Government

Commissioner Questions Spending for Hospital Move if Land Is to Be Annexed

Jimmie Stephens said “it wouldn’t be right” for Jefferson County to spend money preparing for the move of UAB West Hospital to McCalla only to have the hospital annexed by neighboring Bessemer. “It wouldn’t be right for the county to expend all those dollars on infrastructure in unincorporated Jefferson County for them to reap those benefits and then go away,” Stephens said following Thursday’s Jefferson County Commission meeting. “We want to work with our municipalities,” the commission president said. “If the CEO of UAB West wants to go into Bessemer, that’s fine. But they should do the infrastructure. If you do the infrastructure with the county, it should be in the (unincorporated part of the) county.” Stephens said there’s no news concerning plans for the new hospital. “It’s still planning to be moved,” the commission president said. “We haven’t gotten any drawings. We haven’t gotten any of the infrastructure work that will be done.” Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Sen. Doug Jones Urges Quick End to Shutdown, Touts Medicaid Bill, Civil Rights Cold Case Act

Citing “heartbreaking stories” from Alabamians affected by an “increasingly costly federal shutdown,” U.S. Sen. Doug Jones on Thursday urged Congress to act on legislation to restart government services now and then hash out Homeland Security funding for border security after employees are back at work and getting paid. “We need to get the government going and talk about border security in a reasonable way,” Jones, D-Alabama, said during a Thursday call with Alabama media outlets. Alabama’s junior senator said his office has heard from many Alabamians affected by the federal shutdown. “These are heartbreaking stories from families who are literally scared to death of losing their paychecks. These folks are not getting rich working for the government and many live paycheck to paycheck,” he said. About 5,500 federal employees are on furlough or working without pay because of the shutdown. Read more.

by Jackie Romine Walburn

Despite Anti-Tax Pledge, Ivey Key Supporter of Gas Tax Proposal

Gov. Kay Ivey is a proponent of a statewide gas tax increase, despite previous signed pledges to oppose “any and all” tax hike efforts. Ivey is one of dozens of current and former Alabama politicians — most of them Republicans — who at some point signed an anti-tax pledge from the group Americans for Tax Reform. Ivey’s not the first or only to later back away from it. Americans for Tax Reform is led by lobbyist Grover Norquist, who recently asked state leaders to reject a proposed gas tax hike. An infrastructure improvement plan and gas tax increase are expected to be a major part of the 2019 legislative session, and Ivey has signaled to lawmakers it’s her No. 1 priority. Read more.

by Mary Sell

Larry Langford, Longtime Politician and Birmingham’s Idea Man, Dies at 72

Larry Langford, former mayor of Birmingham and Fairfield and commissioner for Jefferson County, a prominent and controversial figure in Jefferson County politics for the past four decades, died Tuesday at the age of 72. Langford was perhaps best known as a man of ideas, some ambitious and others just off-the-wall. He proposed holding the 2020 Olympics in Birmingham and restoring streetcars to downtown. He’s credited with spreading the seeds of ideas that became some of the city’s most popular attractions, including Railroad Park, the Birmingham CrossPlex and Uptown entertainment district. While mayor of Fairfield, Langford persuaded 11 area cities — in an area well known for its lack of intergovernmental cooperation — to work together to build the VisionLand amusement park, which opened in 1998 and went bankrupt in 2002. “There is no doubt, Langford was a pioneer and visionary who was well ahead of his time,” said Commissioner Lashunda Scales, who now represents Larry Langford’s former county commission district. But in the end, Langford almost died in prison, winning compassionate release and returning to Princeton Baptist Medical Center just 10 days before his death. Read more.

by Sam Prickett and Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Scales Voices Concern Over Cancelation of Angela Davis Honor

Jefferson County Commissioner Lashunda Scales expressed concern Tuesday about the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute cancelling its plans to honor Birmingham native and Civil Rights icon Angela Davis. BCRI was to have given Davis its Fred Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award at its annual gala next month. That event has been cancelled, and plans to give the award to Davis have been rescinded. “I believe that (BCRI) board members … need to be very cautious that we’re not trying to rewrite the American history according to African Americans, or blacks or the Negro experience,” Scales said. “We all want to embrace diversity, but diversity should not come at the expense of telling the history that makes us uncomfortable.” by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Scales Wants More Money for ClasTran

Commissioner Lashunda Scales wasn’t content to simply talk about approving fiscal 2019 funding for ClasTran. The president pro tem broached the subject of Jefferson County providing more funding to the company charged with providing transportation to many area senior citizens. “ClasTran, to me, has always been underfunded,” Scales said as she chaired the committee meeting of the Jefferson County Commission. “Not just necessarily with the county but even with the municipal government I just came from. ClasTran provides a very critical part of our transportation that meets the needs of our seniors (and) those individuals who have disabilities. “We need to try to get to as many of those cities within our county that we can provide this service to,” she continued. “That was my ultimate concern. Those cities that can’t afford it, can we help offset the cost.” Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Larry Langford Dead at 72

Former Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford, a prominent and controversial figure in Jefferson County politics over the past four decades, died today. He was 72. Langford had suffered from end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, emphysema, pulmonary hypertension and right heart failure, among other ailments. He was granted compassionate release from federal prison just more than a week ago so he could spend his final days at home. He was transported to Princeton Baptist Medical Center on Dec. 29, where he died today. Langford spent the past nine years in federal prison after being convicted in 2009 on charges of corruption and bribery for action during his time as Jefferson County Commission president. In addition to his stint as Birmingham’s mayor from 2007 to 2009 and county commissioner before that, he also has served as mayor of Fairfield, member of the Birmingham City Council, and, before his political career, a television journalist. Langford’s political career was marked by his outspokenness and his advocacy for ambitious projects. He was well known for one of his campaign slogans, “Let’s do something!” This is a developing story and will be updated.

by Sam Prckett

Birmingham City Council Approves Resolution of Concern Over Mayor-Council Act Changes

The Birmingham City Council formally expressed “concerns” Tuesday about recent changes to the Mayor-Council Act of 1955. In a resolution it passed unanimously, the council called on the state Legislature to repeal changes, made to the act in 2016 at the behest of then-Rep. Oliver Robinson, which transferred significant powers from the council to the mayor’s office. Though the resolution passed with little discussion, the Mayor-Council Act has been a recent focus for the council. Robinson’s changes were a key part of last month’s interviews with candidates for the District 1 and District 6 council seats, with councilors telling applicants that undoing those changes would be a priority in 2019. Those changes moved budgeting and appointment powers from the council to the mayor, shortened the terms of the council president and president pro tempore from four years to two, and gave the mayor the ability to “retain the services of outside counsel and other professional services” without oversight from the council. Council President Valerie Abbott has described the changes as “an irritant” to the council. Read more.

by Sam Prickett

Congressional Votes for the Week Ending Jan. 4

WASHINGTON – In a partisan vote, the House last week agreed to a continuing resolution (HJ Res 1) that would fund the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 8, giving Congress and President Trump more time to negotiate his request for up to $5.7 billion this year for building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. The department has been partially closed since Dec. 22. Alabama’s representatives also voted along party lines on the bill, with Democratic Rep. Terri Sewell approving it and the rest opposing.

by Voterama in Congress

Police Fight Alabama’s Gun Culture, Stress Gun Safety Education in Effort to Reduce Violent Crime

▪ Alabama has the highest rate of concealed gun permits in the country.

▪ Jefferson County has the lowest permit fee in the state.

▪ One in five adults has a permit to carry a gun.

Birmingham rang in the new year with a chorus of gunfire. Birmingham Police Chief Patrick D. Smith told the City Council Wednesday that his department’s ShotSpotter technology had detected 960 gunshots — most attributed to celebratory firing into the air — throughout the city on New Year’s Eve, an increase from the 469 shots recorded Dec. 31, 2017. That uptick is partially due to an expansion of the ShotSpotter program, which was increased by roughly 30 percent in 2018. “The numbers are going to higher because we’re detecting more,” Smith said. But the increase also is indicative of the city’s gun culture, in which a large proportion of adults wield handguns, many with little knowledge or regard for gun safety. “It’s stupid,” Mayor Randall Woodfin said Wednesday. “The people who committed these acts, it was very stupid of them to do, because any bullet that goes up must come down.” Concern over the gunshots was in some ways an appropriate way for city officials to start 2019, which follows one of the city’s most violent years in recent memory. 2018, with 109 recorded homicides, narrowly avoided 2017’s 23-year high of 117 homicides. Read more.

by Sam Prickett