Thread: Birmingham City Council Unanimously Votes to Condemn Alabama

Birmingham City Council Unanimously Votes to Condemn Alabama's Immigration Law

June 28, 2011

The Birmingham City Council unanimously approved Tuesday on a resolution that characterizes Alabama’s new immigration law as cruel and immoral.

The resolution asks that the law be repealed and urges political leaders to establish a special commission look for more compassionate ways to address illegal immigration.

Members of the nine-person council said the law, which Gov. Robert Bentley signed earlier this month and takes effect Sept. 1, could hurt the city's economy by scaring away business and reinforcing negative images of intolerance and bigotry linked to the state's old Jim Crow laws.

Council member Jonathan Austin said the illegal immigration law — which both supporters and opponents agree is the nation's toughest — would lead to racial profiling and the need for residents to keep citizenship documents with them constantly.

"''It is hateful and mean-spirited. It takes us back to an era that we have fought so hard to come out of," Austin said. "Something needs to be done about illegal immigration ... but this law is not what we need as a state."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama has vowed to file a lawsuit challenging the law.

The ACLU has filed lawsuits challenging similar laws in other states; federal judges have blocked parts of immigration laws in such states as Arizona, Utah, Indiana and Georgia. The ACLU has also said it will challenge South Carolina's immigration law, which that state's governor signed Monday.

Birmingham Mayor William Bell compared the law to the statutes that once legalized decades of racial discrimination in Alabama.

"It says we still have people of the mentality who discriminate against a class of people," he said.

A message seeking comment was left with aides to Bentley, a Republican elected last year after campaigning on a pledge to pass the nation's most restrictive illegal immigration law. Last week, Bentley said he would be open to amending the law.

"You have to look at legislation that comes through," Bentley told WSFA-TV on Friday. "We will certainly look at that and see if there's any changes we need to make to it. But I think it's a very strong bill, that's what I asked for. It is the strongest immigration bill in the country, but we asked for that."

The law makes it a crime to knowingly hire an undocumented immigrant; rent them a place to live; or give them a ride. A section that has come under particular criticism from opponents mandates that schools determine the immigration status of their students and report it to the state.

Council member Carole Smitherman, an attorney, said she supports a section of the law requiring that employers use a federal database to verify whether new workers are U.S. citizens.

"The rest of it ... will be subject to a constitutional challenge in short order," she said.

http://latino.foxnews.com

The Birmingham City Council has run the city to the brink of bankruptcy with thier progressive spending.

Alabamians need jobs, not illegals brouht in by out of state companies. The contract for the debris removal in Birmingham seems to be in contention and the woman that is a co-owner seems to have definite views on immigration. See second article.

Birmingham environmental consultant works for tornado debris company hired by city
Published: Thursday, June 02, 2011, 8:30 AM
By Joseph D. Bryant -- The Birmingham News The Birmingham News

Birmingham Mayor William Bell (The Birmingham News, Hal Yeager)
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- A woman appointed by Mayor William Bell for the past two years as the city's green consultant is also a representative for the Florida-based recycling company hired by the city May 24 to collect tons of tornado debris.
Toni Smalls is co-owner of Eco-Logic, a company appointed by Bell for fiscal 2010 and fiscal 2011 as a consultant to help develop environmental initiatives and policies. The company has received $20,000 with two appointment letters from the city since Bell took office.

In Bell's later appointment letter, dated Oct. 12, 2010, Smalls and Eco-Logic co-founder Del Davis received $10,000 for the assignment that expires by June 30. The earlier invoice was $10,000, dated June 30, 2010.

Acting in her other role, Smalls last week contacted Birmingham City Council members on behalf of Southeast Renewables. The council had already voted to award the debris recycling contract to the company but had not yet approved a location for its base to sort debris. That was resolved Tuesday when the council agreed to allow the company to use New Georgia Landfill.

However, several council members said they had been unaware of Smalls' association with the city as a consultant until after Tuesday's vote, and called her dual roles a conflict of interest.

"To me there's a serious compliance issue with the mayor issuing appointment letters and not disclosing those when it relates to other city business," said Councilwoman Kim Rafferty. "It seems to be a failure of transparency of the administration back to the council concerning these appointments and business being conducted."

Smalls' email to council members, dated Saturday, touted Southeast Renewables' "green jobs and our award winning recycling education curriculum."

A state ethics official says such a scenario is problematic. While he declined to specifically discuss Birmingham's question, Jim Sumner, director of the Alabama Ethics Commission, said there is a conflict when an individual is hired by a city and then works for another company soliciting that same city's business.

"A person who is working on behalf of a city should be independent and have the city's best interest at heart, and not be biased toward one provider over another in accessing those possible providers," he said.

While Bell's latest appointment letter expires no later than June 30, Smalls said her company completed the city's work in the fall of 2010. Smalls said her work for Southeast Renewables did not involve Eco-Logic or her partner, Davis.

"Regarding conflicts of interest and ethics, Eco-Logic is always careful not to engage in any activity that would present a conflict of interest, be unethical and/or immoral," Smalls said Wednesday in an email. "Fact is that they sought assistance and I came on board only after the City Council approved their contract and the location of the facility became a concern of the council."

Council President Roderick Royal Wednesday said he was surprised to learn of Smalls' association with the city as a consultant.

"The council has to depend on the mayor's office to bring vendors that are free of conflict," he said. "I'm not familiar with Ms. Smalls, nor am I familiar with her apparent dual role. There is a tinge of intrigue. Perhaps the mayor will provide an explanation."

Efforts to reach Bell and his chief of staff, Chuck Faush, for comment were unsuccessful Wednesday.

City Attorney Thomas Bentley said there appears to be no ethical violation.

"The performance and payment terms of the Eco-Logic contract with the city were fully executed and complete," Bentley said. "Even though the available term for performance extended to June 30, 2011, the actual work on the contract was complete prior to the time that any possible principals of Eco-Logic joined the SER staff."

Bentley said the revolving-door ethics provisions do not apply to private conduct but only to public employees.

The council in 1999, led by then council president Bell, adopted measures requiring the mayor to get approval for all city expenses greater than $10,000. The move occurred after Bernard Kincaid defeated Bell for the office.

However, discretionary spending of $10,000 or less, including the appointment letters to Eco-Logic, is not routinely made public and is available only by public records requests. So far, the city has not complied with an April 18 request by The Birmingham News for all of Bell's appointment letters since taking office; that request has been repeated several times. City officials said those records would be provided today.

Rafferty and Councilman Steven Hoyt said rules should be modified to require regular reporting of that spending to let the public know who's getting what.

Councilwoman Valerie Abbott said Smalls' participation in both projects is neither a major issue nor an ethical breach.

"To my way of thinking, it's not a perfect scenario, but it doesn't sound like something that's going to be a critical concern to the city," she said. "There's a big difference in what she was doing in her other contract and the emergency situation we're in now. It sounds more to me like a situation where the person just didn't think before she agreed to do the work."

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/06/bir ... consu.html


[quote]Tuesday, March 15, 2011

A Migrant Daughter's Story

I am not sure how many of you spent your summers, but I spent mine crawling on my knees in 90 degree summer heat, pulling green onions out of the ground, removing the “dirty skinâ€