City Council votes in new members to replace Scales, Tyson
The Birmingham City Council appointed two new members on Tuesday, Dec. 18, to fill vacant seats on the body, according to a council news release.
Clinton Woods will represent District 1, replacing Lashunda Scales, and Crystal Smitherman will represent District 6, replacing Sheila Tyson.
Scales and Tyson were sworn in as members of the Jefferson County Commission on Nov. 14.
Woods and Smitherman were selected Tuesday afternoon in a vote that followed the council’s interviews with the final six candidates for the positions. Those interviews were held during a long recess in the council’s regular meeting, which began in the morning.
They will be sworn in when the council meets on Jan. 2, the release states.
The appointed representatives will serve until the next citywide election, a date for which has not yet been determined.
The other nominees for District 1 were Brandon McCray and Gwendolyn Welch, and the other nominees for District 6 were Barry Bearden and LaTanya Millhouse, according to a Council news release on Thursday, Dec. 13, following interviews the council held with 26 candidates who applied for the vacant seats.
OTHER BUSINESS
As part of the regular agenda in the council’s morning session, members took action on the following items:
The council voted to approve a redevelopment agreement with Guster Law Firm LLC under which the city will convey the old Regions Bank building at 2250 Bessemer Road to the firm for a use value of $100,000.00. The firm is to use the building as an expanded professional law office and retail space.
Members approved a fiber optics franchise agreement with MCImetro Access Transmission Services Corp — d/b/a Verizon Access Transmission Services — under which the city grants MCImetro the right to install and operate a fiber-based communications system in city right-of-way for a term of 15 years, renewable for up to three successive terms of 5 years each. In return, MCImetro is to pay the city an annual franchise fee equal to 3 percent of their gross revenue collected the first 2 years of the term, 4 percent of their gross revenue the next 2 years and 5 percent of their gross revenue for the remainder of the agreement.
Members passed a resolution requesting that the Jefferson County delegation to the Alabama State Legislature appoint one of the current seven City Council members to serve on Seat 3 or Seat 5 of the Birmingham Jefferson County Civic Authority Board of Directors. The vote approving the item was 6-1, with councilor Darrell O’Quinn the sole no vote.
The council also set a public hearing for January 22, 2019, to consider a zoning change requested by UAB and The UAB Educational Foundation. The applicants seek to change the zoning on their properties at 306 and 308 15th Street South and 1401 3rd Avenue South from B-6, Health and Institutional District, to MU-H, Mixed-Use High District.
As part of the council’s consent agenda, members authorizing Mayor Randall Woodfin to increase funding for an existing CDBG Housing Rehabilitation and Development Agreement between the City of Birmingham and Neighborhood Housing Services Birmingham Inc. The city will take $1.4 million from the Neighborhood Revitalization Fund and add that to a previous amount of $65,000.