Federal Grand Jury Investigating Langford Financial Dealings and JeffCo Bond Mess
And another shoe drops…
A federal grand jury is investigating Jefferson County bond deals and Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford’s financial dealings.
Steve Sayler, the county’s finance director from 1989 to 2007, and Norm Davis, who was a county financial adviser during Langford’s tenure as commission president, were in the grand jury room at U.S. District Court in Birmingham on Thursday.
Both men entered the room at 1:24 p.m. Sayler emerged shortly before 2, saying he was subpoenaed to testify, but was excused because officials “were running behind.”
His attorney, Tommy Spina, said Sayler apparently was subpoenaed to testify about the same matters he testified on before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Miami.
…Among the areas under federal investigation are private charities Langford controls that received hundreds of thousands of dollars from vendors doing county and Fairfield business when he served in those governments.
U.S. Attorney Alice Martin said Thursday she could not comment on the work of the grand jury.
Oh, Alice Martin is prosecuting. Never mind. Larry has nothing to worry about.
May 19th, 2008 at 10:49 am
I do so hope that they get him soon– before his actions start having a more direct impact on my family’s well being. This yahoo doesn’t seem to realize that no matter how much gunk you clear from a drain pipe, you can’t fit an elephant through to the other side. If you have a $300 million budget, you won’t get $1 billion in ideas to be paid for no matter how many budget cuts you make. And now he wants to cut the city employee pay increases and have them pay roughly $200/month more for health insurance. Now, imagine if you suddenly had a $200/month bill added to everything else rising in cost. (No, these are not your politicians who make a ton of money and they’re not the consultants. Those aren’t the paychecks that Langford wants to cut. We’re referring to the Joe average who just happens to work at City Hall and makes roughly $50k/year.)
Langford’s saying that employees should “share the burden.” Last I checked, they were paying taxes paid to both Birmingham and Jefferson County, even if they don’t live in either one and can’t vote for the very people who set those taxes. Then consider that Langford argues that “nobody [pays a similar percentage of health insurance] but the government.” Yes, and nobody pays as little for the work, either. Private businesses make up for what they don’t pay in benefits in salary. The only way that government can compete is with better benefits and job security. Speaking of job security, did I mention that Langford is discussing job cuts? Whatever happened to letting attrition take it’s course? Wasn’t that what we were told was going to happen just a few months ago?
Private businesses can also get away with exchanging personal favors for contracts. Government can not. When will Langford learn that government and private businesses are not the same? (I might mention… Even if Langford WAS running a private business, he’d suck at it for not being able to do simple math.)
May 19th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Seems Larry wants everyone to feel the pain — everyone but him.