Mayor Bell and opponents offer competing visions at Woodlawn mayoral debate

The voters who attended a mayoral debate in Woodlawn on the evening of Friday, July 14 heard two sharply contrasting views of the current state of the Magic City and its government from Mayor William Bell and eight of his challengers in the Aug. 22 municipal election.

Mayor Bell said that he had helped the city improve its finances and that his administration had helped bring the Birmingham Barons back from the suburbs and build Regions Field. “People are more optimistic about Birmingham than ever before,” he said.

But mayoral candidate and businessman Ervin P. Hill said that “Birmingham has a leadership deficit.”

“I’ve looked around Birmingham, and it almost broke my heart,” said minister and community activist Fernandez Sims, referring to such problems as crime and crumbling neighborhoods. “We have to make a change.”

Mayor Bell — seeking his second full term as the city’s chief executive — and his opponents debated such issues as policing, education and economic development for more than two hours at Woodlawn United Methodist Church in front of a crowd of more than 200 people who braved a rainstorm that hit the area just before the doors opened.

The debate was moderated by Joseph Baker and T. Marie King of the civic group I Believe in Birmingham.

In addition to Mayor Bell, Hill and Sims, the other candidates taking part were Randy Davis, Lanny Jackson, Patricia Bell, Randall Woodfin, Frank Matthews and Chris Woods.

Opening remarks

In his opening remarks, Mayor Bell noted that while he is often criticized not paying enough attention to neighborhoods, he has worked to rebuild Pratt City after the 2011 tornadoes and is seeking to spend $40 million on a new public safety center in once-prosperous downtown Ensley.

“We are bringing back people to the city,” the mayor said, adding, “I have the ability and the experience to keep the city moving.”

“We need better schools, better communities and better government,” Sims said.

“I want to get these guns off the street,” Lanny Jackson, referring to the city's high crime rate — a frequent  topic during the debate.

“People don’t feel safe on their porches,” Woodfin said.

“We have to present a legacy of nonviolence and peace and prosperity to the next generation,” Patricia Bell said.

Matthews lamented the high poverty rate in the largely African-American population of the city.

Throughout the event, Baker and King posed a series of questions to the candidates — each of which was directed primarily at three or four candidates. All of the candidates were given a certain number of “tokens” that they could redeem for the chance to respond to a question they were not asked directly.

Expanding economic growth

The candidates were asked if they had plans to help expand economic growth from the City Center into the city’s northern and western areas.

”We need resources and policies to give women- and minority-owned businesses the same opportunities as big corporations,” Hill said, adding that there should be business incubators through the city.

Woodfin said the city should offer tax incentives north of the Uptown entertainment district and west of I-65 in areas like North Birmingham and Five Points West. “There’s a massive opportunity to invest and reinvest in areas where the people are,” he said to loud applause.

“Safe neighborhoods and good school are the best economic tool we have,” said Woods.

Matthews said that big banks, like Regions, should be forced to invest in the community — including all 99 of the city’s neighborhoods. “We have to hold them accountable according to the federal community reinvestment act of 1979,” he said.

“We need economic incubators in all of our communities,” Patricia Bell said.

Infrastructure

The candidates were asked which big infrastructure projects they would prioritize if elected.

Mayor Bell mentioned plans to build a city-wide WiFi network and again cited his plan to turn the old McCormack building in Ensley into a new police and fire headquarters.

“We also developed a comprehensive plan for the whole city,” Bell said, citing a plan for Titusville, including major improvements to the Loveman Village housing project, as an example.

“We’re committed that all the neighborhoods get the attention they deserve, but you have to prioritize,” the mayor said. “We can't do everything all at once.”

Matthews cited the need to pave streets, replace old pipes and control flooding.

Woodfin said that during Bell’s seven years in office, the city has done a lot of big projects. “But we have to invest in the basics,” he said, cutting such needs as streets and properly maintaining city facilities like the main library.

Regarding Bell’s plan to put the police and fire departments in Ensley, he suggested instead that the city should instead invest that $40 million in the entire neighborhood.

Mayor Council Act

Baker asked the candidates to respond to a multi-part question regarding the Alabama constitution, home rule and the Mayor-Council Act. Mayor Bell has been widely criticized for recent changes to the Mayor Council Act that some of his opponents say have given him too much power.

“The mayor can’t be king,” Jackson said. “They have to work with the council.”

“Do it over; start over,” Davis said regarding the act.

Woods and Hill both argued that the act should be revised to gain limit the mayor’s power.

“I believe in checks and balances,” Woods said. “I would put that back.”

“Bell is acting like a king, a dictator,” Hill said.

Mayor Bell, to murmurs from the packed house, declined an offer from moderator Baker to offer a rebuttal to Hill’s remarks.

Improving education

The mayoral hopefuls were asked to describe their plan to improve Birmingham’s troubled schools.

We need to put the “proper resources into the school system," Hill said, adding that the city’s students have to be “competitive in a global, world market.”

Sims said the schools receive far too little money in the city’s budget and that most of them are failing. He said the schools are not helping children prepare for productive lives and are merely part of “a school-to-prison pipeline.”

Patricia Bell said the schools need to “go in a new direction” and that she would meet with the superintendent immediately after she is elected to create a plan for the schools, without abridging the board's autonomy.

Matthews said the current system of electing school board members from each of the nine council districts is too political. If elected, he said he would lobby to have a five-member board elected at large, with the top vote getter becoming president for a full four-year term. He also believes in the direct election of the superintendent.

“We have got to invest in our children,” Mayor Bell said, defending his record on education, including his investments in facilities. “I have done that consistently.”

Helping people get work

The moderators asked the candidates how they would help the unemployed and the unemployable in the city.

Woodfin suggested the use of the city’s recreation centers as sites for workforce training, He also said the city, with its railroads and central location, should be the logistics hub of the South and — given the close proximity of auto plants like Mercedes and Honda — should “aggressively pursue” auto parts suppliers.

“Education has to be key,” said Sims, who observed that if people can't read, they can't hold a job. He also suggested putting ex-offenders and the unemployed to work cleaning up the city and paving streets and offering micro-loans to small businesses.

"A trained, educated workforce” is essential to attracting businesses to the city, Woods said.

Woods, a long-time construction executive, said that many industries currently need workers and recommended a renewed emphasis on industrial arts programs in schools to help prepare students for good-paying trades,

Hill said the city should work to attract more film and TV production, an industry that he said has brought billions of dollars to Atlanta, and build “a multi-purpose dome stadium” that could employ many residents.

He also repeated his call for greater efforts to encourage minority and women-owned firms.

Police relations with the community

Candidates were asked how the Birmingham police can improve its relationships with the community.

Davis, who has worked in law enforcement for 22 years, said “it’s all about getting to know your community and putting boots on the ground.”

“I would ask our officers to each talk to 10 people a day,” he said. “We have to build rapport.”

Hill said the city needs community policing and that there is currently a shortage of officers in the department.

Mayor Bell said the city has worked hard to make sure officers take relations with the community seriously, especially given the department’s role in harassing 1960s civil rights demonstrators. “We have model programs for building sensitivity in our officers.” he said.

“We have done everything we can to give our police the resources to fight crime."

Communication with citizens

The moderators asked the candidates to discuss how the city could better communicate and create a good relationship with citizens.

“We have to be more transparent,” Woodfin said.

“We have to show citizens respect,” Patricia Bell said.

Officials should maintain close contact with neighborhood associations all the time, not just in election years, according to Hill. “Constant contact with citizen is how we know where to put our resources,” he said,

“I would say stay in town to improve relations with the citizens,” Sims said, a dig at what many critics believe is Mayor Bell's too-frequent travel. “You need a mayor you can call.” He said he would give out his cell number to citizens and would not have a security detail.

Woods said that, as a businessman, he understood “client and customer relations” and that he would earn the trust of the citizens.

Mayor Bell said the city has put numerous ways in place for citizens to go online to learn about how the city works — including the recent launch of an open data portal for financial, public safety and other information.

He added that people can even use an app to upload photos of potholes online and report them directly to the engineering department.

Closing remarks

All of the candidates were given two minutes to make their closing remarks to the crowd. Most reprised the remarks they made at the opening of the debate, and several ran over their time limit.

“Everything we have talked about tonight touches that beast called poverty,” Matthews said.

“What we have at city hall is not working,” Woodin said, adding that, “If the mayor doesn't work with the council, nothing gets done.”

Bell said he gets criticized for his travel, but that his trips to Washington, D.C. have helped generate millions of dollars for such projects as the new intermodal transportation facility downtown and money for retraining young people for high-tech jobs.

And he said his trips overseas have helped “bring attention to Birmingham”  and are the reason the city is hosting the World Games in 2021.

In response to Sims, Bell also said that he has given out his personal cell number at numerous community meetings.

He said the city is installing new LED lighting all over the city, another example of his commitment to neighborhoods.

“I’m not going to please everybody,” he said. “Things are not perfect, but they’re getting better.”