Court-ordered mediation between Prichard Mayor Carletta Davis and the city council has collapsed without a resolution, sending the long-running fight over spending, contracts and city authority back into the hands of a Mobile County judge.
Circuit Judge Jill Parrish Phillips issued an order this week confirming that she had received the mediator’s report and that no agreement was reached between the parties. The development means one of the Mobile County area’s most closely watched municipal disputes will continue through the courts rather than ending at the negotiating table.
What the Judge Ordered Next
With mediation off the table, Phillips is requiring the mayor and council to lay out how the case should proceed. She directed the parties to jointly submit a proposed scheduling order within seven days covering discovery deadlines, any additional testimony they intend to present, whether any issues in the case have become moot, and whether they want the judge to rule on pending matters without further evidence.
If the two sides cannot agree on a joint proposal, each will be free to file its own proposed scheduling order — leaving the shape of the remainder of the litigation in the judge’s hands.
How Mediation Fell Apart
Former Mobile County Circuit Judge John Lockett had been appointed to mediate the case after Davis requested the process. The council objected to mediation, arguing that the dispute turns on legal questions about who holds authority over city finances, property, contracts and personnel decisions — questions the council contended should be decided by the court, not negotiated away.
The underlying fight has already produced competing requests for preliminary injunctions. Council members have asked the court to block Davis from making nonessential expenditures, entering into financial obligations above $10,000 without council approval, and continuing payments under contracts they contend were never properly authorized.
Davis, for her part, has argued that state law gives her the authority to appoint her own executive staff and that the disputed positions were included in the city budget. She has also asked the court to halt the council’s financial investigation of her administration, while the council has asked the court to uphold that investigation and invalidate two mayoral vetoes.
What’s at Stake for Prichard
The case is more than a procedural spat. Prichard, one of Mobile County’s largest cities, has operated under a cloud of uncertainty as the mayor and council battle over fundamental questions of governance: whether the council can investigate how city money is spent, whether the mayor can unilaterally commit the city to contracts, and how the balance of power carved out in state law applies in a mayor-council form of government.
The dispute has dragged on across multiple court hearings, with each side accusing the other of overstepping its authority. Residents have watched the fight play out in contentious council meetings while routine business — budgeting, contracting and personnel decisions — has been tangled up in the litigation.
With no settlement in sight, the proposed scheduling filings due in the coming days will determine the next steps in the case, including how long discovery will last and when the parties might see a ruling on the injunction requests.
Until then, Prichard’s city government remains effectively at war with itself, with a judge — not a mediator — now positioned to decide how the story ends.