Shea Flinn a fish out of water in Memphis politics

Councilman Shea Flinn

By his own admission, Shea Flinn is an anomaly in Memphis politics.

The 39-year-old City Councilman is a white Democrat in a city where the racial divide cuts along the political divide. The Democrats are black, and the Republicans are white. So perhaps it is fitting that Flinn is making his mark on city council where the positions are officially non-partisan.

“At the end of the day I am a white Democrat in a city where being Democrat is synonymous with being black so I would lose most primaries on that issue. I am far too liberal on social issues to ever be elected in a Republican district so it’s a pretty short ceiling,” Flinn said. “I recognize that, and that’s fine. … It is an honor and privilege to be on city council, but it is not something I would want to do forever.”

First elected to council in November of 2007, Flinn is in the forefront of the biggest city issues, and he has not been afraid to tackle some of the thorniest. He rarely can be pigeon holed.

For example, he injected himself into the 2011 campaign that convinced Memphis citizens to give up its school charter and force the merger with Shelby County Schools, even though he was not a school board member and it only indirectly affected city government. His goal was to reduce the burden on the city, which was embroiled in a debate over whether the city should support the city schools.

Flinn is championing the cause of reducing property taxes to make Memphis more attractive to businesses and new residents, a cause most closely associated with conservative Republicans. His goal is to increase taxes and increase fees in other areas in order to make the city a more attractive place to buy a house or start a business.

He also proposed and promoted establishing an adult entertainment district for the city, an issue that other politicians would not even touch. His thinking is that adult entertainment is here to stay so why not make sure it is allowed to operate in an area that will not offend the neighborhood.

Basically, Flinn wants to make his mark in Memphis politics by being the person who is willing to make the difficult decisions and tackle the difficult issues. The status quo has just not been working in a city with a poverty rate of 25 percent and a stubborn unemployment rate for the Memphis metro area of 9.6 percent.

“We are not going to continue do things the way we have always done it. We have been losing population in the city. We have been losing population in the county. How we’ve always don’t it, is not working,” Flinn said. “We have to find new ways to do things.”

Because he sees no wider political future, Flinn is willing to speak up for issues and say things that someone with higher political ambitions may not say. That includes raising fees on some services in order to lower property taxes and get the city out of the business of doing things that Shelby County should be doing. The school issue is the best example, but he is also working to get the city out of the business of doing vehicle emission inspections and turn that over to the county.

As one of the three representatives to Super District 9, which is the northern part of Memphis, Flinn, was first introduced to politics as a fill-in for state Senator after the election of Steve Cohen to the House of Representatives in 2006. He previously ran un-successfully for the state House before determining his future was in non-partisan politics.

His day job is as general counsel for Flinn Broadcasting, a company his father owns. He is a graduate of Rhodes College and the University of Memphis Law School. Flinn attributes his independence to the fact his mother was a Democrat, and his father a conservative Republican. His father George Flinn won the Republican primary for Congress this past summer.

“I have the zeal of a convert about my distaste for partisanship. I can’t stand it. I think it is ridiculous. It is a team sport view of politics, and that is not how politics is supposed to work,” Flinn said. ”Someone once said about politics it is like professional wrestling. All the fighting is for the cameras. The problem we have now is that cameras are never shut off.”