Tag Archives: City Council

There may be a city budget tomorrow (maybe)

Posted on July 14, 2008 | Leave a comment

It’s somewhat fitting that on Bastille Day, it looks like we’re about to see some fireworks coming from City Hall here in Birmingham, AL. That’s because late last night the Birmingham City Council announced that they would meet with representatives from Mayor Langford’s office to go over their latest budget proposal later today.

They also announced that they would be removing most of the mayor’s initiatives from the draft budget and  unanimously not accepting $1 million per councilor in discretionary funding promised to them by Langford during last year’s mayoral campaign. These moves could be because of reports that the tax increases enacted early during Langford’s term have not collected as much as first hoped.

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On the agenda: Shortening of meetings begin

Posted on June 3, 2008 | Leave a comment

It’s a fairly quiet agenda for our city councilors here in Birmingham today, with item 6 addressing an issue that has been getting a lot of attention recently. Last week’s City Council meeting lasted nearly seven hours, definitely giving a reason for the council president to submit a proposal moving all Council presentations and commendations to the first Council meeting of each month. It had been included in last week’s agenda but a vote was delayed.

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On the agenda: Festival season’s upon us

Posted on May 13, 2008 | 4 comments

This morning’s council agenda reminds us that the festival season is already here. Two items on the agenda cover two of Birmingham’s more popular festivals. Item 21 is on consent (and hopefully it stays there) and provides the Function at Tuxedo Junction Jazz Festival $27,000 for its 2008 edition in Erskine Hawkins Park in the city’s Ensley community. Item 26 is also on consent and amends the contract between the city and the organization responsible for City Stages, increasing the amount received by the festival from $200,000 t0 $700,000.

Item 66 should be an opportunity to remind people about this Friday’s Relay for Life of Urban Birmingham being held at Legion Field. BTW, it goes from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. and there’s still time to give.

There are also items that call for a feasibility study to determine a location for the proposed Negro League Baseball Association Museum (item 33 – there is already a nationally designated Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, MO); as well as one (item 27 – also on consent) that could lead to some interesting discussion considering one of the stories in today’s Birmingham News.

Check out the agenda and the online broadcast of the meeting on the city’s website.

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On the agenda: Money, development, money (and anger)

Posted on May 6, 2008 | 8 comments

So the big news for this morning’s City Council meeting is not necessarily one that is on the agenda, but an item that will be brought up during Mayor Langford’s comments, at least according to this morning’s Birmingham News. They reported that the mayor, upset with City Councilor Valerie Abbott over the situation represented in this video (use of a city car), will be pulling his compromise plan for the former Knights of Columbus property in Glen Iris, frustrating a community that one could say was already quite frustrated. This will allow Formation Methods the opportunity to develop apartments on the property. Check out the links and see what you think.

Now on to the agenda…

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On the agenda: The disparity study finally moves forward

Posted on April 29, 2008 | Leave a comment

So besides the 684 properties on this morning’s City Council meeting for having “noxious and dangerous weeds” (that’s got to be some kind of record), there is one issue that for some has taken way too long to finally reach the dais: a resolution adopting the results of the long referenced disparity study commissioned by the Council during the Kincaid administration.

There are four items on the agenda relating to the study (items 11 – 14): one that would adopt the findings; two that would authorize the Council’s economic development committee to create and appoint members to a sub-committee to create an implementation plan based on the results of the study; and one to approve The Freeman Group, LLC to facilitate the sub-committee’s planning efforts (for fees not to exceed $20,000).

It will definitely be interesting to see how the results are used to deal with this important issue in the city.

You can always watch the meeting at your desk on the city’s website; the fun starts at 9:30 a.m.

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Langford’s had a busy day…

Posted on April 22, 2008 | Leave a comment

Langford with school children. acnatta/Flickr

Mayor Langford speaks to students at Phillips Academy during Wachovia’s Way2Save event on April 22. acnatta/Flickr.

Larry Langford’s been a busy individual this morning. Here he’s seen talking to area school children during today’s Wachovia Way2Save event. Representatives from four area schools each received $2,000 for their scholarship funds at the event. The mayor spent most of the time he was at the event taking pictures with the children and answering questions about this morning’s approval of his proposal to pay for free bus rides in Birmingham beginning in May and running through August by the City Council.

According to the blog post made earlier today by The Birmingham News, the BJCTA board still needs to approve the proposal during their board meeting tomorrow.

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Across the pond: Big screen controversy

Posted on April 21, 2008 | Leave a comment

The Big Screen in Victoria Square - queen verena/Flickr

A view of “The Big Screen” in Victoria Square, Birmingham. queen verna/Flickr.

A 27-foot wide structure labeled as an important part of Birmingham, England’s progression towards being forward-thinking (in the words of their City Council) is still not on several months after the project was first approved after being turned off. The picture above was taken last February when it was operational.

Now, according to the article on The Birmingham Post’s website, this project has been stalled for months. The hope was for all of the screens being installed to be operational in time for the Beijing Olympics. It could be a great way to see if the network could work for when London hosts the Games in 2012.

So what are the issues? There are a plenty… as well as opinions about whether it should be there or not.

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