Birmingham City Council Roundup

The Birmingham City Council held one of its rare afternoon meetings on Tuesday, July 30, but it was fairly uneventful. Members dispensed with all but three items as part of its consent agenda 

By a vote of 8-0, the Council passed an ordinance to hold an election in the city on October 8 to allow for a vote on several propositions to continue certain ad valorem taxes for the public schools. There was no discussion of the item, but it was recommended by Mayor Randall Woodfin and the Council’s Committee of the Whole.

By another 8-0 vote, members voted to accept a contract submitted by CB&A Construction of Birmingham — in the amount of just under $1,959,000 — to do some long-promised drainage improvement on Sixth Avenue South. This was the lowest and best bid submitted.

Members also voted to grant an exemption from their recently passed moratorium on new self-storage facilities to Orange Storage 280 LLC, which seeks to build a mini-storage and commercial office facility at 147 Resource Center Parkway. 

Three members — City Council President Valerie Abbott, Hunter Williams and Darrell O’Quin— spoke to the issue during a discussion of the request by developer Thomas Lee Oliver III. All three argued in favor of the exemption because, they said, the proposed facility was an appropriate use at that location.

The moratorium, submitted by  O’Quinn and passed by the Council on July 2, was to be in effect for 180 days with an option to extend it for 90 days.

CONSENT AGENDA

Here are some of the items approved on consent, meaning the routine, non-controversial items approved each week as part of a single motion:

Members approved a city contract with Bulls Construction Group of Birmingham $621,532 for the Woodlawn Connector Trail located on Red Mountain and in Southside and Woodlawn. This was the lowest and best of four bids submitted.

Members voted to approve the following appropriations and amended the city’s grants fund budget for Fiscal Year 2020:

—$25,000 from an AmeriCorps Vista Grant to the mayor’s office.

—$150,000 to the city’s Department of Innovation and Economic Opportunity and the Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship, which is a multi-year initiative to support the expansion of apprenticeship opportunities for high-school students.

—$122,500 from the National Trust for Historical Preservation to Planning, Engineering and Permits for the development of historic structure reports for Sixteenth Street Baptist Church parsonage, Bethel Baptist Church and Parsonage and St. Paul United Methodist Church, all of which are with the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument.

—$95,000 from the Southeast Energy Efficiency Alliance to the mayor's office to implement the Citywide Rehab Program, which includes a formal energy audit for local residents and other steps. The term of the agreement is two years.