Aug.1, 2017 — If Tuesday’s Birmingham City Council meeting presented municipal politics as a “game,” as Councilors Steven Hoyt and Lashunda Scales both put it, then the rules of that game and who was breaking them remained very much up in the air.

For the second week in a row, a large portion of the meeting was dedicated to enmity between Scales and Councilor William Parker over the latter’s request for discretionary funds to pay for meetings of District 4 neighborhood officers, volunteers and city officials with state and federal officials. One set of meetings would focus on “the preservation and maintenance of cemeteries in Alabama,” the other “regarding funding for infrastructure related projects.”

Both items were referred to committee last week after several councilors expressed concern that they had not been vetted through the proper channels and both were on Tuesday’s agenda. But Parker attending a meeting Thursday with Gov. Kay Ivey raised concerns with some councilors, particularly Scales, who grew frustrated as Parker repeatedly refused to answer whether city funds had been spent on the meeting.

“My response is simply that we had a meeting last week with the governor, the council referred the item, and this item was in the committee of the whole on Wednesday and is now back before us,” Parker said. Read more.