Jefferson County Bankruptcy Debacle Languished in Debt While Paying Lobbyists

In an article from OpenSecrets.org (linked and excerpted below) from July 2011, reporters from the Center For Responsive Politics laid out the ugly truth of how irresponsible Jefferson County has been in managing their financial affairs. Two lobbying firms have received almost one million dollars from Jefferson County--both have ties to Senator Richard Shelby and Senator Jeff Sessions among a whole host of Alabama politicians and various state corporations.

One of those lobbyists, Michael J. Davis, is involved in a current controversy involving Birmingham Mayor William Bell. Mr. 'revolving door' Davis has collected some sizable fees from the Jefferson County Commission and the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department over the years, in addition to functioning as the loot collector for Governor Bentley's Inaugural corporate collection plate fund.

Despite claiming "we're broke" the county continues to pay lobbyists with money they claim they don't have while it wallows in a staggering debt. An offer is now on the table to place the burden on the backs of ratepayers (and taxpayers) by increasing the sewer rates to allow the county to avoid bankruptcy. 

*(County voted in favor of offer @ 10:30 CST September 16, 2011) 

In typical Alabama fashion, the bankruptcy issue is dividing the rich and poor sections of the affected areas as well as the populace and the business community. The business community *(BBA) has even more potentially financially devastating plans on the block for Birmingham that we think are inappropriate with the county's current financial status--a $60 million dollar ballpark and the $90 million dollar per mile Northern Beltline are the most troubling. 

Jefferson County's political atmosphere is just as bad as it was in 2009 when one lobbying firm, Book Hill Partners, pulled out of a contract citing the "toxic political landscape" as a major factor when they refused to lobby for Jefferson County in the sewer scandal aftermath. (audio interview WBHM)

So who's still standing? 

Balch & Bingham and lawyer Michael J. Davis, who in addition to his lobbying role, is also the *chair of the BBA's Government Affairs Committee.

Jefferson County has defined itself as an easy mark for corruptibility and it should come as no surprise to anyone that their answer to handling their financial matters is: 'Let's keep right on repeating our mistakes and continue over-paying the same scoundrels (lobbyists, lawyers and Wall Street firms) who helped get us into this mess to begin with."

This won't be the end of the troubles for Jefferson County, and could even spell the beginning of a new chapter of financial disaster for the county despite this morning's vote to reach a settlement with Wall Street.

From the OpenSecrets.org story:

The county, now on the brink of bankruptcy, once, though, had hired guns in Washington.

Between 2001 and 2009, according to research by the Center for Responsive Politics, the Jefferson County Commissioners spent $930,000 on the lobbying services -- about $30,000 per quarter.

Over those nine years, the commissioners retained the services two different lobbying shops -- first, Van Scoyoc Associates, then Balch & Bingham.

Van Scoyoc Associates advertises offering "companies, nonprofits, universities and cities with a full menu of services." According to a review of lobbying reports, the firm mostly lobbied on budgetary and transportation issues.

Balch & Bingham, likewise, lobbied mostly on budgetary and transportation issues. The firm also worked on development issues such as "Cahaba River waste water treatment plant for solids handling improvement" and "Jefferson County Parks Improvement Project."

Beginning in 2005, the Jefferson County sheriff's office also retained the lobbying services of Balch & Bingham -- investments they continue to make to this day.

Since 2005, the Jefferson County sheriff's office has spent $478,000 on lobbying, including $38,000 during the second quarter of 2011.

During this time, one federal-level issue that has affected Jefferson County is the new Wall Street reform legislation, passed by the Democratic Congress last year and signed into law by President Barack Obama a year ago.

And this year, the fight to delay the new regulations in the Wall Street reform law -- often called Dodd-Frank after its chief congressional sponsors -- has been aided by a congressman who actually lives in Jefferson County. (Spencer Bachus)

Read more here

Timeline from scandal to settlement

*Update 9/21--Davis resigned from his chair position at the BBA. 

*photo credit: How JP Morgan helped bankrupt an entire county

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"Mudd " Slinging--William Bell vs Bill Mudd

Birmingham Mayor William Bell is on the attack against Birmingham lawyer and business owner William "Bill" Mudd over the Birmingham Barons $60 million dollar Baseball Park project. Bell descended into street thuggery with a direct insult to Mudd that hints at Bell's real feelings about businesses who don't belong (which Mudd does not) to his favorite private cartel--the Birmingham Business Alliance. Their mantra seems to be if you aren't with us, you're against us, and we'll threaten eminent domain as a necessary tactic.

This is a deal about baseball alright--the inside kind.

Mudd's B&A Warehouse would be a perfect segue into the entertainment district that is a part of Bell's, and the BBA's, plan for downtown Birmingham. Perfect unless Mayor Bell and private real estate developers cannot cut a deal with Mudd, who isn't really interested in selling his successful event/venue business to the city of Birmingham just so they can level the building in favor of something else. Mudd would rather have his business incorporated with the ballpark.

But the Mayor refuses to negotiate with Mudd, instead he has Jeffrey Bayer and another private real estate investor, Alan Engel, contact Mudd to 'lightly' pressure him to sell his property. Mudd mentioned he was curious, after those two phone calls, why private real estate investors were calling him instead of the Mayor. It's a great point and we wonder ourselves what the answer is.

Bell then called after the two developers and promised to call Mudd back and discuss the proposal further. It was an empty promise that Bell never intended to keep. What he did instead was ratchet up the specter of eminent domain and embark on strong-arm tactics against Mudd.

It's noteworthy that the BBA isn't living up to its name and supporting Mudd's existing business.

Bell's bully remark on a Fox 6 segment transforms any future meaningful dialogue into a non-productive, mud-slinging pr contest with the first fistful of useless nonsense thrown by the Mayor himself:

Mayor Bell voluntarily pulled the B&A warehouse out of a package of properties that the city will use eminent domain on to assemble the land for the stadium because most of the council wants to continue negotiating with owner Bill Mudd, who says he wants the project built around his property and doesn't want to sell.

Bell says the city will continue negotiating but he thinks this is about one thing: "Money, money, money, money," Bell said.

To which Mudd responded, "I don't want his money, and I don't need it. And it's insulting for me to hear that. And if he wants to come down here, walk across the park and talk about it, I'll tell him that."

Is this the same Mayor who praises economic development and claims to be supportive of all businesses in his not so fair city? The same Mayor who wants to run off Mudd's business in favor of the Negro Baseball Museum, a worthy enough project admittedly, but there's not one word in a 400 page document from the Mayor's office on how it will be paid for.

Taking into account that the notorious Walter Energy sponsored an April 2011 event in conjunction with the city of Birmingham, the Barons baseball team, and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, earlier this year for Jackie Robinson Day, is it a stretch to imagine Walter may be involved with the Museum funds?

Would that explain the absence of any information on the funding for the museum, given the recent black eye Walter has gotten for the north Birmingham contamination? Have they offered to fund the project to placate city leaders and the Mayor? Would they contribute to appear racially sensitive after they have allegedly committed terrible transgressions against minority residents in Birmingham?

We'll never know until the Mayor decides to provide information on the funding, but one thing we can count on is that Bell doesn't care about fair and open communications with Mudd and B&A.

His latest salvo against Mudd is reprehensible, irresponsible and unbecoming the office of the Mayor in a city the size of Birmingham. He should be ashamed of himself, but he isn't because he knows the local paper will side with him on the issue.

It didn't take long for that to happen. In a recent Birmingham News editorial the "Our View" ED board claimed Mudd was "wrong" to "hold the city hostage" over the deal. In typical one-sided fashion and probably in anticipation of future advertisement dollars, the News acts as the go-to water boy for Bell's schemes yet again.

Shame on them too.

Mudd was interviewed on WAPI's morning show August 23rd. Judge for yourself who's really holding who hostage: (mp3 sound files)

Mudd Interview Part I

Mudd Interview Part II

Bill Mudd conducted himself as a gentleman in that interview. We certainly cannot say the same for the Mayor of Birmingham.

So Say We The Opinion Board Of The Vincent Alabama Confidential

*photo credit: Bernard Troncale Birmingham News

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