Tag: Birmingham City Council
Birmingham Council Will Require Self-Storage Developments to Fit In With Community
The Birmingham City Council has codified a new policy for developing self-storage facilities in the city, replacing the moratorium it placed on new self-storage developments last year. Read more.
Birmingham Bringing Back Up to 132 of Its Furloughed Employees
The Birmingham City Council has approved a plan to bring up to 132 furloughed city employees — mostly from the Birmingham Public Library and the city parks department — back to work.
The workers were furloughed in September due to budget cuts necessitated by COVID-19’s impact on city revenue.
The plan, described as a compromise between mayor and council, will be funded by $4.85 million borrowed from the city’s general fund reserve. That’s far less than the $7 million requested in Woodfin’s initial plan, which would also have restored two paid holidays for city employees and reversed some salary reductions to appointed staff. Read more.
Council Postpones Vote on Holiday Pay, Says Woodfin Expects Them to Make Budget Decisions “Blindly”
Black Friday will be an unpaid holiday for Birmingham city employees after the City Council delayed a proposal by Mayor Randall Woodfin to pay employees out of city reserves.
In a last-minute addendum to Tuesday morning’s meeting agenda, Woodfin called for the city to take $807,333 out of the city’s general fund to restore the paid holiday, which had been nixed due to COVID-19-related budget cutbacks. Employees still will receive their regular paychecks next week but without payment for Nov. 27.
Councilors balked at Woodfin’s proposal because it was brought to them without warning and without details on the health of the reserve fund. One objected to the mayor’s asking the council to make major financial decisions while figuring out the budget numbers “on the back of a cocktail napkin.” Read more.
Birmingham Council Balks at Mayor’s Plan to Bring Back Some Workers, Wants More Information
The Birmingham City Council is mulling a proposal from Mayor Randall Woodfin to bring back up to 132 furloughed city employees by taking $7 million from the city’s reserve fund.
The proposal also would reinstate two paid holidays and reverse some salary reductions to appointed staff, both of which, like the furloughs, had been cut due to a city budget shortfall caused by COVID-19.
Although Finance Director Lester Smith assured councilors he was confident the money would be reimbursed with Cares Act funding that is awaiting action by the Jefferson County Commission, the proposal was met with deep skepticism from councilors, who criticized the proposal’s lack of detail and argued that it could damage the city’s financial standing. Read more.
New Microtransit Program Coming to Birmingham
District 5 Councilor Darrell O’Quinn welcomed Birmingham residents to “the new era of shared micromobility” Tuesday after the council approved deals with two bike- and scooter-sharing companies. Read more.
Birmingham City Council Approves Carraway Hospital Rezoning
The Birmingham City Council approved the rezoning of Carraway Hospital and several adjacent properties Tuesday, clearing the way for Corporate Realty’s long-planned mixed-use redevelopment of the abandoned campus. Read more.
Birmingham Council Approves Incentives Package to Bring Grocery Store to District 1
The Birmingham City Council has approved an incentives package to bring a new grocery store to the city’s Roebuck neighborhood as part of a larger initiative to reduce food deserts in Birmingham.
The agreement will include an initial payment of $200,000, then up to an additional $1.6 million, based on the store’s performance, spread out over seven years.
The store, tentatively named The Price Butcher, will be at 1125 Huffman Road, the former location of a Sav-A-Lot, and will “double the amount of fresh produce in the area (and) double the sales area for meat,” Josh Carpenter, the city’s director of innovation and economic opportunity, told the council during a Monday night committee meeting. “It’s going to expand the food options for the citizens of District 1.” Read more.
Birmingham Declares Election Day a City Holiday
Birmingham has declared this year’s Election Day, Nov. 3, as a one-time unpaid holiday for city employees. The decision, ostensibly made so that employees will have the opportunity to vote, also will save money for the cash-strapped city, which has had to furlough employees and make budget cuts due to COVID-19’s impact on revenue. Read more.
Woodfin Says Sale of Parking Decks Would Lessen COVID-19’s Economic Damage
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin says the proposed sale of several city-owned parking decks is an opportunity to lessen the economic damage done to the city by COVID-19 — including bringing back furloughed public library employees.
Woodfin said in an interview with BirminghamWatch that the city received an unsolicited offer from Birmingham Economic Development Partners LLC — a group founded last month by Shipt founder Bill Smith, according to paperwork filed in Jefferson County Probate Court — to purchase six of the city’s 11 parking decks for a total of $41 million.
If the sale is approved by the City Council, the city could receive that money in one lump sum in 60 days — which could go a long way toward offsetting the $63 million budget shortfall caused by COVID-19. Among other things, Woodfin says, the money would go toward reinstating library employees who were furloughed as a result of severe budget cuts.
Read more.
Hearing on Carraway Rezoning Proposals Set for Nov. 10
The Birmingham City Council has set a Nov. 10 public hearing to discuss the proposed rezoning of several properties around the former Carraway Methodist Medical Center campus.
The hospital, located at 1600 Carraway Boulevard, closed due to bankruptcy in 2008 and has been abandoned ever since. In 2019, Corporate Realty announced plans to redevelop the property into a multi-use site including retail, dining, residential and entertainment spaces. The existing hospital structures will have to be demolished, developers told residents last year, though the existing parking decks will remain.
Read more.
