TALLADEGA — The City Council voted unanimously Monday night to appoint Ward 4 Councilman Charles Pope to a vacant position on the Water and Sewer Board.Pope will take over the balance of the term vacated in March by Wayne Miller, which runs until 2007.
"I chose this position, which most people seem to be avoiding," Pope said Monday night. "I'm willing to serve. I just hope I can make a difference, and work together with the other board members to solve some of the problems facing that body."
In addition to an ongoing legal battle with The Daily Home over access to what the paper contends are public documents, the board is also the subject of a civil class action suit for continuing to pump contaminated water from the Grant Street well into the city's drinking supply.
The same well is also apparently at the center of a criminal investigation spearheaded by the Criminal Investigative Division of the Environmental Protection Agency and the FBI. At least two board employees, board chairman Wayne Kearley and former board general manager George Montgomery have been summoned to Birmingham to testify before a federal grand jury.
The board's legal fees for the past 18 months are now approaching $150,000. The board's insurance carrier has refused to cover legal expenses generated by these cases.
Talladega County Circuit Court and the Alabama Supreme Court have both ruled previously that the board's records are public, and are subject to the same scrutiny as those generated by any other public entity. The board is currently petitioning the high court to reconsider its decision.
In addition to mounting legal woes, the board is also facing problems with aging infrastructure and flat revenues. Board members are studying a $3.5 million bond issue, which would raise the total amount of their debt service to approximately $14 million over the next 23 years.
The board is also in danger of being gridlocked by increasing belligerence and disagreement among the board members themselves. The most recent controversy among the board members stemmed from the filling of three managerial positions at a meeting with one seat vacant and a second of the five board members absent. Lawrence McGraw, one of the three board members present, abstained from voting, so the positions were essentially filled by two board members, Kearley and board member Dan Waites.
Miller resigned his position in March, after engaging in an argument with Waites during a board meeting. Miller was appointed to the board by Pope's predecessor, the late John Hill, in 2001.
At that time, Miller was completing the unexpired term of James Corby, who died in July 2001. Corby was appointed to the seat by Hill as well, in 1999, to replace Howard "Rip" Williams when the latter became ineligible to serve after pleading guilty to various felonies, including use of public office for personal gain, theft and perjury.
Pope was elected to his first term as councilman in November. Prior to that, he had served as assistant/public proxy for Mayor Charles Osborne before Osborne’s death.
Although seats on the water board are normally appointed by the council member for that ward, Ward 3 Councilman James Armstrong made the motion to appoint Pope. The motion passed unanimously.
Also Monday, the council was set to consider two ordinances, and Councilman Dr. Horace Patterson made motions for both to suspend the rules in order to take them under immediate consideration. Under Robert's Rules of Order, it takes unanimous consent to do this.
Councilman Eddie Tucker voted against immediate consideration of both ordinances, automatically tabling them until they can be brought up again in two weeks for a second reading.
The first ordinance would have amended the Safe Streets Act of 1995 by doubling the impound fee for vehicles from $25 to $50. The fee would apply to vehicles that are or are likely to become "an obstruction of a public way or to be without protection by reason of the person in charge of or in control thereof having been arrested and incarcerated."
Tucker said he opposed this measure "from the beginning, because it's basically a tax on poor people. It wouldn't bother somebody with money, but if you've got a poor person, they've already got to pay a lot fee and a towing bill on top of the impound fee. Then, to get it back, they've got to go and prove ownership and show some identification. That's not fair."
The second ordinance Tucker opposed would have abolished the Parks and Recreation Board, replacing it with a similarly constituted advisory board. This action was one of the first recommended by city manager Thomas Christie, who said many of the city's appointed boards have wide discretion over large sums of money that city government cannot adequately track.
"I've said from the beginning that we were making some moves that we shouldn't make," Tucker said. "The rec board does an outstanding job, we just don't give them enough money. They run out every year, and we have to give them more at the end of the year. Now we're going to go and do away with them entirely. That's not fair either. We're not doing away with all our boards."
Although it did not come up for consideration Monday, Christie has also recommended doing away with the Oak Hill Cemetery Board.
Tucker serves as the council liaison to the Parks and Recreation Board, and his father-in-law is a board member.
Tucker also brought up the issue of the council deciding not to seek a $500,000 community development block grant for flood mitigation in his ward. The bulk of the council decided last week that the piecemeal approaches to citywide problems in the past were ineffective, and decided to go forward with a large scale hydrological study instead.
The city would have had to match $400,000 in order to accomplish the proposed project in Tucker's ward.
"I am very hurt that the council is not going along with this project," Tucker said Monday. "You all said flooding was a priority, but you let $500,000 go by. So it's not a priority, at least not as far as Knoxville residents are concerned. We all said we were going to support Christie in his recommendations, even though some of them are wrong. Code enforcement should not be under (city clerk) Sue Horn, it should be under the Police Department. We shouldn't be doing away with the rec board, either. We all said we wanted this to be the best city it could be, and I believe inside you meant that, but only for certain folks. I've tried to be a team player, but the citizens of Knoxville need help, and this council has turned their backs on them.
"We have nothing in Knoxville," Tucker said. "Nothing on that side of town. We've got no public buildings, no recreation center, no pool, nothing. Everybody else has everything. Everything always has to be studied. But you can't just study a problem for 10 years. In the Legislature, if you're going to study something, that means you're trying to kill it.
“Patterson's ward has a recreation center, a walking track and a pool. All we've got is the projects, and that's good, we're glad to have them. Citizens of Knoxville pay taxes like everybody else, but for years they've been drowning in water and not getting any city services. This council is morally bankrupt if we don't do anything for Knoxville residents," Tucker said.
Council president William Clark said he appreciated Tucker's "passionate beliefs," but pointed out several major projects undertaken in that district.
"When we go forward, we want something that will benefit the whole city," Clark said. "The council is not against you or your ward. We will address these problems, but that will take time. When we get the study, we spend every dime in your ward. But right now, we need to deal with the problem in an orderly fashion."
Pope pointed out that there is not a pool or recreation center in Ward 4, either.
Also Monday, the council:
•Approved retail wine and beer licenses for three locations of Victory Zone and one for Easy Food Mart One on East Street.
•Accepted the final version of the audit and financial report for fiscal 2002.
•Tabled discussion of various issues related to railroad crossings pending a letter from city attorney Stan Thornton.
•Discussed removing several traffic signals and flashing lights, to be replaced with four way stop signs.
•Discussed having an attorney on staff. Christie said he did not feel the city could generate enough work for a full-time attorney, but said he would study the possibility of adding that to an existing job description.
•Heard a complaint from Fort Lashley Auto Sales proprietor Tom Beavers, who has complained for years that he is being unfairly targeted by the city's code enforcement organizations. Monday night he said he had been told last week for the first time that it was illegal for him to park damaged vehicles on the city's rights of way. Beavers and the city have taken each other to court at least twice in the past several years. Most recently, Circuit Judge Julian King ruled that Beavers was not in compliance with city zoning ordinances.
