A Mobile business owner has filed a lawsuit in Mobile County Circuit Court seeking to force the City Council to resolve its long-stalled election of a council president — a fight that has left the body without a leader or standing committees for months.
The suit was filed by Chassity Ebbole, owner of L.A. Body Art and a friend of Councilman Fred Richardson. It argues the council should honor historical precedent and seat Richardson, who received four votes to Councilwoman Gina Gregory’s three when members informally cast their picks ahead of the organizational meeting.
Supermajority Rule at the Center
Under the Zoghby Act — the state law establishing Mobile’s current form of government — electing a council president requires votes from five of the seven members, a supermajority. Ebbole calls that an “old, dead law that had never been enforced” and argues the council’s sudden reliance on it to block Richardson is “arbitrary and capricious.”
“For more than 30 years it worked,” Ebbole said. “The system was not broken. It’s a joke.”
Her complaint asks for an injunction preventing the council from changing its traditional selection method and claims the deadlock has caused “chronic and significant problems” governing the city. With no president seated, the city clerk has chaired meetings in the absence of Vice President Levon Manzie, who has been out recovering from a knee injury, and ad hoc committees have replaced the board’s standing committees.
Councilors Split
Richardson says he hopes the court can break the impasse: “There is no path in the city of Mobile among the council to selecting a president… if we had a path we’d have a president by now.”
Councilman John Williams, who voted against Richardson, stood firm. “The law is the law,” Williams said. “It’s very simple, it takes a super majority.” Council attorney Wanda Cochran and Manzie both declined comment.
Ebbole acknowledged her 20-year friendship with Richardson but said there has never been anything more to their relationship.