After Twenty years as mayor, Dr. Richard Arrington, Jr. decided to retire as mayor of Birmingham before the end of his fifth term. Aside from having completed most of his goals, the daily press of dealing with idiots on the City Council and vociferous critics probably did not seem worth the effort for the money he was being paid that was just a little more than what he could collect in his pension. He had had more than his share of power, controlling the political machinery of the entire region through his Citizens Coalition endorsements. He chose the best way to leave; voluntarily and in a manner to best preserve his legacy.
So he decided to step down and allow the president of the City Council, William A. Bell, to assume the mayor’s office ahead of the special election which would be held to fill his seat.
Despite our well-publicized political differences, I had always respected “Mayor Arrington and had come to be very fond of him and his wife, Rachel. I think he developed a new appreciation for me when he compared my criticisms with those he was receiving from Dr. Jimmy Blake, new member of the City Council whose primary goal was to defeat him. Jimmy was unflinching and relentless in attempting to rid the City of corruption and patronage. He and Arrington locked horns at least once a week and he single handedly defeated initiatives like MAPs that he saw as a burden to taxpayers and more opportunities to diminish the mayor’s power. He turned in Redmont into a political juggernaut with phone bank equipment in his basement and a sign machine in the three car garage where he produced thousands of signs he designed and printed on coroplast that would last for at least a 100 years. He was formidable as a political opponent.
From my position on the County Commission I had done a number of things without urging to assist the City I loved, like installing the lake in front of the Botanical Gardens, paving lots in schools and at the McNair Health Center, and installing the elevated crosswalk on highway 78 near Scott School so children could safely cross that deathtrap highway on their way to school. Linda Coleman and Jeff Germany fought to see how much credit they could get for this while I simply smiled in the background knowing our bridge crews had done the work and were proud to do do. No commissioner had ever considered the city to be part of the county entitled to services from the commission until I was elected. It earned me some enemies, but made a friend of the Mayor. And I was pleased when Mayor Arrington asked me after I left the County Commission to head the Council of Cooperating Governments of which the City was a founding member. We worked on a number of projects together, including promoting the federally designated high speed rail link that joined Birmingham to Atlanta and New Orleans.
We got along well and it only mildly surprised me when he shared that although he was turning over the reigns of city government to William, he had serious misgivings about whether or not he was ready for the job. But it was too late to turn back and William Bell became the interim mayor of the City in 1999 with a decided advantage over other candidates. He had the power of the mayor’s office behind him and raised huge sums of money as he headed into the special election.
I supported William with both money and advice. Sharon Bell, aka Shelly, held regular meetings of the campaign advisory committee, mostly meeting at the Summit Club, to discuss the campaign and its progress. Things looked good. His only significant opponent was Councilman Bernard Kincaid who few took seriously. I left for Boston a few weeks before the election to attend a three week seminar at the Kennedy School of Government, but vowed I would return to Birmingham in time to vote and attend William’ s victory party.
While I was gone, Jimmy Blake determined that William’s connections to a compendium of trough feeders and his willingness to sell the city down the river for his personal benefit was not what Birmingham needed. He supported Kincaid and organized a brilliant and effective campaign to help him. As part of that effort, he had a cartoon designed to express a central theme of the campaign; that William was corrupt. He cranked out hundreds of cartoon signs on his printing machine and got Kincaid organized with support from other key council members. And although William had come within a few hundred votes of winning the primary election without a run-off, Kincaid’s support kept growing as people realised he was scrupulously honest and not part of any political machine.
William did not help matters by showing up at public forums with his “posse” of goons who made mafia Don Vito Corleone look like a choir boy. Everywhere he went, they went in addition to the million dollar security detail. Kincaid would show up at the same meeting by himself and wearing overalls, smiling all the while. And just like today, it did not escape anyone that Bell was taking large sums of money from the same people who had benefitted from his self proclaimed “Bell Plan”, a Water Works refinance plan that made the usual array of bond lawyers, attorneys, and consultants richer. All the while, Bell touted what a hero he was for saving the day. Certainly he was for Sharon Bell, his long suffering and emotionally battered wife, who was on leave and under investigation for misuse of school funds. After the plan produced millions for the school board to waste, Sharon got her job back and a salary of over $90,000 a year. He plans for divorce, after William physically battered her, were put on hold.
The Water Works has always been a major asset of the people of the City of Birmingham, but became the vehicle for producing huge sums of money beyond what was internally being sloshed to the political supporters of now Mayor Bell. A million dollars a year went to Charlie Waldrep who also supplied office space to William Jr. until he used his daddy’s name id to get himself elected a judge, albeit he was totally unqualified and inexperienced. Another million or so went to Jesse Lewis, self appointed spokesperson for all black people to “market” the water being sold by the Water Works. Have I missed something? Was there somewhere else we could have purchased water or were we all a captive audience with only one source? Why did we need ad campaigns to convince everyone that the water was great? Jesse also owned the Birmingham Times whose endorsement of William was deemed important. (An interesting fact is that I used to own a third of the stock of this company until I was begged by Jesse Jr. that my ownership where I was never paid a dividend no matter how much money the company made, was proving to be a great embarrassment to his father. So I sold him the stock for $5000 (a dumb move on my part.) Jesse was a handsome guy with a penchant for fast cars, white women, and cocaine. I was stunned one evening when he knocked on my door at the apartment building I owned on Southside. He was there to ostensibly discuss my stock, but he also took a tour of the place commenting on various things, especially my Bang and Olufsen stereo I had hand carried back from my studies in Sweden in the 70’s. Two days later, my apartment was broken into while I was at work and everything electronic, including my stereo, was stolen. Perhaps it was a coincidence, but in my mind it seemed to relate to that unexpected visit. A year or so later, Jesse was killed in an auto accident. There was no autopsy to measure alcohol or the presence of drugs. He was a likable guy, much loved by his family, and his death was a tragedy.
I returned to Birmingham just in time to vote and hook up with Dr. Blake who wanted me to go with him to the Kincaid headquarters. It was awkward because I was a strong Bell supporter. t was even more awkward that night when a political miracle occurred and Kincaid was elected over the incumbent. Jimmy Blake had almost single handedly pulled off a major upset in a record short period of time. He got little credit from Kincaid whose ego that required hats emblazoned with the words “Mayor” on them would not permit sharing the credit, much less placing it where it belonged. He was re-elected until Larry Langford, at the urging of many, decided to give up his seat on the County Commission and run for mayor of Birmingham, although his home was in Fairfield. Nonetheless, he won the election, defeating the incumbent and nine others without a runoff; another modern political miracle.
Now, history is repeating itself and here we go again. William sells out the people of the City in a sleazy Water Works deal done primarily to bring Charlie Waldrep back as the attorney for the board and keep other folks used to making money for very little work happy. He gets beats in the initial election by a relatively unknown newcomer to the political scene and must come from behind to win another term. But some things have changed. He does not have a Jimmy Blake, though he has paid Jeff Pitts, a political operative with considerable experience and a good track record, almost $300,000 to run his campaign. And he does not have the charisma, or the energy, or the ideas of a Larry Langford. Moreover, he does not have the character to run a high-minded race and has resorted to desperation tactics as he tries to hold onto power. And if you check his list of campaign contributors, you will find the same old crew of hacks often contributing through PACS ( Political Action Committees) to hide their contributions so the public will not know they are simply returning to their candidate a small fraction of the money they have been given, at taxpayer, expense by a morally bankrupt mayor. A good example is the $500,000 a year to Handprint, the City’s federal lobbyist who have yet to produce any significant help for the city. And there are dozens of others who feed with your tax dollars and give very little to improve your life.
Bad things happen when people do not pay attention. A pickpocket can steal your wallet while you are distracted at a concert. A credit card company can charge your card for insurance and other garbage “services” if you do not read the fine print. And a politician can get away with murder and become unseemly rich from your tax dollars when no one is watching. So as harsh as Dr. Blake’s cartoon may seem, it is on target and worked to get the public’s attention.
The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. And without a change on Tuesday, you can expect the same for years to come. So pay your outrageous water and sewer bills without complaint and take solace in the knowledge that you are buying a lifestyle for the rich and wanna be famous. But please do not say that you were not asked to pay attention.
john katopodis: the path well travelled 