City Council meeting, July 14, 2014

A universally admired council member tenders her resignation for a job in L.A., to almost everyone’s surprise.

From a time standpoint, tonight’s short meeting was the perfect time for Ward 4 council member Jenifer Champ Wallis to announce her resignation to take a job with a Los Angeles law firm, which she did at what seemed the close of business around 6:30. The council promptly announced the vacancy, then listened as the mayor and president read a resolution that must have been pulled together only hours earlier and which praised her for her “sensible and constructive contributions.” Wallis said later that the only people with advance word of her resignation were her ward mate and friend Heather Reid and the council president, who provided a job reference. The mayor got the heads up only today, she said.

Wallis graduated in 2005 from Cumberland School of Law and was in a downtown Birmingham practice of business law, including intellectual property rights. Her nearly two years on the council brought some polish to work that is sometimes–most of the time–tedious and unappreciated. And she and Ms. Reid appeared to work more as a team than any other two ward mates presently on the council. Council members themselves took turns expressing those very sentiments, with Fred Hawkins apologizing for having “pre-judged” Ms. Wallis and others using words like “persistence,” “boldness” and “bravery” before they got back to council business and slipped into a 10 minute closed-door session (without Ms. Wallis) to discuss “impending litigation.”

Judging by the audience presence of the America’s Best Inn & Suites owners and their lawyer, the executive session related to the legal aftermath of the city denying the business a license earlier in the year.

Members present: Michael Hallman, Britt Thames, Fred Hawkins, Jenifer Champ Wallis, Heather Reid, Richard Laws, Peter Wright, and Bruce Limbaugh, council president. Also present was Mayor Scott McBrayer.

Members absent: Patrick McClusky and Walter Jones.

Staff present:  City clerk Linda Cook, city attorney Mike Kendrick, and mayor’s chief of staff J. J. Bischoff,

Audience attendance: 17

Filled seats on the Downtown Redevelopment Authority:  The council reappointed Alex Edgeworth to the panel and appointed new members Mel McElroy, Steven Jones and Katy Lincoln.

Approve minutes: The April 14, 2014, regular meeting minutes and minutes of the rescheduled April meeting on May 5 were approved.

Looking north to Oxmoor Road where the city owns a vacant corner lot, this section of Oak Grove Road by Patriot Park in West Homewood is slated for parking improvements.

Dropped an earlier proposal for West Homewood Village work:  At a committee’s insistence, Walter Schoel Engineering agreed to drop revise a costly proposal that included preliminary engineering studies for the entire 24-parcel West Homewood (Village) Redevelopment and replace it with an estimate for an isolated street-scaping and parking project on Raleigh Avenue and Oak Grove Road around Patriot Park. However, Ward 2 councilman Fred Hawkins said the council agreed to drop consideration of Walter Schoel and seek other proposals after the company’s revised estimate came in even higher than the first estimate. No figures were made public

Approved beer and wine sales for a new grocery: The measure passed showed no objection to Mi Pueblo Mexican grocery to apply for an off-premises license for wine and beer sales.

Approved a contract for credit card payments in city court: The mayor was authorized to enter a contract with GOVT PORTAL, with fees paid by offenders, not the city, allowing basic court and traffic fines to be paid by credit card, over the phone or in person.

Committee Referral Agenda

In one vote the council moved various new issues to committees, as follows:

To Finance– 1) Amend the current year’s budget; 2) Consider a lump sum retirement pay-out to retirees and beneficiaries of the Retirement Systems of Alabama; 3) Consider a contract for ClasTran services; 4) Consider hiring Walter Schoel Engineering services for storm sewer culvert repair at 1717 27th Court South; and 5) Consider inviting proposals for city property, liability, auto liability, etc. insurance coverage.

To Special Issues – consider a sign variance at 1830 29th Avenue South before July 28 public hearing.

To Public Safety – Consider beer/wine on-or-off premises sale from Seeds coffee shop at 174 Oxmoor Road (a business of The Common Thread Community nonprofit); Consider ways to curb speeding on Valley Avenue near Vulcan; and consider parking alternatives to ease congestion on city streets.

Set a July 28, 2014, public hearing for a sign ordinance:  A variance has been requested at 1830 29th Avenue South. (for PT’s Sports Bar & Grill.)

Approved two Brookwood Village events:  The mall was approved to close Village Lane on July 31, from noon-9 p.m. for a radio-station sponsored music event, with two bands scheduled from 6-8 p.m.; and to close the street again Monday, Aug. 4 from 6-9 p.m. to accommodate a Paul Finebaum book signing at Books-a-Million.

Approved a liquor license for PT’s, at the SoHo Lovoy’s location: The vacant Lovoy’s, once looking like it would become the new Dupont Public House, will now be a resurrected PT’s Grill and Pub, owned by Charles Matsos, of Michael’s  fame, which now leases space in the Aloft hotel. The original PT’s was just across U.S. 280 from the end of Homewood’s Hollywood Boulevard.

Is that the Sims Ecoscape we keep hearing about? No, this overgrown property on Irving Road is a repeat offender on the city’s
“excessive growth” list. A July 28 hearing is set to see if this and several other overgrown properties should be declared public nuisances.

Set several July 28 public nuisance hearings: For high weeds and litter at 1106 Irving Road; 1425 Ardsley Place, 2827 16th Place South, and 3406 Avalon Road.

Paid the bills: Bills were paid without comment for the June 23-July 11, 2014, period.

Passed a resolution commending resigning council member Jenifer Champ Wallis:  

Voted to go into executive session: For the fifth time this year, the council voted to go into a closed-door, private session. The reason given is to discuss “impending litigation,” which is one of several exceptions allowed by law to the state’s requirement to keep meetings open to the public. The council returned approximately 10 minutes later, to adjourn until July 28.

FYI, Finance Committee, June 16, 2014

Oxmoor between Palisades and Barber Court will undergo major changes 2015-2017. Patriot Park, just off Oxmoor, is also set for major redevelopment.

The Finance Committee tonight took care of a lot of important business, of which just a few items are detailed here because they reflect issues brought up at previous meetings or carry a high price tag. Two of those projects affect West Homewood in particular–the Oxmoor Road improvement project–by Gonzalez-Strength & Associates, which includes major road changes from Palisades to Barber Court–and the West Homewood Village project, handled by Walter Schoel Engineering.

Due to continued public concerns about the Oxmoor Road project, James Brown of Gonzalez-Strength & Associates said an additional public input session has been scheduled for Thursday, June 26, from 4-7 p.m. at the Homewood Senior Center. The project involves changes to the Oxmoor/Green Springs intersection, both ramps of Interstate 65, de-signaling some intersections, and taking down one lane of the “turkey foot” split of Oxmoor at Cobb Street, among other improvements. As people in charge of large publicly-financed projects often do, Mr. Brown seemed to take a dim view of this latest interruption* from the public itself, and described other changes that had arisen in the long lead-up to this project:  The round-about intersection has been dropped, Cobb Street is to remain open, several buildings on Scott Street, the current Purple Onion building and the vacant Lovoy’s property (and cemetery) have been deemed historic and therefore untouchable during the construction, he said. The business at hand tonight–recommending the signing of a utilities agreement and $300,000+ right-of-way acquisition agreement–both passed. Details, below.

*To be fair, the first public input session was in May 2012.

Members present: Walter Jones, chairman, Vance Moody, Peter Wright, and Britt Thames. Also present were Heather Reid, Fred Hawkins and Bruce Limbaugh, council president.

Absent: Jenifer Champ Wallis

Audience attendance: several

Major business covered:

• The committee heard a pitch to provide investment services from the last in a series of firms that have made presentations in hopes of winning a city contract. Tonight they heard from Kassouf & Co. CPAs, with Jerry Callahan doing most of the talking. The city is interested in improving its return on investments–not an easy task in the post-recession world and with municipal policies in place to reduce risk and safeguard principal. The group suggested amending one city fiscal policy that limits the allowed investment period.
• Carried over discussing a proposed $6,500 contract with a staffing firm Mr. Thames recommended to study the city work force and make recommendations on benefits, wages, etc.
• Dropped, for now, an emergency storm water pipe and road repair bid opening due to the discovery of a Jefferson County-controlled sanitary sewer in the same area. No one wants to get tangled in the Jeffco’s sewer system. The bids will be issued later.
• The committee voted not to recommend footing the bill for extra police duty during a Nov. 1 “Homewood Rib Run/Fall BBQ Race. The event itself has already been approved, but the committee denied the special request to pay for additional security–which is  apparently routinely supplied by all other groups holding special events in city limits. Also receiving a negative recommendation was the organizers’ request for the city to provide a $1,000 sponsorship for the event.
• Voted to recommend–with the proviso that to do otherwise would kill the project–a $300,000+ estimated expenditure to buy right-of-way on the route of the Oxmoor Boulevard improvements. The measure, when passed by the council, will authorize the mayor to enter into the agreement for this, and for utilities, for the project that will make significant changes to the industrial end of Oxmoor extending west from Palisades to Barber Court. Mr. Brown, a principal with Gonzalez-Strength engineering firm, announced an additional public input session has been set for Thursday, June 26, from 4-7 p.m. at the Homewood Senior Center, due to continued concerns from residents, particularly about noise, he said. Mr. Brown said construction would begin in 2015 and last about two years, during which traffic will be pretty much a nightmare.
• Carried over the West Homewood Village kick-off project due to a substantial misunderstanding between Ward 2 representative Fred Hawkins and other council members, engineer Walter Schoel, and the city’s Engineering and Planning department. In brief, Mr. Hawkins and council members thought the $400,000 they had budgeted for the project this year was to construct street-scaping improvements around a little strip shop across Oak Grove Road from Patriot Park. Mr. Schoel, on the other hand, had presented plans for completing a master engineering plan for the entire 24-parcel West Homewood District, which also extended a good way down Oxmoor Road. Mr. Schoel explained he had followed instructions from the city’s planning department and Regional Planning Commission–who prepared the plan. In any case, it was decided he would bring a revised proposal for the specific construction project to the next committee meeting. The council was more interested in getting something built than in preparing a comprehensive plan that wouldn’t leave much money for construction this year, they said. Mr. Hawkins said most of the area on Oxmoor has already been studied and engineered; there was no need to duplicate that work.