Birmingham Blues

Our wonderful leader (and my dear wife Kathy) was born on this day X number of years ago. Happy birthday! I love you.

…to ask first?  The Jefferson County Commission voted last week to include a non-binding referendum on the November ballot asking for public input on solutions to the sewer debt crisis.  Now it appears the county may not have the authority to include the referendum and spend the additional $110,000 needed for ballots.  Probate Judge Alan King has asked AG Troy King’s (no relation) office to issue an opinion by September 5.

In a January 1999 opinion to state Rep. Arthur Payne, R-Trussville, then-Attorney General Bill Pryor’s chief of the opinions division wrote that, “absent specific legislative authority, a county does not have the authority to include an advisory referendum on the ballot…”

…In 2006, a lawyer for the city of Saraland asked the attorney general’s office if the Mobile County Probate Court could include an advisory referendum in a June 2006 primary election ballot.

The opinion issued by Troy King’s office said, “This office has consistently stated that a city is not authorized to spend funds to conduct an advisory referendum, but a referendum could be held if there is no cost to the city.” It also said, “This line of opinions has been extended to the county” and concluded that the probate judge didn’t have the “authority to include an advisory referendum” on the ballot.

According to the Birmingham News report, AG’s opinions don’t carry the force of law, but if King rules against JeffCo and the commission goes ahead with the referendum, I can almost guarantee there will be lawsuits.  Lawsuits the county can’t afford right now.  Oh well, I guess we can just roll the cost into the face amount of the next bond issue.

I’m sorry, but I just have to say a few words about this advice-for-parents columnist. While there are occasionally times I agree with him, mostly I think he’s a blowhard who has about as much business writing a parenting column as, well, as any other parent. Aside from his serious fixation about early potty training, his advice usually seems designed to escalate any parent-child conflict into a power struggle that, in order to prove their superiority, the parents must win at all costs, one that drags the whole family into a petty legislative mess of counting out behavior tickets or hours of confinement. Perhaps these techniques do enforce obedience and good behavior, but enforcing behavior is not the be-all and end-all of being a parent. That’s what the assistant principal is for. Your job is supposed to involve a little more.

While Rosemond’s pontificating usually strikes me as silly, there are occasionally times when I feel his advice is almost dangerous. There was the time he told the parents to take away all their son’s “privileges,” including various electronic toys he had bought himself with his own money; I wondered if that little scenario would end in one of these tragic domestic bloodbaths we read about. Then there’s his latest fad of “the final conversation.” I’m sure there are times, especially with little kids who just won’t let something drop, when it’s a good idea to say “we’re just not going to talk about this anymore.” But I think it’s a serious mistake to tell a troubled pre-teen that you’re just not interested in hearing about her troubles any more. Read the rest of this entry »

I had the opportunity to attend Sen. Jabo Waggoner’s monthly gathering of area elected officials this morning. Dr. David Bronner, CEO of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, spoke about JeffCo’s sewer debt debacle and his proposal to rescue the county from the mess.

First, just in case Sen. Waggoner reads my blog, I want to thank him for the invitation. It is so much easier to gather information directly from the source than try to sort through what is reported in the media. There’s only so much space to devote to this story, and a complete transcript isn’t going to make it into the Birmingham News.  This was valuable information for my work, and it’s good to feel like an informed citizen as well.

Dr. Bronner’s speech addressed seven points:

Read the rest of this entry »

As Sansou points out below, the Birmingham News reveals today that attorney Bill Slaughter, a long-time advisor to the Jefferson County Commission who also helped craft the Citigroup plan, wrote yesterday’s Commission resolution calling for a non-bind referendum on the sewer system. To call it wordy is just a bit of an understatement. County election officials are now scrambling to redesign the November ballot in the hope that they won’t have to order a separate one (estimated cost $110,000).

The multiple-choice quiz questions are below the fold. Note the effort to blame the entire debt crisis on the Clean Water Act. Just a bit more denial from the Commission and its advisors.

Read the rest of this entry »

I knew you could.

The JeffCo Commission voted 3-2 this morning to hold a non-binding referendum on November 4 to ask citizens of the county how they would like to resolve the sewer debt crisis.  Sounds like voters will be asked three questions:

• Should the county file bankruptcy?
• Should the county sell the sewer system to RSA?
• Should all county residents or just sewer customers help to pay the debt?

I assume the second question will be considered irrespective of the bankruptcy decision, although David Bronner has said he won’t buy the sewer system if the county doesn’t file bankruptcy.  Ms. Collins seems to be big on denial.

As for the third question, I suspect most septic tank owners would vote to put the burden on sewer customers.  However, a good part of the debt was incurred to ensure the quality of our drinking water, and we all benefit from that.  It’s a shame any of us has to pay for the lack of oversight and poor financial decisions of our county commissioners.

Actually, it looks like the people who were giving me information on bankruptcy were right about one big sticking point in the Bronner plan.  Mr. Bronner confirmed it himself in today’s Birmingham News:

David Bronner, head of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, has offered to buy the sewer system for up to $1.4 billion, but only if county commissioners first put the system into Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

Bronner has said his offer depends on reaching a settlement in bankruptcy with the bondholders for the $1.4 billion because that would prevent them from suing the sewer system for the remainder. [emphasis mine]

If the RSA buys the sewer system out of bankruptcy, it gets the debts as well as the assets.

Read the rest of this entry »

or my marriage will crumble. See, it’s like this. According to this fascinating article brought to my attention by your tireless blogmistress Kathy, people’s “major histocompatibility complex” (MHC) genes - they help direct immune response and other important stuff - give them a certain, for lack of a better word, odor. Evolutionarily speaking, it’s better for the species if we mix up the MHC genes, because then our babies will have more immuno-power. So, ordinarily women are attracted to fellas with a different MHC aroma than their own.

However, when you’re on The Pill, apparently your sniffability completely falls apart, and you’re just as likely—heck, even more likely—to fall for a guy with the same stupid MHC set you’ve already got. These, um, researchers speculate it’s because the pill mimics pregnancy, so if your body thinks it’s got a bun in the oven, there’s no need to sniff out a desirable mate. Here’s the bad news: Read the rest of this entry »

WERC-AM is reporting that Jefferson County Commission President Bettye Fine Collins says there will be no special session for the Alabama Legislature to consider the Citigroup plan for restructuring sewer bonds.  She has been unable to get unanimous support from the Jefferson County delegation, and the governor had said no go without that.  On to Plan B, or Plan C, or…

…bankruptcy?

Former Jefferson County Commissioner Mary Buckelew and former county (now city of Birmingham) Finance Director Steve Sayler testified before a grand jury yesterday as part of the ongoing investigation into Larry Langford’s spending habits and bond dealings.

Buckelew was Commission President from 1990-1998, when Gary White took over.  Langford became President in 2002 and served until 2006, when Bettye Fine Collins was elected to the position.  White was convicted of bribery and conspiracy in January, but his conviction was set aside in February under rather odd circumstances, and he has not yet been retried.  Langford is under investigation.  Twenty-one people have already been convicted and sentenced for corruption surrounding the super sewer, which contributed significantly to the overwhelming debt facing the county today.  Is Buckelew under investigation as well?

I guess we’ll find out — eventually.

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Read more about Mary Buckelew here, here, and here.  She’s quite a character.