By Sam Prickett
Exactly one year after his election, Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin has released a strategic plan providing an update on his administration’s progress and setting new goals for the remainder of his first term. The plan, which was released publicly Wednesday afternoon, features “a detailed set of enterprise initiatives and major projects for the City of Birmingham,” Woodfin wrote in the plan’s introduction.
The plan shares its name, The Woodfin Way, with the report from Woodfin’s transition committee, released in March.
The new plan is a result, Woodfin said, of findings from that report, as well as a labor report from private data company Burning Glass Technologies, a comprehensive framework plan, and a performance assessment from private consulting firm Crowe Horwath.
The plan lays out six broad goals for the administration, which boil down to safe communities, healthy and diverse neighborhoods, education and workforce development, economic development, efficient government and a focus on social justice. Within those categories, the plan provides an outline of initiatives that are in early stages of planning or are close to being implemented.
Some serve as updates on ongoing issues; a plan to address the city’s underfunded pension liabilities, for instance, is listed as being in an “actionable phase,” as is a plan to collaborate with Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority officials “to develop a formal agreement that requires greater accountability and better use of city funds.”
Other initiatives in the plan are relatively new, such as a plan to establish the Mayor’s Office of Re-entry Services focused on reducing recidivism, or a call for Police Chief Patrick D. Smith to increase foot patrols and bicycle patrols in critical areas.
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