Happy New Year!

This weekly rundown of public meetings and agendas aims to help you keep your elected officials accountable.

I used to maintain a regular column on my old site, The Terminal, highlighting specific items on the Birmingham City Council agenda. This, along with seeing the impact our friends at The Current over in Georgia have had with their Coastal Navigator newsletter (and additionally inspired by other friends Agenda Watch), has led to what you see.

Our goal is simple. It’s not enough to tell you what happened; it’s as important to allow you the opportunity to know “Why?” and not be caught off-guard by votes and decisions.

It’s an outgrowth of a personal long-standing belief that an item before a legislative body for a city or county for final approval has taken a journey to get there. You should be aware of that path whenever possible.

We here at BirminghamWatch don’t have the resources necessary to cover all the meetings across the City of Birmingham and Jefferson County on a given day (much less any given week). We do keep up with when all of these meetings take place. We hope making this weekly list public makes it easier for you to do so too.

(We will be updating these lists as we become aware of new meetings, etc.)

Please let us know if there’s a specific meeting or organization you’d like to see included in our rundown.

NOTE: Future weeks will include information about upcoming neighborhood meetings in Birmingham.

City of Birmingham

• Birmingham City Council, January 7, 9 a.m. | Agenda
• Joint Community Development and Special Called Committee of the Whole, January 7, 2 p.m. | Check for Agenda
• Design Review Committee hearing, January 8, 7:30 a.m. | Agenda
• Northside/Southside Zoning Proposal Meeting, 6 p.m., Birmingham Public Libary Central Branch
  • Note: This meeting will review proposed changes to the zoning framework plans for these parts of the city. No decisions will be made or finalized during the session.

Jefferson County Commission

• Pre-Commission Work Session, January 7, 9 a.m. | Agenda | Agenda Packet
• Planning & Zoning Commission Hearing, January 9 | Agenda | Agenda Packet
• Commission Meeting, January 9 | Check for Agenda