Mayors of the state’s 10 largest cities gathered in Hoover the past two days to share success stories and discuss common challenges they’re facing.
The “Big 10″ mayors’ group huddled at the Renaissance Ross Bridge Golf Resort & Spa for its quarterly meeting about seven hours Sunday afternoon and evening and three hours Monday morning.
All but Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin and Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle attended in person, but Woodfin participated via a Zoom call, and Battle had a representative there in his place.
Auburn Mayor Ron Anders, in a press conference after the meeting, said one thing the mayors want to do is encourage Alabamians to seriously consider a Constitutional amendment on the general election ballot in November that would give Alabama judges the ability to deny bonds for people convicted of violent felonies such as murder, rape or kidnapping.
Section 16 of the 1901 Constitution of Alabama currently requires that “all persons shall, before conviction, be bailable by sufficient sureties, except for capital offenses, when the proof is evident or the presumption great; and that excessive bail shall not in any case be required.”
The proposed Constitutional amendment would allow prosecutors to ask a judge for a hearing to request that bail be denied. The judge could either hold that hearing or deny it, and if the hearing is granted, the district attorney can present evidence that the defendant is a danger to the community, presents a danger to himself or is a flight risk.
The amendment is named after Aniah Blanchard, a Homewood native who was kidnapped from an Auburn gas station in October 2019 and killed. The suspect in the case, Ibraheem Yazeed, was out on bond at the time of his arrest in Blanchard’s disappearance for two counts of kidnapping, two counts of robbery and one count of attempted murder from January 2019.
“This is a great opportunity for the state of Alabama to make the state of Alabama a safer place for all of us to live,” Anders said today.
LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES
Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson said the mayors also brainstormed about what their priorities will be for the next Legislative session in Montgomery. They plan to sharpen their focus on those issues at their next meeting in Auburn in October, but one area he said he sees as important is to address funding shortages that exist in the state court system.
State courts in some parts of the state have been behind for some time and were set even further behind by the COVID-19 pandemic, Stimpson said. Some judicial districts are in need of additional judges and staff to handle the caseloads, so it comes down to whether the governor and Legislature make sure the courts get proper funding in next year’s budget, he said.
“We can police and do all the things we need to do, but without a court system having the tools and resources to do the things they need to do, it really negates a lot of what we can do as mayors,” Stimpson said.
Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed said the mayors are keenly aware of the challenges they face with crime and public safety.
He’s pleased to see crime down in his city in 11-12 categories, including homicides, for the first six months of this year, and to have a 74% closure rate for homicide cases, which he said is better than the national average.
“But we know there’s a lot more work to do,” Reed said. “We’re not going to be complacent with that number. … We want crime down in every category. … We’re always looking to create a safer community and safer city.”
That’s why the mayors get together and share their police departments’ best practices and strategies, he said. They’re also looking for ways to improve community outreach and build trust and transparency, he said.
The mayors also are sharing some of their public safety resources with one another. For example, Montgomery is sending its bomb unit and some of its Public Works Department to help with The World Games in the Birmingham-Hoover metro area, he said.
Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato noted people from all over the globe are coming to The World Games and said it will be a great opportunity for economic development for the entire state.
ECONOMIC SUCCESS STORIES
Several mayors talked about recent economic development successes.
Madison Mayor Paul Finley shared how Huntsville recently was named by U.S. News & World Report as the No. 1 city in the country in which to live. He also noted that two studies recently confirmed that Redstone Arsenal is the right place for the U.S. Space Command and the Huntsville International Airport was named a landing space for the Dream Chaser space plane being developed by Sierra Nevada Corporation Space Systems.
Additionally, Amazon recently chose United Launch Alliance, which has operations in Decatur, and Blue Origin, which has operations in Huntsville, to provide rockets for 50 launches for the satellite network Amazon plans to put in space to provide high-speed internet across the globe, Finley said.
Meanwhile, the city of Tuscaloosa is partnering with Alabama Power and Mercedes on an initiative regarding electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles, and Auburn landed a $120 million data center, Finley said.
In Mobile, Airbus soon will be the fourth largest producer of commercial airplanes, and a new airport expected to open next to the Port of Mobile in 2024 will make that port the most prominent gateway to the United States in the Gulf of Mexico, Finley said.
Reed said Montgomery has had more than $1 billion of investments announced in the last 12 months and has more than $4 billion of potential investments in its largest eight economic development efforts under way.
One of the most notable recent announcements was a $100 million investment that Hyundai is making in electric vehicles in Montgomery, Reed said. His city is competing hard for an additional $200 million project with Hyundai, he said.
Montgomery also is partnering with the University of Alabama at Birmingham to potentially bring new programs to central Alabama that would reduce health care disparities across the Black Belt, Reed said.
Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox said all the mayors will continue to work together to address common issues they face, even though they represent diverse constituencies.
“The Guardian said there’s no such thing as Republican or Democratic potholes,” Maddox said. “The problems that are facing people our cities deserve real solutions.”
Stimpson said the mayors also plan to support one another on issues that may be specific to particular cities.
In addition to their meeting at the Renaissance Ross Bridge Golf Resort & Spa, Brocato took the Big 10 mayors’ group to the Hoover Public Safety Center to tour the National Computer Forensics Institute, which trains police officers, prosecutors and judges from all over the country about the ins and outs of cybercrime.
