By Terry Schrimscher, For the Tribune
SPRINGVILLE – The Springville Council held its first public hearing on proposed redistricting plans Monday night, March 6. Copies of the proposed district changes and existing district maps can be found on the city website.
“It remains seven single-member districts,” said City Attorney James Hill III, speaking of the proposed changes. “It provides a more consistent number of citizens within each district.”
The proposed districts were created by the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham (RPC) based on census block data. In October of 2021, the Council approved a $5,000 contract, plus hourly rates, with RPC to draw up proposals for redistricting the city.
One of the questions presented at that time, and in later discussions, revolved around whether it was possible to preserve the city’s existing majority minority district.
“Remember, we had a lot of discussions at that time about all these different options, many of which included, ‘Is it possible for the city to preserve a majority minority district?’” Hill said. “In reality, this body decided that would be remarkably unlikely, if possible at all, without an unbelievable derivation from your mapping districts.”
In a previous meeting, Hill had explained that the law requires municipalities to seek no greater than a 5% variance. Previously, the city diverged greatly from that rule to maintain the majority minority district in place.
“The law doesn’t actually require a public hearing. However, with items such as this, often times municipalities do entertain public comments,” Hill said.
Brett Isom of the RPC was on hand to field questions during the meeting. He explained one of the goals was for the districts to be relatively the same size with a variation of 5%.
“We tried to keep it as close to plus or minus 5%,” Isom said. “I think one of the districts may have gotten up to six.”
“It would be my recommendation that you not take action tonight,” Hill said. He suggested allowing a couple of weeks for the city to receive comments from the public and allow people to review the changes.
Police Chief Wayne Walton addressed the Council of concerns about losing officers to other cities.
“In one week, we have lost three police officers,” Walton said. “The reasons for leaving were insurance, sign-on bonus and incentive pay for specialized job classifications within the department.”
Walton cited examples in other cities offering $5,000 sign-on bonuses and college tuition reimbursements among other benefits. The Council is expected to meet to work on budget ideas to help Springville remain competitive in hiring officers for the city.
Several officers were recognized for their work during the meeting. City Attorney Hill read a letter commending four members of the police department for their work on a recent suicide case in the city.
The letter thanked the city saying the officers arrived quickly, consoled the family, and even attended the funeral to pay respects to the family. The letter specifically mentioned Sergeant Maggie Milazzo for her kind words and giving her time to comfort the family and officers Brandon Cain and John Key along with Administrative Assistant Gina Burns for their efforts.
During the meeting, Chief Walton presented promotions to three officers to new ranks. Officer Kevin Stewart was promoted to Sergeant. Officer Justin Rigby was promoted to Corporal. Officer Steve Wilson was also promoted to the rank of Corporal.
In other business, the Council took the following actions:
- Appointed Drexel Rayford and Alex Bosworth to the park board.
- Approved resolutions to enter into cooperative purchasing agreements for sports equipment with NCPA Cooperative and Buyboard Cooperative.
- Rejected all bids for mobile radio equipment for first responders.
- Approved $11,588 for Computer-Aided Dispatch software for Springville police.
The next meeting of the Springville City Council will be held at 6 p.m. on March 20 with a work session at 5:30 p.m.