City Council Discussions Criticized

Members of the Montgomery City Council increasingly are settling their differences in discussions before council meetings rather than during them, a practice which council members say helps them to deal better with city issues.

But the council’s quick actions have drawn criticism from some city residents who complain the board acts without notifying the public and without any public debate.

One of several residents of Rosa Parks Avenue – formerly Cleveland Avenue – who protested the changing of the road’s name in March said the council action was “shoved down our throats.”

A representative of the Alabama Service Station Association has complained the council was “ramrodding through” an ordinance to raise the city’s gasoline tax and should have discussed alternatives publicly.

Complaints on those issues were heard at the council meeting Tuesday, before the board authorized city officials to prepare paperwork for issuing $7 million in warrants for three city projects.

The resolution was approved on its first reading without debate by the council, in almost the same manner as the other two issues which were passed at previous meetings.

Council members said after the meeting that they had agreed to support issuing warrants in discussions prior to the meeting.

Such a pattern represents a turnaround from three years ago, when the council was divided along racial lines on a number of issues and a few council members openly argued with Mayor Emory Folmar about city policies. Although some issues, including the annexation of land in east Montgomery, still divide the council, open debate on those matter has flickered out quickly and council members remain eager to settle their differences privately.

Council members dismiss the objections about the way they handled the gas tax and street name change, saying the objections come from only a small segment of the city’s population.

They say many such issues are discussed in telephone conversations, unplanned public meetings and conversations in City Hall shortly before the council meetings start.

Folmar also said he solicits support from council members on a number of city actions. He discussed with council members for months the ideas of issuing bonds for the projects and raising taxes to offset the expected loss of federal revenue.

Folmar blames debate in the past on former Council President Willie Peak and former Councilman Donald Watkins. The mayor describes Watkins as the “most disruptive force” ever associated with the council and blames Peak for allowing Watkins “to say and do anything he wanted to.”

Council President Alice Reynolds said council members now “are trying to work out our differences” without the board “making a public spectacle of itself” as it has in past meetings.

The nine-member council includes five members who were elected in 1983, and Mrs. Reynolds said those new members have upheld their campaign promises to be cooperative.

Councilman Joe Reed, who has been a leader of the black minority during his 11 years on the council, said council harmony helps the city develop “far-signed” solutions to city problems.

Reed said all city districts benefit from the cooperation and notes that a number of neighborhood projects and community centers that have been completed recently.

Watkins, an attorney, said his profession gave him the knowledge to question the operations of city government that some “lay people” now on the council do not have.

He said a reduction in the number of police shootings of unarmed blacks has resulted in some of the council harmony.

But he also warned there is a dissatisfaction in the black community over the level of city services it receives, an issue he raised while on the council.

“I think whites tend to infer from the absence of tension a false peace,” Watkins said. “It’s been the history of white Montgomery.”

But Folmar and members now on the council make it clear they hope the close cooperation will continue.

“If we can come down here and achieve things for the people of Montgomery without a fight, it’s much better,” Reed said.

Folmar said, “Maybe Mr. Reed and I have gotten a little older and a little wiser. We realize we can both get the things done that are needed to do without going to war every night.”