Press Release: MemphisShelbyInform.com Goes Live

The Main Street Journal Website

(The following press release is published as it was received by the Main Street Journal.)

New citizens’ web site aims to expose government secrecy.

A new Memphis web site makes its debut this week with the objective of making it hard for local governments to conduct business in secret.

The new Internet address, memphisshelbyinform.com, is the work of a group of Memphians led by Joe Saino, a retired Memphis businessman well known for getting in the hair of politicians.

“We are an investigative organization composed of concerned citizens and taxpayers. We are monitoring and reporting in depth on local government activities and expenditures and educating the public on their efficiency, honesty and transparency,” Saino said.

The primary objective, according to Saino, is to uncover conflicts of interest involving public officials, government waste and abuse, ordinances and regulations that politicians enact for their own personal benefit, and cases in which city or county contracts are awarded to other than the lowest-and-best bidder.

“This new web site has been created to share our findings with all city and county taxpayers in the hope that a better-informed electorate will lead to better government,” Saino said.

The site includes much original material created as a result of research by Saino and others, as well as material gathered from other sources statewide. Initially, the focus is on topics such as Beale Street Landing, government pensions, property assessments, consolidation, and the cost of local government to name only a few.

The site features eight categories of local government activities as well as links to the official web sites of city and county governments and school systems and other selected blogs. A special invitation is made to potential whistle-blowers in all local governmental systems and activities.

Much data has been gathered and made available, including salaries and benefits of government officials.

“Our organization, MemphisShelbyInform.Com, is a non-profit, 501(C) (3) corporation,” Saino says. “Through our members and personal associations we have the resources of prominent Memphians with great experience and knowledge in and of our local governments; attorneys, accountants, business executives and analysts who can assess government plans and deliberations and warn of actions that might damage the city.”

The organization and its web site are funded out of the pockets of its members, according to Saino, but the group will accept donations, which will be tax deductable. “We have expenses for document copying fees the governments charge, for occasional legal fees, web-hosting and maintenance and following up tips from whistle-blowers,” he said, “but nobody in the organization gets a dime personally.

The group is non-partisan, Saino said, with both Democrat, Republican and Independent members and has no interest in espousing any political party, individual politician or political agenda. Saino is president of the organization. John Malmo is vice president. Dorothy Kirsch is secretary; Walter Broadfoot, treasurer, and Ray Gill, director.

Saino was a thorn in the side of the Herenton Administration and of the city council for several years during which Herenton decreed that all information requests of any city department had to go through the legal department. The city council also found Saino a prickly customer. During Myron Lowery’s brief period as interim city mayor he appointed Saino to be the only non-pensioner member of the city pension board, but the council refused to confirm his appointment.

Saino was a dedicated worker also in the Concerned Citizens of Memphis group that successfully mounted and shepherded the drive for creation of a charter commission that made significant changes in the city charter. He also ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the city council in the last general election. If you are interested in this citizen effort, please visit the website and forward this notice on to your email list, facebook contacts and other social media friends.

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