Virginia Martin

Alabama Lawmakers’ Pay up 4% in 2019

Alabamians’ median household income increased in 2017, which means Alabama lawmakers received a corresponding 4.03 percent pay increase this year. Their annual salary is now $48,123. This is the third raise for lawmakers since 2014, when their pay was tied to household incomes through a voter-approved constitutional amendment. “If legislators want a raise, we need to get the median household income up, and if we can get that up, we’ll deserve a raise,” said state Rep. Mike Ball, R-Madison. He sponsored the legislation that led to the constitutional amendment in 2012. The amendment went into effect after the 2014 election with lawmakers earning $42,849. The latest raise, $1,866, went into effect Jan.1, according to the Alabama Personnel Department memo, which cites 2017 Census data. Read more.

Congressional Votes for the Week Ending Jan. 18

WASHINGTON – Alabama’s House delegation, along with many members of the House, had party-line votes last week on bills to fund disaster relief for businesses and residents harmed by wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, mudslides, volcanic eruptions and typhoons. Republicans opposed the original measure because it would have opened closed portions of the government temporarily without allocating money to build Trump’s wall. Democrats also passed an amendment that would prohibit the president from using disaster relief funds to build the wall, which he has speculated he might do. Republicans failed in an attempt to pass an alternate disaster relief funding bill that would not temporarily reopen government offices but without providing funding for a border wall. In Alabama’s delegation, each of those votes cast Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, on the opposite side from the state’s six other representatives. Read more.

One-Third of Alabama’s Failing Schools Are in the Birmingham Metro Area

The Alabama State Department of Education has posted its list of the state’s failing public schools, and 25 Birmingham metro-area public schools are on it. Statewide, 76 public schools are on the list. The list is based on standardized test score performances and compiled yearly as a requirement of the Alabama Accountability Act. The law requires that schools with scores that fall into the lowest 6 percent be designated as failing schools. Birmingham City Schools comprise 26 percent of the failing schools, with 20 schools on the list. That number is up from the lists released in 2018 and 2017, when 14 and 13 schools, respectively, were designated as failing. Read more.

Scales Opens the Windows of the County’s Committee Meeting Room

Citizens of Jefferson County could only imagine the discussion and debate that happened when commissioners assembled for their committee meetings. The five representatives meet in a board room around the corner from their offices with their respective staffs, the county attorney, the county manager and his staff and perhaps a few others. But Tuesday’s commission committee meeting ushered in a new age for Jefferson County citizens, who were given a peek inside the proceedings courtesy of Commissioner Lashunda Scales. The commission president pro tem brought livestreaming to the business of Jefferson County as a member of her staff broadcast the committee meeting via the internet. She promises to continue to practice with internet broadcasts of future committee meetings and full commission meetings. Read more.

Jefferson County Commission Plans Town Hall Meeting to Explain Sewer Rate Increases

Jefferson County Commissioners are planning a town hall meeting to explain sewer rate increases being made as a result of the county’s bankruptcy. Read more.

Woodfin’s Decisions for Extra Funding Delayed for Council Discussion

The Birmingham City Council voted Tuesday to delay $5.5 million in funding measures that Mayor Randall Woodfin said would address “critical needs” in a handful of city departments. The proposals will instead go before the council’s Committee of the Whole when it meets Wednesday. That $5.5 million would come from projected increases in use tax and occupational tax revenue, said Director of Finance Chaz Mitchell, who assured councilors that those projections were “very conservative.” But several councilors, including District 2 Councilor Hunter Williams and District 8 Councilor Steven Hoyt, said that the council had not been adequately informed of the proposed expenditures. Read more.

Shutdown Leaves Some Alabama Farmers in Limbo

WBHM Tuesday marks one month for the partial federal government shutdown, and it’s not just federal workers feeling the pinch. Alabama farmers are also seeing its effects.

BPD Sgt. Wytasha Carter Laid to Rest Saturday

Remembering Sgt. Carter: Family, Friends Speak at Funeral of Fallen B’ham Officer (WBRC) ‘He Lived and Died for Us:’ Thousands Honor Slain Birmingham Police Officer Sgt. Wytasha Carter (AL.com) "We Are Blown Away:" Father of Slain BPD Sergeant Speaks at Son's Funeral (WVTM) Birmingham Police Chief Patrick Smith Speaks at Sgt. Carter Funeral (WVTM) Former Birmingham Police Chief A.C. Roper Leads a Prayer at Sgt. Carter Funeral (WVTM) Thousands Say Their Final Goodbyes to a Hero (ABC 33/40) Remembering Sgt. Carter: Law Enforcement From Around the Country Attend Funeral of Fallen BPD Officer (WBRC)

North Birmingham Neighborhoods ‘Have Taken a Beating,’ Work to Unite Over Pollution Concerns

The EPA Superfund cleanup and ABC Coke’s proposed air emissions permit have dominated health concerns of residents in northern Birmingham neighborhoods for months. Now officials and residents of several neighborhoods there are attempting to form a coalition to broaden the concerns to other sources of possible pollution. The flash point of the new effort is a scrap metal processor’s business license. The license was denied by a unanimous Birmingham City Council vote in March, but the owner successfully appealed the case in Jefferson County Circuit Court, which compelled the city to grant the license. Catherine Evans, president of the Acipco-Finley Neighborhood Association, and City Councilman John Hilliard led a meeting Saturday of about 30 people, including officers of some other neighborhood associations, to discuss how to proceed after the court decision and how to meet concerns over respiratory illnesses and other health effects possibly related to industrial pollution throughout the largely African-American and low-income area. Several people at the meeting called attention to the negative health effects of living in the North Birmingham community. Gwen Webb, president of Inglenook Neighborhood Association, said, “I don’t care what side of town you live on, what organization you belong to, what neighborhood you’re in, we all are affected (by polluted air). I can tell you when I start smelling it, I cannot breathe, and pollution is injustice.” Read more.

EPA Studies Find Air Pollution Is Particularly Dangerous to Vulnerable Populations Such as People of Color and Children

See, Smell Air Pollution? Document and Report It.

EPA Studies Find Air Pollution Is Particularly Dangerous to Vulnerable Populations Such as People of Color and Children

Several recent studies funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency confirm that air pollution disproportionately affects the health of African Americans and others of color. Three of the studies were highlighted in the December 2018 issue of EM, The Magazine for Environmental Managers. Read more.