Mobile City Council members voted Tuesday to approve the city’s 2020-21 general fund, capital improvement fund and convention center fund budgets, capping off a meeting marked by lengthy and at times contentious debate over how capital dollars should be divided among the city’s seven council districts.
The budget package passed 6-0, with one abstention. Councilman Fred Richardson declined to support the measure after his push to amend the capital improvement portion failed to gain traction in the form he wanted. Richardson had sought to redirect $1 million from a vehicle-settlement line item into a new line item he wanted to call the St. Stephens Road revitalization program.
Before the final vote, council members Bess Rich and Richardson both requested changes to the capital improvement fund. Rich’s amendment succeeded, restructuring $880,000 originally set aside for synthetic turf at Medal of Honor Park into three categories: $400,000 for resurfacing, $400,000 for new sidewalks, and $80,000 for beautification work along Grelot Road.
Richardson’s objection centered on what he described as an imbalance in capital funding across council districts. He argued that Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s proposed 2020-21 capital improvement budget included no money for District 1, which Richardson represents, even as other districts received funding for projects such as a new fire station at Langan Park, budgeted at $970,000.
“For him to give money to four or five districts and not give any money to District 1, is unacceptable,” Richardson said, noting that a fire station had previously been built in District 1 with city funds. “I’m saying that it’s just unjustifiable.”
Richardson also renewed his push for dedicated funding toward St. Stephens Road, pointing to the corridor’s status as part of U.S. Highway 45 — a route he argues deserves greater capital investment given its heavy local traffic.
The push to formally amend the budget hit a procedural snag when Councilman John Williams interjected that no motion had actually been made. Richardson insisted he had made one, and the two went back and forth before council president Levon Manzie asked Richardson to restate his motion for the record. Rich seconded it once Richardson clarified his request.
Rich used the moment to note that her own district had likewise been left out of new park funding in the proposed budget, even though several other districts received allocations for park improvements.
“If we look at that list, there are park improvements in the majority of the districts but not in all the districts,” she said. “The district that I represent did not get chosen, but I’ve been working with discretionary (funds) and CIP funds over the last number of years to make those improvements at Medal of Honor Park, and it’s been very successful for the most part.”
She cautioned colleagues against approving Richardson’s proposed $1 million transfer without more detail on where the money would ultimately be spent. “Taking money from a line where we won’t know what we’ll be doing at this point when we’re moving a million (dollars) from one line (item) is not keeping it apples to apples, it’s doing apples to oranges. It would make it difficult for the council to make a good decision,” Rich said.
Rich added she was glad to see money allocated generally for the St. Stephens Road corridor in the new budget, but said a full-scale project there was unlikely to move forward within the current fiscal year given how many details remained unresolved. “There were too many unknowns,” she said of what the project would ultimately require.
The disagreement reflects a recurring tension on the council over how the city divides limited capital dollars among Mobile’s seven districts each budget cycle, a dynamic that has surfaced repeatedly in past years as members balance citywide infrastructure priorities against calls for more equitable, district-by-district investment.