Prichard Budget Standoff Deepens as Mayor Says Public Services Workers Stopped Work

PRICHARD, Ala. — The Prichard budget standoff reached a new point this week as Mayor Carletta Davis said some Public Services employees have stopped working over pay and workload, and urged residents to demand that the City Council pass her proposed spending plan.

Davis made the appeal in a social media post, tying the work stoppage to an unadopted 2027 budget that she said would address staffing, pay, equipment and supplies. The number of employees who stopped working was not specified.

“Our employees need support. Our residents need services. Our City needs action. We have done our part. It is time for the City Council to act! Demand that the City Council pass the budget!” Davis wrote.

The council’s next scheduled meeting is Thursday, Nov. 5, at 4 p.m. Davis called on residents to attend meetings and press members to approve the plan.

What the mayor says

Davis said her administration inherited an unbalanced budget, unpaid bills, understaffed departments and employees who were overworked and underpaid. Workers need fair pay, adequate staffing and better equipment, she said, and all three are in her proposal.

She also said the required legal steps, including a public hearing, have been completed, leaving the council’s vote as the remaining step. A hearing on the budget was held Sept. 10.

In the same post, Davis wrote that the city’s fire chief told the council two weeks ago that 14 firefighters had left and that others were considering leaving. Those figures come from the mayor’s post.

The proposal Davis presented to the council in August included raises for public works employees, police officers, firefighters and the city clerk. It also called for moving employees to a new health plan through the Local Government Health Insurance Program, with an annual deductible expected to fall from about $2,500 to roughly $200, and for work toward a retirement option.

At a community coffee last month, Davis told residents that her budget would pay for a new four-person public works crew for city-owned properties and money to rent another trash truck, with a goal of five trucks, one for each district.

“We’ve got to pass the budget,” she said at that event.

Where the numbers stand

The city has been without a newly adopted budget since 2023. Because no budget passed before the fiscal year began Oct. 1, Prichard has continued spending under its older plan, which state law allows to carry over. Davis has said the city has been operating under a $13.9 million budget while spending about $17 million a year.

The council has not simply signed off on the mayor’s numbers. Davis’ proposal projected $21.8 million in revenue, part of it tied to a planned $93 million data center on Telegraph Road. Council members agreed to reduce the plan to $19 million, saying they did not want spending to rest on revenue from a project that has not been built.

“That’s revenue that they’re trying to inject into the budget that’s not here, and we don’t know if it’s coming, nor when it will come,” Councilwoman Annie Williams said in September.

The Finance Committee worked through a $19.5 million plan on Oct. 5, and the mayor said at the time she hoped for approval at an Oct. 8 meeting. The committee met again Oct. 15 without reaching a final deal. City leaders said then that the plan must cover raises for all city employees and money for a new police chief.

Davis has also pressed for more revenue, saying the city has failed for years to collect franchise fees and lodging and gas taxes, and that it has only one business license investigator.

A broader fight at City Hall

The budget dispute is one piece of a larger legal fight over who controls city spending. Davis sued five council members in June, accusing the council of overstepping its authority by trying to regulate spending and by subpoenaing financial records. The council answered with its own requests for court orders limiting the mayor’s spending and contracting.

Court-ordered mediation ended without an agreement. In early October, Mobile County Circuit Judge Jill Phillips granted a joint request to decide the case on the existing record, with her judgment to follow in a separate order. As of Tuesday, nearly a month later, no such order had been entered.

Davis has argued that state law gives her authority to appoint executive staff, while council members have asked the court to limit nonessential spending and stop payments under contracts they say were not properly authorized. The ruling is expected to address questions including whether the mayor can enter financial obligations above $10,000 without council approval, and whether the council’s investigation of city finances can continue.

Trash trucks and public safety

Public Services has had equipment troubles as well as staffing ones. In July, two of the three sanitation trucks the city operated broke down, leaving one truck to cover city routes. In August, the council approved an emergency 90-day contract to collect garbage that had piled up on the ground.

Residents raised public works concerns directly with the mayor at her October coffee, describing illegal dumping, overgrown lots and drainage problems. One business owner there said the department has struggled with staffing and equipment through several administrations.

The strain extends beyond sanitation. The Mobile County Sheriff’s Office has handled policing in Prichard since June, following a corruption investigation that led to arrests of current and former officers. A one-year, $1.2 million agreement keeps deputies in the city through September 2027, and the city is searching for a new police chief. City leaders have discussed a $100,000 salary for that position, and Davis said last month that more than 200 people had applied.

Thursday’s meeting is the next scheduled opportunity for the council to take up the plan in public.