Birmingham Blues

Let me start with a caveat: the Jefferson County sewer bond debacle, and the competing proposals to fix it, are way too complex for a blog post. I’m not going to try to explain the mess in great detail, in part because I’m no expert in financial instruments and in part because it [...]

At least Commissioners Jim Carns and Bobby Humphryes showed up last night for a meeting in Homewood that drew around 200 citizens to discuss the sewer debacle. The Birmingham News brief doesn’t say whether or not citizens were allowed to speak and ask questions last night, although this account implies that they were.
Carns and [...]

The headline says it all:
“Most Jeffco commissioners will not attend sewer debt hearings”
Hey, it’s not their problem. Why should they show up?

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock — or aren’t from around here — you know that Jefferson County is facing imminent financial ruin because of a combination of bad decisions and bad luck surrounding sewer bonds. How much of each is a subject of some dispute, but I fall on the bad decisions [...]

“Montgomery puts the all in gall, the city in audacity, the front in effrontery.”
I couldn’t agree more.

Remember last year when Birmingham City Councilor Joel Montgomery got so drunk that he fell on his face in a Southside parking lot? And then got abusive and sexually inappropriate with the police after he was arrested for public intoxication? And later got the charges dismissed in return for agreeing not to sue [...]

Not to mention a grandstanding wacko who thinks the answer to Birmingham’s problems is to incur new debt of $154 million. Yeah, I know municipalities sometimes must borrow for big capital expenditures, but with Larry’s record of debt management, the City Council would be crazy to go along with him.

As for the litterbug part, [...]

I checked Breaking News at al.com this afternoon and saw the shocking and incredibly newsworthy report that Starbucks will be closing the store just down the street from us, as well as several others in the Birmingham area. 15YOD will be sad, but the people who own the local coffee and sandwich place across [...]

As part of an effort to maintain a three-month operating reserve in the 2009 budget, the Birmingham City Council decided yesterday to give back $9 million in hush money discretionary funds allotted by the mayor .
The Birmingham City Council decided Sunday to make deep cuts in the city’s budget, including money that would give laptops [...]

Gaynell Hendricks won the Democratic nomination for Jefferson County tax assessor yesterday with 60% of the 14% turnout. Some here will remember that this is the same Gaynell Hendricks who did everything she could to overturn Patricia Todd’s election and get herself crowned the nominee in Alabama House District 54. Quoth Ms. Hendricks:
“This [...]