July 12, 2007As has so often been the predicament this time of year, the Birmingham City Council and Mayor Bernard Kincaid are locked in bitter conflict over approval of the city’s upcoming fiscal year 2008 budget. According to the Mayor-Council Act, which dictates procedure of city government operations, the mayor is required to present the City Council with a budget proposal by May 20 each year. The council then has the authority to amend budget expenditures and return a final version to the mayor by June 20. One of the most glaring turf battles has centered around a pay increase for police and firefighters. Mayor Kincaid insists that all city employees, not just public safety personnel, receive a raise of 4 percent. The council, however, wants to increase police and firefighter pay by 5 percent. A circuit court judge ruled that the authority to grant employee raises rests with Kincaid, not the council. The council has appealed the ruling. (Since city attorneys cannot be used for an intra-governmental legal quarrel, each side must hire outside counsel at taxpayer expense.)

After a council budget workshop meeting on June 25, a consultant hired by the council to examine the budget said that $8 million slated for the 4 percent city employee raise was designated as “unappropriated expenses” in the mayor’s budget proposal, and that 2 percent of the pay increase is already covered under other expenditures. The consultant said that the mayor would only have to spend $4 million of the $8 million to meet the pay raise cost to the city, leaving the balance as “unappropriated expense”—essentially a discretionary fund. According to the Birmingham News, the consultant admitted, “This could be a clerical error, but it is not originally what we thought we were getting.”

The council also wants to cut $7.5 million that Kincaid has earmarked for unfilled job positions in the 2008 budget, preferring that the money be spent on council projects. In a recent Birmingham News article, Council President Carole Smitherman has referred to the money Kincaid has allotted for the positions as a “slush fund.” Councilor Roderick Royal noted that “there’s always some slush in there” as he griped to reporters after the July 3 council meeting.

At the July 3 council meeting, councilors recessed for half an hour to iron out lingering disagreements about the budget. At this meeting the council was expected to approve their version of the budget and send it to the mayor. Oddly, the budget vote was not listed on the council’s agenda as expected. According to procedure, a unanimous vote is necessary to add items to the agenda on the day of the meeting. When a vote was taken to add the item, Councilor William Bell, a candidate in the upcoming mayoral race, abstained, thereby preventing the council from voting on the budget. At one point, Smitherman, also a candidate for mayor, remarked that everybody needs to “stop running for mayor at the same time.”

In the hall after the meeting, Councilor Royal was livid. Initially addressing the abstention vote by Bell, Royal stated, “I think it is unfortunate that a council member chose not to allow the budget to go forward. Particularly since that particular council member has one of the larger amounts in the council budget. And I think it’s disingenuous, and I’m hoping that this is not a mayoral campaign [ploy].”

The councilor also had harsh words for Mayor Kincaid. “It’s unfortunate that the mayor has chosen not to cooperate. The mayor has chosen not to be a part of the conversation with the council . . . nothing changes with this particular mayor.” That the 2007 budget would remain in place until the new budget is approved did not sit well with Royal. “That’s unfortunate, because employees in this case don’t get the 4 percent [pay] increase. And I do place that squarely on the shoulders of the mayor. The mayor has not sat in on a single budget session, nor has he allowed his [department chiefs] to speak when the council has attempted to do the right thing. . . . The mayor has actually done the same thing for six years. I don’t know why anyone seems to be surprised. I certainly am not surprised today, nor was I surprised for any of the other years that he did not want to meet with us to try to do the best job we can do with our resolution.”

Councilor Bell entered the hallway next. Asked why he abstained, Bell replied, “There was no clear understanding as to what we were actually voting on . . . And let me just say this: I’m not here to play games with the budget. There are too many people out there that depend on this city operating from a positive standpoint. If we’re going to play games with it, I don’t want any part of it. I want a budget that the mayor thinks is fair, that this council thinks is fair. And right now we don’t have that. So that’s why I abstained. . . . The only sticking point that I have is that we have a budget that is fair to everyone. And right now, that’s not fair.”

Perhaps the most irate player in this mini-drama was Mayor Kincaid. In a press conference immediately following the council meeting, the mayor said, “I’m trying to be restrained and diplomatic, because at some point some anger should start showing through on the part of the citizens and the employees. I gave the budget to the council on May 19. By state statute, they must have a public hearing not less than seven days from that date. They had a requisite public hearing on the 27th of May. No action by this council was taken until the 19th of June, when they had what was called a town hall meeting, which is not required by state statute. State statute says that you have a public hearing, and then you return the budget.” Regarding police and firefighter pay raises, Kincaid said that setting income limits for the fiscal year was his responsibility, along with the finance department, and the council could not change that.

Kincaid also took issue with some councilors’ complaints that he and his staff had been lax on meeting with the council. “The council didn’t have a budget meeting—and not once have we been invited to a budget meeting—but they didn’t have any activity from the 27th of May until the 19th of June. And now we’re stuck without a budget for the increases that I have recommended for the employees. But in trying to be the administrator of the city, the council has come and tried to give a pay raise to police and fire, in direct contravention to the order that was issued by the judge. The judge’s order was very specific. . . . When told that, some council members understood and did not want to be a party to that. So that’s why you saw the gang that couldn’t shoot straight today.” Kincaid added, “Without any discussion with my department heads, they unilaterally went in and slashed positions.”

Kincaid concluded by addressing the number of councilors running for mayor. “You heard the council president admonish a councilor, something about ‘stop running for mayor.’ Well, physician, heal thyself. . . . But the bottom line is that I have given the council a balanced budget, well-thought out; [I] worked with the departments to see what cuts we could make and still run the city, and the council just ignored all of that and attempted to pass a budget in the face of a court order, which is almost contemptuous of the court.” &