Birmingham City Council president Roderick Royal issued an extended statement late yesterday explaining his comments during the legislative body’s regularly scheduled general business meeting. It was posted to the City Council’s website and was available for download as a PDF.

The published comments resulted from an exchange during the announcements from the mayor portion of the city after Mayor Bell announced the city was one of 10 that had been designated an All-America City by the National Civic League in Denver, Colorado. It was the second time the city had one the award; the first time was back in 1970.

It reads, in part:

“I support the efforts of the city whole-heartily and the staff that made this happen” said Council President Roderick Royal today “however I chose to express my opinion about the city’s recent honor in view of the conditions of our inner urban areas.”

The release of the comments occurred after several area media outlets posted accounts of the exchange to their websites and filed reports during early evening television news broadcasts. The presentation and celebration did fall flat shortly after it started yesterday, as reported yesterday by AL.com’s Joseph Bryant. An expanded piece was published to the news organization’s website late Tuesday evening highlighting comments made by former Birmingham mayor Larry Langford. WBRC-TV focused on the disagreement among councilors based on the council president’s remarks while ABC 33/40 looked at Royal’s comments suggesting the council needed to be more involved in pursuing designation like the All-America City status moving forward.