3 City Council seats, property tax renewals on Oct. 8 ballot

Three members of the Birmingham City Council who were appointed to that body in the past year to represent districts 1, 6 and 7 will stand for election on Tuesday, Oct. 8, taking on a total of 10 challengers.

Voters will also have the chance to approve the renewal of existing ad valorem taxes that support Birmingham City Schools.

Clinton Woods represents District 1, and Crystal Smitherman represents District 6. They were both appointed by the council in December 2018 and took the oath in January 2019. Woods and Smitherman replaced Lashunda Scales and Sheila Tyson, respectively, both of whom were sworn in as members of the Jefferson County Commission in November 2018.

Wardine Alexander, who formerly served on the Birmingham school board, represents District 7. She was appointed in October 2018 to replace Jay Roberson, who resigned.

DISTRICT 1

Woods — a managing partner of Prescott Contracting and executive pastor of Christ Church in Fairfield — will face challengers Sherman Collins Jr. and Haki Jamaal Muhammad. Collins is a businessman and former member of the Birmingham City School Board who ran unsuccessfully for this council seat in the 2017 general election.

DISTRICT 6

Smitherman will face Willine Body, Carlos Chaverst, Latanya Millhouse, Clarence Muhammad, Keith Williams and Onoyemi Williams. Keith Williams is an IT professional who ran unsuccessfully for this seat in 2017. Smitherman, who recently finished law school, is the daughter of state Sen. Rodger Smitherman and Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Carole Smitherman.

DISTRICT 7

Alexander will face Ray Brooks and Lonnie Malone. Malone ran for the seat unsuccessfully in 2017. When Alexander was appointed to the council in October, she won by a 5-3 vote over Malone, who was also nominated.

PROPOSITIONS 1, 2 AND 3

The ad valorem taxes on the ballot, in the form of three propositions, are not new property taxes, but a renewal of levies currently earmarked for the schools. The taxes were last approved by Birmingham voters in 1991 and raise about $27 million per year for city schools, according to Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin. If the taxes are not renewed by voters, they will expire after 2021.

PAVING BEGINS

Paving projects covering more than 11 miles of city streets in all nine City Council districts were scheduled to begin in September, according to a news release from the mayor’s office.

The council approved a $3.6 million contract with Midsouth Paving in August. This represents only a portion of the paving projects that will be done in the city using previously appropriated funds, Mayor Randall Woodfin said at the time of the council’s vote.

The city’s Fiscal Year 2020 budget includes another $8 million for paving. The projects that are part of the Midsouth bid are only those that can be completed prior to the coming of winter weather between November and January, according to the mayor.

“This allows us to begin our process,” he said. More paving will be done in the spring."