Two years ago The Political Revolution PAC found its place in the progressive movement supporting candidates at the state and local level. In the spring of 2017, PR connected with the team who would eventually knock on over 50,000 doors to unseat a two term incumbent mayor and help elect Randall Woodfin – bringing with him the most progressive platform in the history of The Magic City. We interviewed then candidate Woodfin on the campaign trail and published our conversation in four parts with included audio courtesy of soundcloud . Transcripts: 1 2 3 4

This year, PR caught up with Randall Woodfin to take a look at his first year in office and how his public policy vision is taking shape. We visited City Hall on January 2nd, 2019, which was also the first Birmingham City Council session of the year and saw the swearing in of two new councilpersons. Crystal Smitherman and Clinton Woods were appointed to fill vacancies left by LaShunda Scales and Sheila Tyson, who won seats on the Jefferson County Commission. In addition, the mayor presented a proclamation for retiring Chief Planner Tom Magee for whom members of the council shared memories and heartfelt farewells. After his remarks and responses to the council, the mayor was able to spend time with us reviewing the issues discussed in PR’s 2017 interview from the campaign trail.

Early on in our 2017 interview, Randall framed the role of city government as primarily affecting four areas: public safety, education, small business and neighborhood revitalization so we planned our questions around those areas and discussed progress with regards to the ideas shared during the campaign.

So what of progress? While education funding by the city was nearly doubled from the 1.8 million spent in 2016 to just over 3 million, its still a great deal less than the $20 million municipal commitment made by Huntsville, for example. While its fair to say Mayor Woodfin places education among his highest priorities, indeed he has served on the board as its president twice, he heaped praise on the new Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Lisa Herring, with whom a working relationship the mayor cites critical. Dr Herring’s service commenced midway through 2017 was unanimously extended for four years last week by the Board of Education and there is visible progress already. The Alabama State Department of Education released its report in December and while 5 schools in the district made the “failing list”, one year ago a full 22 of 43 Birmingham City Schools received failing grades, a significant improvement to be sure.

There is more to look forward to than funding and cooperation with this administration. Among one of Woodfin’s more popular campaign goals to materialize, the Fred Shuttlesworth scholarship has been instantiated. This is a program which has been essential to his strategy with regards to improving outcomes for high school students, helping them attain workplace skills through apprenticeships and up to two years of tuition-free education. The initial steps to having established the scholarship are complete and the mayor hopes that 2019 will begin to show direct benefits to Birmingham students.

While Woodfin’s expertise as a prosecutor had established his relationship to law enforcement professionally, his personal relationships with officers has grown as he shows up at the start of shifts to help promote some of the new department policies like community engagement. “It’s part of the job now” the mayor explained, “when officers are not on a call they are to build relationships with the community be they businesses or citizens”. And he means it – “Its not a request” that when not tending to their other duties officers are instructed to meet and greet with their constituents. Looking back at how his vision for education included law enforcement outreach to adolescents in the form of crime prevention programs, its safe to say he believes in long term investments in time and effort to not just change numbers, but the way the city policies and commits to connecting with its public.

One of the tougher public policy strategies for any administration may be improving outcomes for pre-high school adolescents, however, as this space requires considerations not just with education, but with recreational opportunities for youth in their down time and even more grave, law enforcement policy. Public resources like like libraries and parks may be among the easiest to enhance via budget changes (the city has a new library director and is pursuing a grant to rehabilitate the downtown library) but in once instance, as promised, Birmingham looked to its business community and as a result youth basketball received some attention in the form of a public-private partnership with BBVA Compass, who provided 100% of the funding to rehabilitate basketball courts near Legion Field and attracted a Rockets-Grizzlies game at BJCC. With regards to law enforcement, Woodfin has always supported forward looking strategies like community engagement – now a part of the job – and especially for youth, crime prevention.

So far the Woodfin administration’s criminal justice reforms appear extremely positive. The city swore in Police Chief Patrick Smith of Tuscaloosa, a 28 year veteran of the LAPD who has professed to be “ on a mission ” to reduce crime and improve the lives of those in the city. More than a hundred officers were also relieved of duty, and plans for staffing a larger police force and underway. A re-hire program for retired and other former officers as well as supporting lateral moves from other departments has helped bring the force closer to its goal of just over 1000 officers are showing promise. An attractive new “four tens” program, which allows officers to work fewer days was also implemented as Woodfin promised, another way he hopes his administration can reach desired coverage levels while looking out for needs of officers. Nearly 300 new police officers were sworn into office last week.

Among the greatest news I think I’ve read from Birmingham over the past year was a milestone for the force Mayor Woodfin was clearly excited to share: “I’ll give you one stat” he said, “In the month of November, there was not one complaint from any citizen towards Birmingham Police”.

Another serious problem for residents of the city proper, Woodfin met with city leaders and received a commitment of a “large amount” of money to attract grocers back to Birmingham. Food deserts are a reality for too many in the city and he pledged to speak to CEOs of major grocery chains as a top priority in the first quarter of 2019. Understanding the financial commitment being undertaken, Woodfin stated his intent to use public funds to ensure those who are “in the food business to make money” to incentivize bringing grocery stores back into the city. “I am in the business of serving healthy citizens” he said.

By the end of the year, the city expects to have paid down debts taken on by the business loan program and Woodfin hopes to make new funds available by 2020. At the start of the year the mayor announced a 21 person business advisory council comprised of local business owners whose role would be to advise the administration how it can be more supportive of small business. “There is appetite here for the city to be at the forefront of supporting small business” Apart from directly supporting businesses with these existing programs, City Hall is changing the way it serves the community. “We are going to change the way people enter City Hall” explains Woodfin’s Engagement Coordinator. The intent is to streamline the process by which business owners attain and renew licensing, and hope to overhaul the City Hall experience by hiring concierge-style clerks to greet and advise citizens upon their entry and helping make City Hall more accessible to all.

As we finished interviewing Mayor Woodfin, we asked about the problem of concentrated poverty. In the third blackest city in the U.S., we asked the mayor what to expect with regards to initiatives that intend to directly cause uplift with citizens of The Magic City.

First, Woodfin referred back to his policy with regards to solving the problem of food deserts – even if the city needs to cut a check to the grocers or their industry he insisted that the problem of food deserts is among the most urgent. “Even if it takes us awhile to get people out of poverty, we gotta bring resources back into the community” as a necessary the first step. Even a few grocers enter the local marketplace and it doesn’t immediately or directly reduce poverty, putting choices in front of residents needs to come first. Decreasing crime as well as options for children entering and leaving school like early education – though the mayor’s plans for early child development programs are dependent on a liaison he is currently seeking to hire – were underscored as obstacles to lifting citizens out of poverty.

Housing and his appointment power over the housing authority, seems to be where the mayor really sees an upward path can be struck out by the city. Michael Lundy , President of the Housing Authority of the Birmingham District, who according to Woodfin, share the same vision. “We believe the model of concentrated poverty is outdated” and added that “we want to shift energy to affordable housing and single family housing as housing is a big piece of breaking up concentrated poverty” and which certainly sounds like more Birmingham dollars directed at housing programs. The mayor was sure to note that this is beyond just pushing for more Section 8 vouchers, and if the plans to build 50 new multi-family homes in District 6 continue at pace while nearly 300 dilapidated homes were cleared in 2018, it looks as if the mayor is just beginning a long road of committed neighborhood revitalization.

If safer streets, educational opportunities for children, healthy food and housing assistance aren’t realized for more of Birmingham now than ever, it seems that it will be. Effort is being made by this mayor in each of those areas and some very promising changes at least as far as the Alabama State Department of Education and the constituents of the Birmingham City Police are concerned. For the first time ever, Birmingham government has an LGBTQ liaison in Josh Coleman. Several programs are still in the early stages of planning and implementation, yet positives in education and criminal justice show “ The Woodfin Way ” is having a positive impact and their team wants to keep its promise.

Visit www.birminghamal.gov for details on the policies and operations of the City of Birmingham and Randall Woodfin’s administration