H[SDQVLRQ EXW VXSSRUW IRU H[SDQGLQJ WKH 3RUW RI *XOISRUW
earliest,’� Watkins said in an interview at the Jackson Free Press last Saturday. Without the bond, the trust awarded its tax credits to projects closing by the end of the year. It will renegotiate with the Farish Street Group in March for 2013 tax credits. With the new market tax credits off the board until the spring, Watkins said he turned to Plan B. He is now negotiating with an unnamed wealthy Mississippi businessman about investing in the project, he said. The potential investor’s name is under wraps, even from his fellow Farish Street Group partners other than the group’s lawyer, Robert Gibbs. Watkins said he wasn’t surprised to hear that Cooper-Stokes wanted to look for another developer. When her husband, Kenneth Stokes, held the Ward 3 seat, he requested an audit of Watkins’ personal investments in the project. Watkins presented his records
to the JRA board, he said, though he had no legal obligation to do so. The idea to rebuild the Farish Street entertainment district first came to the public eye in 1983, when architect Steven Horn presented a detailed plan for the project to city leaders. With the 30th anniversary of Horn’s plan now upon us, neither the city or developers have brought his ideas to fruition. The Farish Street Group has been in charge of the development since taking control from Performa Entertainment Real Estate, developer of Memphis’ Beale Street, in December 2008. Performa had done little on the street and accrued $1.5 million in debt since the Jackson Redevelopment Authority hired the company in the 1990s. Comment at www.jfp.ms. Email Jacob D. Fuller at Jacob@jacskonfreepress.com.
How Clinton is Reducing Domestic Abuse The intervention program helps offenders change their core beliefs about relationships and their roles in them, empowering them to make fundamental shifts in their behavior. Middleton stressed that domestic
pen. As a result, the municipal court now hears DV cases one day a month. The center has a representative in the court ready to take immediate action, whether that’s working with victims to provide immediate support and counseling or putting an offender into the next available BIP program slot. Judges sentence the men and women accused of misdemeanor domestic violence to attend the intervention program. “You ask the question of whether one person can make a difference, (Morgan) went back to her court and said, ‘We’re going to do this,’â€? Middleton said. â€œâ€Ś She was just determined to make it work.â€? And the program does work. Batterers who complete the program don’t show up Tamra Morgan was the driving force behind putting again in the court. a batterer’s intervention program into the Clinton “They’re seeing no rejudicial system’s toolkit.The program has significantly reduced domestic violence in the city. cidivisim, no repeat offenders,â€? Middleton said. The Clinton intervention violence is not a crime resulting from anger, class currently has about 15 men, and about which is why anger-management programs four or five women in another class. The prorarely work. Instead, it is a crime of power, grams are co-ed. Before the program, the same control and manipulation. men and women would be charged repeatedly. “The key is to change their behavior,â€? “Once they get into the program, they Middleton said. start realizing that there’s another way to live Morgan told the judges and prosecu- life besides what they’ve been doing all this tors in Clinton about the center’s program, time,â€? Morgan said. She acknowledged that and they gave her the OK to make it hap- many abusers come from abuse—at some
TRIP BURNS
T
wo years ago, Tamra Morgan began a process that has resulted in the city of Clinton reducing its domestic violence cases by about half in two years. Morgan has held the job of court administrator for more than two decades, for the past eight years at the Clinton Municipal Court. She’s seen a lot of domestic violence cases, many of them involving the same offenders multiple times. The typical pattern was that the perpetrator’s ferocity escalated on each case. “It was so disappointing and aggravating to me to be the part of that system,� she said. “It was like a revolving door; nothing was getting accomplished.� Clinton tried a range of solutions—anger management, counseling, jail time—but nothing seemed to have a lasting impact. “It helped, but it didn’t solve the problem,� Morgan said. In the fall of 2010, Morgan was completing her bachelor’s degree in sociology at Mississippi College, and she enrolled in a victimology course. One night, the speaker for the class was Sandy Middleton, executive director of the Center for Violence Prevention in Pearl, a nonprofit that works with victims of domestic violence and sexual assault as well as running a batterer’s intervention program, or BIP, in several counties in mid-Mississippi. Twenty minutes into an after-class conversation, Middleton and Morgan were planning how to make the BIP an integral part of the Clinton court system.
level, they may believe a violent relationship is the only way to have a relationship. Steven Boone, Clinton’s city prosecutor, is a big part of making the system work for the city. “We’re not seeing the same old ‘customers’ coming through,� he said. “It’s been a wonderful program.� Abuse victims are sometimes hesitant about allowing their batterer’s to attend a program instead of sending them straight to jail. “I’m sure they’re thinking, “The system’s at work again,� he said. Many of them have seen the legal system fail miserably, often repeatedly. Boone said he saw some victims so many times, he knew them by their first names. After Boone explains the program, though, most will trust that it’s the best thing to do. “Then I never see them again, so it’s working,� he said. “When these offenders are sent to the program, the court stands behind it,� Middleton said. Offenders know they’ll be serving their sentences in jail if they don’t complete the 24-week program, which they pay for at the rate of $25 per week, giving them motivation and a personal investment to stick with it. “There are some teeth behind it,� she said. “If you come to the city of Clinton, and you want to beat up on someone, watch out,� Boone said. “We’ll get you taken care of.� Comment at www.jfp.ms. Email Ronni Mott at ronni@jacksonfreepress.com.
jacksonfreepress.com
by Ronni Mott
9