By Ed Reynolds
September 11, 2001
After the attack on the World Trade Center, the only access to City Hall is the 19th Street entrance. One of two television monitors in the third floor council chambers that usually beam council proceedings close-up is tuned to news reports, and this morning’s Pledge of Allegiance takes on a dramatic mood in the aftermath. Birmingham Police Chief Mike Coppage announces the implementation of the city’s security plan, which calls for additional patrolmen, though Coppage emphasizes there is no credible threat to the city at the time. Councilor Lee Loder asks who is responsible for gathering intelligence. Coppage replies that the city has liaisons with the FBI, ATF, and Secret Service to update impending emergencies.Bell apologizes to Mayor
At last week’s council meeting, Council President William Bell denied that he ever said he would be a candidate in the October 9 council election after Mayor Kincaid had said Bell was indeed a candidate. At issue was the appointment of Councilor Jimmy Blake to the Election Commission to replace Bell, who can’t serve on the commission if he is also a candidate. Acknowledging that he is reluctant to do so in light of the morning’s attack, Kincaid plays an April 18, 2001 tape of Bell confirming his candidacy on the air with WATV radio talk show host Shelly Stewart. Bell apologizes to Kincaid for denying his candidacy, and says the Mayor was acting correctly in removing him from the Election Commission.Blake questions loans
A $400,000 HUD Section 108 loan to O’Brien’s Seafood Restaurant in Roebuck creates a storm of protest from Councilors Aldrich Gunn and Blake. [HUD determines the interest rate for the 20-year loan, which is usually below market rates. No letter of credit is required, and the city takes the risk.] Blake notes that the business already has received $1.2 million in loans and benefits, and questions why more money is being loaned. The councilor is also puzzled about the criteria used to determine who is eligible for Section 108 loans. “If I put up a sign saying ‘Low interest money below market rates. Come to the city of Birmingham. You can suck off us’ and they all come in, are you going to give them all a loan?” Blake objects to the notion of taxpaying businesses subsidizing other businesses through taxpayer dollars.Kincaid emphasizes that the city must be willing to take risks for economic development. “Maybe we do need to put out neon signs,” says the Mayor, noting that HUD was concerned that Birmingham was not taking advantage of available funds, which puts the city at risk of not receiving new appropriations. “The triggering device is application. The other businesses have not made application,” explains the Mayor, stressing the importance of a sound tax base. Councilor Lee Loder explains that the loans are designed to stimulate low to moderate income areas that have problems attracting investors. The restaurant is behind on loan payments due to a small mountain in back of the business that is collapsing, destroying a previous retaining wall and thereby boosting expenses.
In a free market system, explains Blake, the government stays out of loaning money because the city is “gambling with taxpayers’ money.” Blake says it is “immoral to take money from one person and give it to another. That is not a proper function of government at any level.” The loan is approved.
Citizen empowerment
Councilor Blake offers a resolution confirming that the city council is elected to represent, and not rule, citizens, and all council authority is based on the consent of the governed. The resolution also states that all property and assets held by the city and affiliated boards and agencies are owned by citizens and are held in trust for their benefit. The right to initiatives and referendum allows citizens to initiate and pass laws, or to overrule council action through referendum, further states the resolution. Bell and Gunn leave the room as the resolution is read, leaving Blake in charge. Blake charges that the council ignored the will of the public regarding the fate of the Water Works assets, and exhibited “contempt for Birmingham voters” by refusing to pay for the February 2001 referendum. [A similar referendum regarding citizens' voice in the fate of solid waste was initiated through petition drives, and would have been on the October 9 ballot. However, last week the council unanimously approved the solid waste referendum, thereby keeping the issue off the ballot.] Approval by the council of the solid waste proposal is a contradiction in relation to refusal to pay for the Water Works referendum, according to Blake. Councilor Johnson, who frequently butts heads with Blake, commends Blake for the resolution. Johnson agrees that citizens hold the right to overrule the council.
Councilor Sandra Little is suspicious of Blake’s motives and sees no need for the resolution. She defends her position not to pay for the Water Works referendum and demands that her district receive the same attention that Blake’s Southside district has received, especially in areas of economic development and street repair. Blake accuses her of changing the issue under discussion. Little replies that Blake is merely attempting to set a trap the council refuses to fall for. “You [Blake] dug that ditch big enough for all your cronies to fall in,” says Little. Councilor Don MacDermott, who has sided with the council majority refusing to pay for the Water Works referendum, says the referendum issue is basically whether or not a city water department should be created. MacDermott says Blake’s statement that 81 percent of city voters supported the citizens referendum is misleading because “only 10 percent” of registered voters participated in the referendum. Noting that all but one councilor (Blake) voted to voluntarily submit to drug-testing one year ago, MacDermott poses the scenario of citizens organizing a petition demanding that all councilors submit to drug tests, and asks if Blake would agree to be tested. Blake fumes that councilors are avoiding the issue.
September 18, 2001
Long-time Aldrich Gunn assistant Hezekiah Jackson quit his $50,000 position the day after last week’s council meeting when he appeared on local radio to announce that he had information regarding Gunn and other Jefferson County Citizens Coalition members that might interest the U.S. Justice Department. The subject is side-stepped during the council meeting, but after the meeting, reporters surround Gunn like “flies,” a favorite term of Gunn’s when alluding to the media. Gunn glares at the persistent mob of notebook, microphone, and camera-wielding reporters as he refuses to “dignify the questions with comments.” It’s one of the few times reporters have devoted attention to the elderly councilor with the golden tongue.
Long live the Cue Ball
Revocation of the liquor license for the controversial Cue Ball in the Lakeview district returns to the council agenda. Councilor Bill Johnson suggests a four-week delay of the item [which has been deferred numerous times since January of this year], but Cue Ball attorney Ferris Ritchey is tired of waiting. Johnson says a delay will allow a compromise that could satisfy everyone. Ritchey responds that the complaining businesses should help the Cue Ball get out of its lease if they want the club to vacate the area. Councilor Blake notes the extent of the nuisance, citing “drug convictions and fights” at the club, and partially blames the landlord for creating the problem by putting a lounge on the block in the first place. Blake agrees that the landlord should be more cooperative in ending the lease.
Noting that the club is licensed and operating in an area that is properly zoned, Ritchey threatens a lawsuit against the businesses for “torturous interference with a business” if the liquor license is revoked. Ritchey says the businesses “don’t want black people in their neighborhood!” Councilor Loder says that only one incident has occurred in the past six months, and the trash problem cited as a nuisance has been addressed. “I’m not going to sit here and be a moral judge, even though I may have some moral differences that go on [there],” says Loder. He sees no justification for revocation.
Calling the complaints against the lounge “a traffic jam of people not following the law,” Councilor Blake notes the large number of arrest and nuisance reports lodged against the Cue Ball. Blake calls Ritchey a “slick lawyer trying to make a racial issue of something that is a nuisance issue.” When Ritchey objects, Blake tells him to sit down because he is not a council member and has no right to monopolize speaking time. (Council President Bell laughs at Blake’s reference to the monopolizing of time by others.) Refusal to remove the license is an example of why businesses flee the city of Birmingham, says Blake. “Businesses don’t come into areas that look like they’ve been bombed out, that are littered, where gangs are hanging out, where traffic won’t move. If you want businesses in your neighborhoods, in your council districts, in local business communities, you must stand up,” he explains. At this point Johnson walks over and whispers in the ear of various councilors, purportedly because character issues are being discussed. Little objects to “hidden agendas going around,” which she calls “totally out of order.” Unable to hide his disgust, Blake replies, “Sandra, that’s such a lie.” Mayor Kincaid also disapproves, protesting that there are Sunshine Laws against “serial meetings” by council. Kincaid reminds councilors that whatever the council does has to come to the Mayor for approval or disapproval. The council refuses to grant a delay, and votes five to four allowing the Cue Ball to keep its license.
“Telegram” poles
Posting signs, political or otherwise, on telephone poles is against the law. Councilor Leroy Bandy protests that his signs have been removed from private property, while other candidates’ signs are allowed to remain on “telegram poles.” Street and Sanitation Department head Stephen Fancher says that department employees are instructed to remove all illegal signs, and discrimination against candidates is not a departmental practice.
Judas Iscariot
Citizen Eddie Turner admonishes former Aldrich Gunn aid Hezekiah Jackson for betraying Gunn. Noting that he previously had tremendous respect for Jackson, Turner is convinced that Jackson is named after Hezekiah in the Bible, who asked God for 15 more years of life when it was his time to die, according to Turner, resulting in eternal damnation. Turner concludes that Jackson is “like a man without a country,” and notes that Judas “went out and hung himself after he betrayed Christ.” &