A referendum to vote on the a new form of city government for Homewood is scheduled for September 24th. If a majority vote yes, the city would change from its current mayor-council form of government to the council-manager set up, much like Vestavia Hills and Mountain Brook. That means the city council would hire a city manager who would run the day-to-day operations of the city.
The effort to change Homewood’s government to a council-manager set up stemmed from the mayoral election four years ago. The two candidates in the runoff, Chris Lane and Patrick McCluskey, both supported the issue.
City leaders then began to formally study the issue in August 2022, approving the plan a little more than a year later. But until recently, the plan received little notice — it wasn’t until just a few weeks ago that it started generating controversy in the Birmingham suburb of about 28,000 residents.
Controversy ensues
The city has held a number of meetings to discuss the issue, including one Sunday at the Homewood Public Library. Before it got fully underway, City Councilman Nick Simms asked attendees to keep the discussion respectful.
During the meeting, he asked attendees, “not to make anything personal with others, because we’ve seen some of that before and that’s not where this discussion needs to go.”
While some who oppose the referendum are against hiring an unelected city manager, most of the resistance has focused on the reduction in number of city councilors. Homewood currently has 11.
But a state law requires most cities changing to a council-manager form of government also change the number of council members to either five or seven. For the new proposal, the city chose five, with four members elected specific to each ward. The mayor would be elected at large, serving as the de-facto fifth member of the council.
Stuart Franco is a member of Better Homewood, a group urging city residents to vote no in the referendum. He’s opposed to the number of councilors that’s part of the referendum.
He’d prefer more.
“I think it should be six, a six-person council,” he said. “Something that has a little [more] margin of error, that gives an accurate representation to a community like Homewood.”
Adding to that argument, several people have said during public forums they’re concerned that — with just four councilors and a mayor — those in the minority will not have a voice. Barry Smith is a current council member, who supports the referendum with the smaller number of representatives.
“Whether it’s seven and four is a majority, or it’s five and three is a majority, that shouldn’t really make much as much of a difference as electing the right people who are going to be able to make the decisions that you’ve elected them to make,” Smith said.
Smith also points to the advice given to the council during the lead up to the referendum.
“Based on the recommendation of other city managers and other cities that we spoke to, everybody sort of said this is kind of where y’all need to be, because it makes the most sense for a city your size,” Smith said.
Need for oversight
Many of those in the Better Homewood organization agree that a city manager is needed. However, they oppose the condition in the referendum that would give the current city leadership the opportunity to hire the city manager.
Franco believes that hire should wait until after a new mayor and council are elected next year.
“I think collectively they lost their way,” he said. “And we disagree with how they’ve been leading our city.”
Franco points to the embezzlement of nearly $ 1 million by Homewood’s former finance director. The city’s credit card policy is also reportedly under review by the Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts. An agency representative would neither confirm nor deny those reports, but the review is said to cover the lack of controls over the cards, as opposed to fraud.
Smith says these are the very reasons why residents need to vote yes to allow a city manager to be put in place as soon as possible.
“A city manager would provide an additional layer of oversight,” she said. “Because right now we have no centralized functions. Every department is essentially functioning on their own, because we don’t have a central person that manages that.”
Smith also emphasizes a vote for a city manager form of government would allow councilors to focus more on policy.
“Because of the way that the city exists now, we are sort of functioning in a management role,” she said. “That’s because we have to.
“With a city manager, what you have is someone who is professionally qualified to be a manager … of day-to-day issues. You don’t need as many people on a council in that circumstance, because that person is functioning as that central point of contact, and then your councilors really can do the work that they’re elected to do.”
The city council will hold a public forum on the plan Wednesday, Sept. 11 at 5:30 at Homewood City Hall.