After multiple delays, demolition of the long-derelict Banks High School is moving forward. The Birmingham City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to approve the one-year extension of a loan agreement with the Alabama Department of Environmental Management to tear down the building, which has sat vacant in the city’s South East Lake neighborhood since 2007. Read more.
Nine Birmingham nonprofits will receive funding from the city’s Building Opportunities for Lasting Development grant initiative this year, despite an overall reduction in funding for the program. The Birmingham Business Alliance, Birmingham Business Resource Center, Bronze Valley, Bush Hills Connections Inc., Community Care Development Network, Create Birmingham, TruFund Financial Services, Women’s Fund of Greater Birmingham and Workshops Empowerment Inc. were selected from a group of 22 applicants, with award amounts ranging from $20,000 to $90,000. “The top-line narrative here is us really working to do more with less, to think about how can we leverage city dollars and support in the community to maximize our investment,” Amelia Muller, civic design principal for the city’s department of innovation and economic opportunity, said in a presentation to the Birmingham City Council. Read more.
This year, the city of Birmingham is sending two sets of lobbyists to Montgomery — one from Mayor Randall Woodfin’s office and one from the City Council. Councilors made that decision last month, claiming they’d been excluded from planning the city’s legislative agenda, and on Tuesday they approved a legislative agenda of their own — one that only slightly overlaps with Woodfin’s priorities. The primary area of agreement between the two agendas is about bolstering city revenue through fines. Both the mayor and council are pushing legislation that would increase penalties for littering, dumping and weed abatement. Both also want to tie parking tickets to car tag renewal, providing a built-in enforcement mechanism for a ticketing system that currently lacks one. Woodfin and the council also are both pushing for an increase in the maximum number of entertainment districts allowed in a municipality. Birmingham has four such areas — Pepper Place, Uptown, Five Points South and Avondale — where people are allowed to drink alcohol outside, though they must have purchased that alcohol from a restaurant, bar or venue in that district. State law caps the number of entertainment districts a city can have at five; Woodfin and the council both hope to raise that number to 15. The similarities mostly end there. Read more.
The Birmingham City Council has approved its first official travel since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. During a virtual meeting Tuesday, the council approved last-minute funding for Council President William Parker to take a two-day trip to Montgomery to meet with Alabama legislators. Read more.
UPDATED May 18 — Three months before Birmingham’s municipal elections, the pool of candidates for City Council is shaping up to be a large one. Read more.
Former Birmingham Mayor William Bell has signaled his intention to enter this year’s mayoral race, challenging incumbent Mayor Randall Woodfin, who unseated him in 2017. Paperwork filed with Jefferson County’s probate court Monday shows that Bell has formed a principal campaign committee — of which he is the sole member — for a 2021 mayoral run. Read more.
The Birmingham City Council has approved a $940,030 construction bid for the city’s long-planned real-time crime center, though the identity of the bidder remains confidential. The development of a real-time crime center was first announced by Birmingham Police Chief Patrick D. Smith in 2019 as a technological hub that would give police “a very clear picture of what’s going on throughout the city.” He said information could be transmitted directly to on-beat officers “so they know exactly what they’re looking for and who they’re looking for.” The crime center will employ policing technology such as ShotSpotter and PredPol, as well as recently approved Motorola surveillance software that drew controversy last year for its facial recognition capabilities. Mayor Randall Woodfin has maintained that the BPD cannot use those capabilities without approval from the City Council. Read more.
The Birmingham City Council hired its own lobbyist and legal consultant Tuesday, a move granting the council greater independence from the mayor’s office. The council approved two $45,000 contracts during its virtual meeting — one with lobbying firm Miller Development Group and one with law firm Campbell Partners, LLC. The council cited the opacity of Mayor Randall Woodfin’s legislative agenda and the need for a “council-focused” legal consultant outside of the city’s law department, which reports to the mayor. The Mayor’s Office retains its own lobbyist. “This council needs help, and we need our own help, because the city’s help is not ours,” said District 3 Councilor Valerie Abbott. “They don’t report to us, they don’t answer to us, they don’t do what we want.” Read more.
Although still recovering from COVID-19-related pneumonia, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin announced three major political appointments Tuesday morning, including a new director of innovation and economic opportunity and two members of the Birmingham Water Works Board. Read more.
On Tuesday, for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Birmingham City Council opted for an all-virtual council meeting — though, at least initially, that format kept them from accomplishing much. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin remains hospitalized with COVID-related pneumonia. Read more.
