Tag Archives: Larry Langford

To lease or not to lease city vehicles

Posted on July 30, 2008 | 6 comments

Larry’s currently suggesting that the city of Birmingham lease vehicles to replace the current city fleet of 2,200, presumably saving the city money over the life of the 3 year lease agreements. He’s recommending that the city tap into its reserve fund (to the tune of about $2.9 million) to cover a portion of the costs associated.

If he hopes to be successful with this proposal, he needs for it to be approved soon, especially considering that signals are coming from the Big 3 U.S. auto makers that the lease ride may be ending (if not at least harder to pull off) directly through them from now on. Plus, there are some concerns from city councilors about tapping into the reserve fund for vehicles (which has probably increased after hearing that the $4 million shortfall that the BJCTA said existed was now actually closer to $7.4 million).

6 Comments

Posted in News

Tagged city fleet, Larry Langford, lease agreement, lease vehicles, News, transit update, vehicles

Langford profiled on NPR

Posted on July 21, 2008 | 2 comments

We figured that many people may not have heard the NPR profile of Birmingham’s mayor filed by WBHM’s own Tanya Ott. It aired during Saturday’s broadcast of All Things Considered and takes a look at how the ride’s going so far. It definitely not the first time he’s been the focus of national media; he’s also been interviewed recently by the CBS Evening News about his four day work week program.

2 Comments

Posted in News

Tagged AL, Alabama, Birmingham, CBS News, Larry Langford, NPR, profile, WBHM

Regional cooperation for fuel savings

Posted on July 15, 2008 | 6 comments

Birmingham’s current effort to go green, which currently includes initiatives like Mayor Langford’s 4-day work week and scrap metal recycling program, could be expanded soon to include a plan to implement a regional plan to use E85 fuel made from wood waste in the city’s 130 current fleet of flex fuel vehicles and other vehicles in the area’s three largest cities.

The mayor’s office let us know that he recently met with Hoover Mayor Tony Petelos and Mayor Ed May of Bessemer to discuss the possibility of developing just such a regional plan. According to the press release, Birmingham alone generates an estimated 16,000 tons of wood waste per year.

“One ton of wood waste generates an estimated 215 gallons of E85 fuel. Just based on that, this City could generate three times our annual fuel consumption,” said Mayor Langford.

Continue reading →

6 Comments

Posted in environmental

Tagged AL, Alabama, Bessemer, Birmingham, E85, environmental, ethanol, Gulf Coast Energy, Hoover, initiatives, Larry Langford, regional, wood waste

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.

Name change for Birmingham International Airport?

Posted on June 24, 2008 | 11 comments

That is what was proposed by Mayor Larry Langford earlier today during the City Council meeting. He said that he would be asking the Birmingham Airport Authority to rename the current facility for civil rights icon the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth.

Aerial of Seibels/Bryan - Birmingham International Airport. Photo: Bob Farley/f8photo.org

Aerial of Seibels/Bryan Birmingham International Airport. Bob Farley/f8photo

The proposal would change the name from the current, seldom used one – Seibels/Bryan – Birmingham International Airport (for former Birmingham mayor George Siebels and Brother Bryan. (No, we didn’t know either until we did the research ourselves…)

11 Comments

Posted in On the agenda

Tagged airport, AL, Alabama, Birmingham, Birmingham International Airport, Brother Bryan, Fred Shuttlesworth, George Siebels, Larry Langford, name change

Are we Olympics-bound? I’ll share my thoughts if you share yours…

Posted on June 23, 2008 | Leave a comment

I spent most of the day looking at the public feedback based on Mayor Langford’s announcement on Friday and writing my own commentary on it.

Check it out and then let us know what you think about Larry’s Olympic-sized dreams…

WSJ weighs in on Langford SEC filing

Posted on May 1, 2008 | Leave a comment

The Wall Street Journal’s law blogger has chimed in on Birmingham mayor Larry Langford’s latest situation, saying that the case being pursued could be considered a test case for future prosecutions and is part of a trend over at the federal agency.

If you’re interested in reading up on all of the fun that the local media is going to have for the next few months, you’ll want to head over to al.com, where the documents are posted (it is very, very long).