Birmingham City Council votes to help support the Magic City Classic

The Birmingham City Council, at its regular meeting for Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2017, voted to appropriate a large sum of money – about $666,000 – to provide hosting services for the Magic City Classic football game between Alabama A&M and Alabama State, which is scheduled to be played at Legion Field on Sat., Oct. 28.

But the council did not give the administration everything it asked for, which was about $675,000 – meant to pay for such items as barricades, trash cans and other items needed at the stadium.

The council voted to approve an amended resolution which left out about $9,000 that had been designated for the city’s rental of furniture to help dress an area at Legion Field that is rented out for corporate functions at the game.

The vote was 6-0-2, with City Council President Johnathan Austin and councilors Kim Rafferty, Lashunda Scales, Virginia Abbott, Jay Roberson and William Parker voting yes.

Council President Pro Tem Steven Hoyt and Councilor Marcus Lundy abstained.

Scales had complained that if the event organizers are renting out corporate areas at the game, that any furniture for those areas -- which are not open to the public -- should be bought or rented by Bruno Event Team or the Sports Foundation, not the city.

And some council members – particularly Hoyt and Scales – raised questions about the amount of money being spent at the Classic with minority or other historically underutilized business enterprises.

Scales said that council members have raised similar concerns about minority representation among Classic vendors before.

“We ask the same questions every year,” she said. “I think it’s a shame we even have to ask.”

However, Jarvis Patton – Mayor William Bell’s chief of staff – and Terry Burney, the city’s chief administrative analyst, told the council that the game is actually administered by the two universities, the Alabama Sports Foundation and the Bruno Event Team – not by the city of Birmingham.

The council tabled the item early in the meeting to give Patto, Burney and the staff time to find additional information that some members had requested.

“I just need to see an assessment of how the dollars are spent,” Hoyt said.

Austin asked Patton to supply members with a copy of the city’s existing five-year contract with some suggested changes marked, a breakdown of how the money is spent and a list of vendors.

They were able to supply the council with the information later in the meeting.

After seeing the list of vendors, Scales and Hoyt still had concerns about the number of women- and minority-owned businesses represented.

“Ninety-five percent of the list is not a historically underutilized business enterprise,” Scales said.