The Jefferson County Commission on Thursday will be considering its support for an amendment on the March 5 ballot that would make it easier for legislators to pass local legislation earlier in the session.

The resolution supporting the adoption of Amendment 1 was discussed in the commission’s committee meeting Tuesday. District 4 Commissioner Joe Knight, president of the Association of County Commissions of Alabama, explained following the meeting that the amendment simplifies matters that are specific to individual counties.

“The commission is saying we’re in support of voting for Amendment 1, which is an amendment that will take off the BIR (budget isolation resolution) requirement hurdle before you can get to your local legislation if the budgets haven’t passed,” Knight said. “And they’re never passed until late.”

The Legislature by law is required to pass the budgets before most other legislation, but it has a work around. It can take up other bills before the budgets if 3/5 of a quorum passes a budget isolation resolution allowing a vote on a bill.

It can be complicated to get a supermajority of legislators to vote on local legislation in which their constituents have no interest.

“Are they present? They don’t have to vote but they have to be there. They can vote (or) abstain, but that’s a vote. And then you’ve got to count all these votes.”

Many of those legislators can conclude that the legislation “has nothing to do with me. Why do I need to be there? Why do I need to go down and do that?” the commissioner said. “It’s hard to get that majority, at least a quorum, in there, a supermajority in there, in order to at least have a vote. It’s very complicated. But this will simplify it.”

The amendment would negate the need for a BIR vote on local legislation.

“Basically, you get to decide what happens in your county without having to go get a quorum of the supermajority to be in the chambers,” Knight said.

Property Demolition, Economic Incentive

During the committee meeting, commissioners moved to Thursday’s agenda liens on 19 previously demolished properties in Docena so the county can recoup the expense of those demolitions.

“We are currently taking different communities, actively going into those communities, and we are looking for houses that meet the criteria for demolition,” said Mike Thomas of Developmental Services. “We create a list in that community and then we’ll work it through the demolition process so that we can make an impact on that community by taking down numerous houses in that community that are a blight.”

Forestdale is the next community Developmental Services has targeted to battle blight through demolitions. Robinwood could follow Forestdale.

“We don’t want to just take a scattershot. We want to take a rifle and try and pinpoint certain areas because that’s where you get the most bang for your buck, rather than doing one and two here and there throughout an area as large as the county,” said Josh Johnson, director of Developmental Services. “You’ll see a larger property value increase and a larger reduction of blight and just improved community perception, reduce crime and things like that, if you take it in a small area and concentrate your demolition efforts there.”

Commissioners also moved to Thursday’s agenda a public hearing concerning Atlas Tube Inc.’s request for economic incentives for the expansion of the company, largely for the purchase of equipment.

The incentive package would provide $2,000 for each of 33 newly created jobs with an average salary of $27.25 per hour. The company currently has 67 employees.