Jefferson County commissioners approved funding a town hall meeting on rising sewer rates Thursday, but not without lengthy debate of whether proper procedures were being followed. The gathering will be in the meeting room at Regions Field on Monday, Feb. 18, at 6 p.m. Doors will open at 5 p.m. Read more.
Sworn personnel of the sheriff’s department received a 5 percent cost-of-living raise when the Jefferson County Commission met in Bessemer Thursday. The raise in the sheriff’s department is on top of the raise given to Jefferson County employees at the beginning of this fiscal year. Sheriff Mark Pettway said the extra pay is needed to keep his department competitive with nearby law enforcement departments. “We are losing officers, deputies, daily to surrounding agencies,” he said. “We want to maintain those that we have and bring on good people to work inside the sheriff’s department. Everybody works for money, so we want to make sure that we’re competitive.” Read more.
Citizens of Jefferson County could only imagine the discussion and debate that happened when commissioners assembled for their committee meetings. The five representatives meet in a board room around the corner from their offices with their respective staffs, the county attorney, the county manager and his staff and perhaps a few others. But Tuesday’s commission committee meeting ushered in a new age for Jefferson County citizens, who were given a peek inside the proceedings courtesy of Commissioner Lashunda Scales. The commission president pro tem brought livestreaming to the business of Jefferson County as a member of her staff broadcast the committee meeting via the internet. She promises to continue to practice with internet broadcasts of future committee meetings and full commission meetings. Read more.
Jefferson County Commissioners are planning a town hall meeting to explain sewer rate increases being made as a result of the county’s bankruptcy. Read more.
Jimmie Stephens said “it wouldn’t be right” for Jefferson County to spend money preparing for the move of UAB West Hospital to McCalla only to have the hospital annexed by neighboring Bessemer. “It wouldn’t be right for the county to expend all those dollars on infrastructure in unincorporated Jefferson County for them to reap those benefits and then go away,” Stephens said following Thursday’s Jefferson County Commission meeting. “We want to work with our municipalities,” the commission president said. “If the CEO of UAB West wants to go into Bessemer, that’s fine. But they should do the infrastructure. If you do the infrastructure with the county, it should be in the (unincorporated part of the) county.” Stephens said there’s no news concerning plans for the new hospital. “It’s still planning to be moved,” the commission president said. “We haven’t gotten any drawings. We haven’t gotten any of the infrastructure work that will be done.” Read more.
Lashunda Scales wanted to make one thing perfectly clear. The president pro tem of the Jefferson County Commission was not “playing the race card” as she debated a proposed contract on rebranding the county. Scales’ concern centered on a contract county manager Tony Petelos presented for a professional services agreement with Big Marketing and Communications. The $203,500 contract did not spell out how historically under-utilized business enterprises would be represented in this agreement. “Let me say this so this doesn’t turn into a race card conversation,” Scales said Tuesday. “If it were someone white, if it were someone of any other race, if there is not inclusion, I’m going to ask the question as to why. The county makeup is of all races of people, all classes of people. If it does not reflect that, I’d like for us to work within the same vein and cooperative spirit to make it right.” Read more.
Jimmie Stephens admitted that he wanted to lose the bet. The president of the Jefferson County Commission had a friendly wager that work to widen Morgan Road in Bessemer wouldn’t be underway by December 2018. “I have seen the holdups,” Stephens said following Monday’s commission committee meeting. “I felt it was a bet that was easy for me to make but it is one I was hoping I would lose. Unfortunately, I didn’t.” Plans to widen Morgan Road from its current two-lane alignment to four lanes and a turn lane have been two decades in the making. Stephens said 14,000 to 18,000 cars travel that road per day, either headed north of Interstate-459 or south of the interstate. Read more.
Sheila Tyson called a pair of rental assistance agreements “a Band-Aid on a bad wound” as the newly installed Jefferson County Commission met for the first time on Monday. Tyson and her fellow commissioners had heard two items during their committee meeting that allotted money to pay the rent for a couple of Jefferson County households to keep each from becoming homeless. Tyson, who chairs the commission’s Community Services and Workforce Development Committee, said poor persons in the county need training so they can provide for themselves. During their meeting, commissioners also approved $75,000 from the general fund for Lawson State Community College for workforce development and job training programs. Read more.
The latest edition of the Jefferson County Commission took office Wednesday with a swearing in ceremony in the morning and a meeting in the afternoon to set its organization in place. When the day was done, Jimmie Stephens was again president of the commission and Lashunda Scales, who, like Sheila Tyson, made the move from the Birmingham City Council, was elected president pro tem. Read more.
Jefferson County commissioners and Jefferson County Tax Collector J.T. Smallwood have different ideas of who must OK contracts set up by Smallwood. Commissioner David Carrington said Thursday any contract involving Jefferson County government income and expenses must be approved by the commission. Smallwood, an elected official, said he doesn’t work for the commission. “Department heads answer to the commission. I answer to the voters of Jefferson County every six years,” Smallwood said. “We don't work for the commission. Now some of the employees in my office do. I guess that's a little different story.” Smallwood is running against Joe Knight to represent District 4 on the commission on the Nov. 6 general election ballot. Read more.
