Birmingham City Council swears in 2 new members

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The Birmingham City Council is now back to a full roster. Two new members were sworn in at the council’s regular meeting, which was held on Wednesday, Jan. 2, due to the New Year’s holiday.

“We are now nine strong, and I am exceedingly pleased,” said City Council President Valerie Abbott after the ceremony.

Clinton Woods now represents District 1, replacing Lashunda Scales, and Crystal Smitherman represents 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 for the seats on Tuesday afternoon, Dec. 19,  in a vote that followed the council’s interviews with the final six candidates for the positions.

Woods is the son of contractor and former mayoral candidate Chris Woods and grandson of local civil rights icon Calvin Woods, who took part in the swearing-in ceremony.

Smitherman, a law student, is the daughter of former Birmingham City Council President Carole Smitherman and Alabama State Senator Rodger Smitherman, 

Smitherman's mother, now a Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge, performed her daughter's swearing-in.

OTHER BUSINESS

The council set public hearings for Jan. 29 to hear requests for rezoning from two developers or companies.

Parkside Bakery Investment Partners II LLC seeks to change the zoning on a property at 10 14th Street South and 1300 Powell Avenue from M-1, light industrial district, to MU-D, mixed-use downtown district.

Tech company DC Blox Inc. and the Jefferson County Economic & Industrial Development Authority seek to change the zoning on the old Trinity Steel property at 600 Fourth Ave. S. in Titusville where DC Blox plans to build a new data center campus. The request is to change the zoning from MU-M, mixed-use medium district, to C-2, general commercial district.

CONSENT AGENDA

Members voted to accept a lump sum bid of $60,000 from David Acton Building Corporation of Hoover to replace the Sloss Furnace coke bin No. 1 trestle beam. The trestle is rotten and needs to be replaced at the same time that some sump pumps in the area are also repaired, according to a city staffer.

The council also accepted a lump sum bid of $49,875 from Gillespie Construction in Jasper for sidewalk repair on First Avenue North. The sidewalk being repaired is near 20th Street adjacent to the Brown-Marx Building, according to a staffer.

The council approved an agreement between the city and the Community Affairs Committee of Birmingham under which the Committee will receive up to $30,000 to provide up to 100 tables at the 31st annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Breakfast for city officers, employees and volunteers.The committee will also make seats and tables available to members of the public who wish to pay and attend the event. More than $22,000 of the money is to come from various Neighborhood Associations. The rest will come from the discretionary funds for some of the council members.