The Birmingham City Council on Tuesday approved a measure to allow members of the body to virtually attend and vote in meetings.

“We’re very excited to be able to put this ordinance into effect and allow for more efficiency and attendance at our meetings,” said Council President Wardine Alexander.

According to city officials, council members “may join and participate in a meeting virtually up to six times a year if an illness or physical condition causes significant difficulties for them to attend in person.”

According to the ordinance, a quorum at the dais is required for a member to attend virtually, and virtual voting will be done through a roll call vote.

According to city officials, council members who wish to attend virtually must notify the City Clerk on or before the day of the meeting.

The council passed the measure unanimously.

Birmingham Talks Childhood Literacy Program Expanded

In other business, the council on Tuesday approved an updated agreement that provides additional funding to a popular early childhood literacy program.

The new agreement adds $371,500 in funding for Small Magic, doing business as Birmingham Talks, bringing the total contract value up to $750,000, according to city officials.

The initiative, which started in 2019, involves a 10-week early education service that gives parents a wearable device that counts the words children hear throughout the day. The goal, officials say, is to improve how caregivers speak, read to and interact with children.

Representatives with Smart Magic told council members Tuesday that about 2,000 kids in Birmingham will have access to the program this year.

“This program allows us to have measurable data around how many words each child is hearing and develop plans to increase that accordingly,” Councilor Clinton Woods said. “We want to make sure all of our children are being put in the best position to succeed in the classroom and that’s a lot more difficult when they fall behind in reading comprehension. We’ve seen major improvement in literacy and reading levels over the last several years here in Birmingham. Reading has a way of opening a whole world of possibilities, and we want to introduce our kids to that as soon as possible.”

Small Magic is modeled after a Rhode Island program called Providence Talks, which was part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayors Challenge. Bloomberg Philanthropies in 2018 chose Birmingham as one of five cities to replicate the project.

Druid Hills Housing, Sixteenth Street Visitor Center, Housing Authority Policing

The council on Tuesday also voted to:

• Extend a contract with Greenlining Realty USA Birmingham by up to $167,245 to support the development of new housing in the Druid Hills neighborhood. The development will contain between 35 and 40 residential units, and at least 10% must be reserved for residents earning at or below 100% of the Area Median Income. The council approved the initial agreement in December 2024.
• Approve an agreement to provide up to $250,000 to the historic Sixteenth Street Baptist Church to support programming at the site’s new Education and Visitor Center. This planned 14,000-square-foot center will act as the informational hub for the Civil Rights District and the locations within the footprint, officials say.
• Extend an agreement keeping the city’s public housing police task force in operation for another two years. The agreement is with the Housing Authority of the Birmingham District and the Birmingham Police Department.  The authority will provide $2,368,516 to cover personnel and equipment costs for members of the High-Intensity Community Oriented Police Patrol Program. For their part, city officials will provide eight police officers, one sergeant and one lieutenant. Staff told the council that the new agreement increases the number of police officers by one. City leaders created the task force program in 2019.