Government

Birmingham City Council Declines to Nominate Full Slate of Candidates to Board Overseeing Property Taxes

UPDATED —The Birmingham City Council has passed on the option to submit a full slate of nominees to the Jefferson County Board of Equalization, the body that oversees property tax appraisals in the city and countywide. At its Tuesday meeting, councilors voted to nominate only one candidate, incumbent board member Karen Wadlington, to continue service on the board. Alabama law allows the council to nominate up to three candidates for each vacancy on the three-member board. The terms of two of the board’s three members have now expired, according to a county spokesperson, which allowed the City Council six total nominations. Read more.

by Lee Hedgepeth

JeffCo Commission Back at Full Strength After Bolin Sworn In Monday

The Jefferson County Commission is back up to its required five members after Mike Bolin was sworn in Monday as the newest commissioner. Shown are commissioners Lashunda Scales, Joe Knight, Bolin and Sheila Tyson, with Chairman Jimmie Stephens (center front). Bolin recently was elected to the District 5 seat, left vacant when Steve Ammons resigned to become CEO of the Birmingham Business Alliance. Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

In Search of Midnight Oil: JeffCo County Manager Preparing for Annual Budget Hearings

County Manager Cal Markert displayed a wry smile when asked if he is looking forward to budget hearings in August. “I look forward to it being over and done, I guess,” he said after the Jefferson County Commission’s meeting today in Bessemer. “It’s coming up and we’ve got to do it. It’s just a lot of extra work. Not extra work but a lot of work.” Setting the county’s budget is an annual balancing act of determining where funds can be allotted to accomplish needed projects, and it involves hearings during which department heads meet with Markert and county commissioners to make their case for requested funds during fiscal 2024. Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Birmingham will fund a ‘violence intervention’ program. Can it get to the heart of the problem?

Michelle Farley remembers Rico. He was a member of the Youth Action Committee at One Roof, the Birmingham homelessness services organization where Farley serves as executive director. In 2019, Rico was shot, according to Farley, and remained hospitalized for weeks. He was then released, she said, “with no more resources for conflict resolution or violence prevention than when he entered.” Just a few weeks later, Rico was shot for a second time. He didn’t make it. On Tuesday, the Birmingham City Council approved a pilot program to provide services to those impacted by gun violence in the Magic City. Read more.

by Lee Hedgepeth

Cooper Green Mercy Construction Proceeding; Opening Expected in Late 2024/Early 2025

Jefferson County Commissioners today received a progress report on construction of the Cooper Green Mercy Health Services Authority building. The new clinic is being constructed where the Cooper Green Hospital parking deck had been. Administrator Laura Hurst said the building will have five stories with the first four being occupied upon completion. The fifth floor allows for expansion. David Randall, board president and CEO of the health authority, said the construction is only part of the changes at Cooper Green. Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Alabama Legislature Passes Controversial Congressional Map

The approved map aims to address the federal court ruling but leads to tensions and claims of voter suppression. Read more.

by Alander Rocha and Jemma Stephenson, Alabama Reflector

Alabama House, Senate Approve Separate Congressional Maps

Republican supermajorities in the Alabama House and Senate approved two separate congressional maps with a single majority-Black congressional district and one with a Black population ranging from 38% to 42%. Democrats in both chambers, who support maps with two majority-Black districts, opposed both proposals and said they would not satisfy federal courts that ruled that the state’s earlier congressional maps violate the Voting Rights Act. Read more.

by Jemma Stephenson and Alander Rocha, Alabama Reflector

Alabama House, Senate GOP Approve Two Separate Congressional Maps

House and Senate Republicans approved two different congressional maps in committees Tuesday, potentially creating a conflict just days ahead of a deadline to submit proposals to a federal court. The House State Government committee approved a new state congressional map that creates a majority-Black congressional district in western Alabama and a 42% Black district in the southeastern part of the state. But a Senate committee Tuesday approved a map that lowers the Black population to 38% in the southeastern district while reducing the Black population in the western district to about 50%. Read more.

by Alander Rocha and Jemma Stephenson, Alabama Reflector

Bolin Elected to JeffCo Commission, Preserves Republican Majority on the Commission

Mike Bolin is retired no more. The former Alabama Supreme Court justice has a new job as the newly elected District 5 representative on the Jefferson County Commission. Bolin, 74, of Vestavia Hills received 5,728 votes, or 59% of the total, while developer David Silverstein, 67, of Mountain Brook amassed 3,924 votes, or 41%. “I spent 35 years in the judicial branch of government,” Bolin said after learning of his victory. “Now I’ll be embarking on a quasi-executive-legislative branch of government. I’m anxious to work with the members of the commission, to be fiscally conservative (and) to work for the betterment of the whole county I was born in and I’ve always lived in and always will.” Read more.

by Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

‘This just can’t go on’: Birmingham City Councilors Somber a Day After Firefighter’s Death

As Birmingham’s city councilors met Tuesday, the mood was somber. Just a day earlier, Jordan Melton, a Birmingham firefighter, had died as a result of injuries he suffered when he and his colleague, Jamal Jones, were shot inside Station 9 on July 12. As council members gathered in Boutwell Auditorium for their regularly scheduled meeting, a shirt was draped in solidarity across the tables at the front of the room. It was a show of solidarity: “Birmingham Fire & Rescue,” it said across its front. “On behalf of Mayor Woodfin, I want to express that our hearts are with the Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service and the Melton family as they continue to mourn Monday’s passing of firefighter Jordan Melton after he was shot last week at Station 9 in Norwood,” Cedric Sparks, the mayor’s chief of staff, said at the meeting. Read more.

by Lee Hedgepeth