The Mobile City Council took up a wide-ranging agenda during a regular Tuesday meeting, covering everything from tourism marketing to updated crime statistics and a multiyear storm water services contract.
The president and chief executive of the Mobile Bay Convention & Visitors Bureau presented early findings from a newly completed visitor profile study, along with a preview of an upcoming two-day Tourism Town Hall planned for later in the month at the Arthur R. Outlaw Mobile Convention Center. The event is intended to bring together local stakeholders and members of the public to discuss the economic value of tourism investment in the Port City, with a panel of national convention industry experts scheduled to participate.
Mobile’s police chief also presented audited crime statistics covering roughly a year and a half, from mid-2013 through the end of 2014. The data showed an overall decline in total crime of more than 9 percent and a smaller drop in violent crime, even after the department broadened its criteria for certain offense categories. The chief acknowledged the numbers, while encouraging, still reflect the loss of dozens of lives to violence over the prior year and said continued work remains necessary.
Council members also considered a professional services contract worth roughly $350,000 with an environmental firm to continue storm water management work for the city, which the city’s planning director described as largely a renewal of ongoing services. A councilman raised concerns about the diversity of the firm’s staff and said he would support the contract for one more year while pressing for changes going forward.
In other business, the council discussed a grant-funded purchase of a trash-collection boat intended to help clean the Three Mile Creek watershed, a long-standing environmental priority for the city, as well as a separate contract to study “complete streets” design improvements linking Water Street to Beauregard Street in coordination with state highway officials reworking nearby Interstate 10 interchanges.
Council members also weighed a proposal to install synthetic turf at heavily used soccer fields at a city park, with supporters arguing the upfront cost would be offset by lower long-term maintenance on fields used by numerous community groups.
Mayor Sandy Stimpson did not attend the meeting in person, as he was in Washington, D.C. for meetings related to federal infrastructure funding. His chief of staff represented the administration and fielded council questions in his absence.
The council also opened applications for open municipal judge positions, with a filing deadline set for later in the month.