This was a column I probably should have published back at the first of June, but my life being what it is, leisure time to write isn’t a commodity in great supply. That said, though it may appear this column is targeted at those who have entered city council and mayoral races in Red Bay this year, it’s not. It’s targeted at everyone who wants to rant and rave on social media about the city’s state of affairs but NEVER bother to attend a council meeting, read the RBN city council roundup stories, or even so much as go to city hall and request the most recent copy of the minutes.
Now that I’ve cinched up my britches and stepped up on my soapbox, here goes.
If you claim to care about what goes on with the city council, bare minimum you should attend a meeting every now and then. I’ve attended probably 85 percent of the meetings in the past eight years, and I am pretty sure I can count on two hands the number of citizens, excluding the usual department heads and media members, who have darkened the door of the council gallery for a meeting. In fact, having citizens show up for meetings is so rare people actually stand out when they are there for a meeting.
“But but but they don’t want anybody knowing what they’re doing so they meet at 3:30 in the afternoon when no one can go.”
That’s a bullcrap argument and you know it. If you wanted to go, you would. It’s just easier to not go and complain like you know everything that goes on. You know how I know this? The council met for DECADES at 7 p.m. on Mondays – and I can tell you, very few people showed up then, either. In fact, when I started covering the council again around 2017-ish, meetings were still being held on Mondays. No one showed up. When I first started covering the council back in 1992 or 1993, there were a few regulars there. Richard Winchester comes to mind. But even then, at a time when people were more civic minded, attendance was sparse.
So, I urge those running for office now, if you are sincere about your desire to serve the city, show up for council meetings to at least get a feel for how things work in a meeting. I can tell you, to date, none of the current candidates (with the obvious exceptions being the two incumbents) have attended the meetings in a very, very long time.
Now, as to some hot-button issues in this campaign season, let me throw in my two cents. I write these things not to needle anyone – who am I kidding, yes, I’m needling people – but to point out some facts few people seem to know.
• Occupational tax: This tax, approved in the late 1980s, has been a lifeline to Red Bay High School and Elementary for upgrades and classroom assistance. This came at a time when the word “proration” was virtually a curse word in education in Alabama, and it seemed to crop its head up every year. Were it not for this tax the school would be in bad shape, or at least very far behind where it is today because until the past eight years the Franklin County Schools system has not been sound financially and Red Bay and Vina schools, the farthest from Russellville, seemed to always be feeding from the table scraps from past boards and superintendents. By rule of ordinance, the ONLY things the occupational tax revenue can be spent on are funding the city Industrial Development Board (for recruitment and tourism projects) and funding the city’s Education Fund to pay for things at the school, such as copier leases, paper supplies, classroom technology needs, certain infrastructure improvements, and assisting with travel expenses for state or national academic or athletic competitions. The city’s education committee meets to discuss grant requests and determines which to recommend to the city council for approval. Yes, kids still have to fundraise for things like athletic uniforms and some trips. The fund isn’t a candy store; that kind of abuse would drain it rapidly. You want to know what kinds of things the fund has helped pay for recently? Attend a council meeting, read The Red Bay News, or go by City Hall and ask for a copy of the most recent disbursements from the fund. It’s public record. If you’re not willing to do at least one of those things to educate yourself, do us all a favor and stop whining about it.
• Street paving: This is low-hanging fruit for those who want to complain because, honestly, what city doesn’t have roads in need of repair? I can tell you this: EVERY city has streets in need of repair, and with very, very few exceptions, the funds for paving are extremely limited in all but your wealthiest locales. Even Tupelo. I know this because I attended the swearing-in ceremony for Tupelo Mayor Todd Jordan and the City Council on July 1. Jordan kept his speech short, but one thing he said early on: The city is working on street repairs. They know they are needed and he promised the city was getting to them as fast as they could. I had an interview with Jordan just two weeks earlier and he told me Tupelo has the highest financial rating of municipalities in Mississippi, and they had enough money on hand to actually self-finance some street projects. Even with a strong pocketbook, though, Tupelo struggles to keep its roads paved. That should tell you something.
Paving a road in Alabama costs around, on average, $3.25 per square foot. Let’s say a city street is 12 feet wide, and it is 1,000 feet long. That means you’re looking at 24,000 square feet of paving that needs to be done in that 1,000 feet. That equals $78,000 just to pave 1,000 feet of one two-lane street. If the roadbed is in bad shape or filler gravel for leveling is needed, expect to pay more. Also, the city is at the mercy of paving companies. These services are let to the lowest bidder, but if the lowest bidder comes in at $3.80 per square foot, the city either has to bite the bullet and pay it or, if the money isn’t in the budget and grant or state revolving fund loan dollars aren’t available, hold off until the money is there to pay it.
A long, long time ago, Dad ran the TimesDaily paper route in Red Bay and many mornings I assisted him. The route started in Burnout and, with very little exception, did not double-back much at all. He ran the route as efficiently as possible. Want to know how many miles of roadway he traveled in the Red Bay area each day? Roughly 90 miles. You wouldn’t think it, but that’s not an exaggeration. Yes, some of that was outside city limits, but not much. Still, for argument’s sake let’s knock 20 miles off that. That still leaves 70 miles of streets in the city. Now, let’s say of that amount, 10 miles are in bad need of repaving. This comes to a paltry $4.12 million dollars to cover that cost, based on one mile of street paving costing around $411,840. Bear in mind my numbers could be off because asphalt isn’t getting any cheaper.
Where is that in the city’s budget? Do you even know what the city’s annual budget and revenue are? If not, I urge candidates – and residents – to get to know this figure very quickly and then candidates, make a very serious decision on whether you’re going to promise to get the paving done. It’s a lot easier to say you’re going to get streets paved than it is to actually do it. If Tupelo struggles with it, is it unreasonable that Red Bay does as well?
• Understanding roles: A lot of people want to riff on the mayor – and I don’t necessarily mean Charlene Fancher. With some good measure that’s fair because the buck should stop at the top. However, how many citizens actually know just how much – or little – power the mayor has? In Red Bay, the mayor can only hire and fire regular hourly employees, and even then it has to be for cause. Department heads are not hired and fired by the mayor but are voted on and approved by the council. City clerk, police chief, fire chief, park and rec director . . . these are roles the mayor may recommend, but the final say with those positions rests entirely at the will of the city council. Also, do you know how often the mayor votes on matters in council meetings? The answer is almost never. I can count on one hand the number of times Fancher has voted in the past year. The mayor only gets to vote if her vote helps make a quorum or if there is a tie on the council, and that’s only possible if one member is absent or abstains from voting. There are other times when a mayor can vote, but by and large, all decisions are made by council members. The mayor also cannot spend city money without approval by the city council. The council controls the purse strings.
I’ve run WAY long with this column, but these things needed to be said. Voters nowhere should be fed promises that will likely fall apart. That does neither the candidate nor the voter nor the community in general any good. I felt like a little civics lesson was in order, though, as in a few weeks citizens will be asked to cast their vote for those who want to be in charge of the city the next four years.
To those running I again urge you, don’t wait until November to start showing up for city council meetings. Start attending now. Familiarize yourself with the process and flow of meetings and the issues the city is wrestling with currently. If you win, you’ll be glad you did because the role of mayor or council member is not one you should try to learn by getting thrown right into the fire. That sets you and the community up for disappointment, and it is the complete opposite of public service.
