The Jefferson County Commission today opted not to ride in and rescue Birmingham residents, tabling a resolution to make some federal relief funds available after the city exhausted its allotment of federal funds to aid people with rental and utility assistance.

Commissioners considered moving to the agenda an amendment to its Emergency Rental Assistance Program to permit providing assistance to persons living in Birmingham proper. Birmingham initially had been excluded from consideration of those funds because the city had its own allocation of about $11 million.

The county’s allocation of about $30 million – $15,502,218 in the initial disbursement – was provided to help persons in unincorporated Jefferson County and all cities in the county outside of Birmingham, the largest city in the county.

Commissioner Sheila Tyson became emotional as she appealed to help Birmingham residents.

“Birmingham is in need,” she said. “We have people right now that’s got four days left before their lights and water willl be turned off, and we are arguing over something that’s gonna make people homeless, where the sheriff is ready to sit them out.”

Some commissioners were concerned that helping Birmingham would limit their ability to help others.

“You take something away and then you have these outlying areas in Jefferson County that we are totally responsible for sure,” Commissioner Lashunda Scales said. “They don’t have a city. When you start talking about Forestdale and other places, I’m just using it as an example. I’m just saying those unincorporated areas, they don’t have a city. They totally depend on the county. Are we taking anything away from them?”

Unanswered Questions

Commissioner Joe Knight cautioned that Jefferson County has until 2025 to spend the ERAP funds. He later said he didn’t think enough information was made available for the requested action.

“We’ve learned that the state has $70 million out there for this kind of program,” he said. “No. 1, we were told that they didn’t know if there was an application made (to the state by Birmingham). Then we were told that they had granted $250,000. I’m thinking, Why so low? I don’t know. I just didn’t have enough information on what it is.

“I thought we ought to roll it over to have more input and more information,” Knight said, “before we make a decision to just transfer it over.”

Commission President Jimmie Stephens expressed concern that someone in Maytown or on Mulga Loop Road could look to the commission and the federal funds would be exhausted.

“It’s not that I’m not willing, as a commissioner, to help these people,” he said. “’I told you so’ costs everyone.’ We don’t want that.”

County Manager Cal Markert said the difficulty comes in telling how much assistance money will be needed in the county and how much will be needed in the city of Birmingham so that funds are available for as many people as possible.

“What if it goes in Birmingham and they spend it all and there’s not any left for people out in the county?” he asked. “The commission had great questions. We’ll need to study that some more and come back to the table.”

Ambulance Times, Voting

Commissioners also heard from Todd Sheridan, senior associate with Fitch and Associates, the firm hired to research issues in ambulance response times in Jefferson County.

“Our goal is to be able to come here and understand really what’s going on in the community,” Sheridan said. “We’ll listen, understand what some of the challenges have been from a delivery (standpoint) that you had today and then also be able to take that information back, look at local quality, objective data, the data coming from the 911 dispatch centers, the response times that you have from your various different fire departments and EMS agencies, and ultimately give you options as a pathway to improve services within Jefferson County.”

Barry Stephenson, chairman of the board of registrars, presented resolutions to change a pair of polling places. He proposed a one-time move of  Precincts 3010 and 3015 from the Hoover Met to Hunter Street Baptist Church, and Precinct 5190 to O’Neal Library.

Stephenson also suggested that he and commissioners meet with the county legislative delegation concerning recent changes to the voting calendar. Those changes created conflicts at those precincts.