Most Mobile Residents Want City Executives Living Inside City Limits
A large majority of local readers say top Mobile city officials should be required to actually live within the city they help run.
Mobile Mayor Stimpson Touts City’s Financial Turnaround After First Year
Mayor Sandy Stimpson says Mobile's finances swung from a $4.3 million deficit to a $15.4 million balance in his first year, though $250M in needs remain.
Mobile Municipal Garage Workers Earn First ‘Pay It Forward’ Bonuses
Seven Mobile Municipal Garage employees became the first recipients of Mayor Sandy Stimpson's employee bonus program.
Mobile Finance Chief Touts Budget Surplus as Councilman Defends Prior Year’s Numbers
Mobile's finance director reported a budget surplus for 2014 as a councilman pushed back on claims about the prior year's deficit.
Uncollected Storm Water Fees and Camera Plans Weigh on Mobile’s Budget
As Mobile searched for revenue, officials revisited a 2009 storm water ordinance that was adopted but never collected, along with plans for red-light cameras at 20 intersections to help fund…
Sales Tax Hike Falls 3-3-1 as Mobile Council Rejects Jones, and Layoffs Loom
Buried under hundreds of angry emails and calls, Mayor Sam Jones's penny sales tax died in a 3-3-1 vote on Tax Day. As many as 300 city jobs are now…
Counting to Five: The Sales Tax Vote Rests on One Council Member
Mayor Sam Jones has made his case for a penny sales tax. The measure was laid over Tuesday, and the arithmetic on a seven-member council now points to a single…
Jones Abandons Pay Cut, Asks Council for a Penny Sales Tax Increase
With city workers descending on City Hall, Mayor Sam Jones dropped his 10-percent pay cut and took a one-cent sales tax increase to the council's finance committee instead.
Mobile’s $18.5 Million Hole: Every Option on the Table, and None of Them Painless
Facing an $18.5 million shortfall, Mobile officials weighed pay cuts, a sales tax increase, a garbage collection fee and layoffs. Each carried a political price nobody wanted to pay.
Mobile Notebook: A Scarce Mayor, a Promised Rebuttal and a District Meeting in Leinkauf
Mayor Sam Jones's absence from City Hall was raising eyebrows, the camp of former judge Herman Thomas promised a reply to recent allegations, and Councilman William Carroll called a district…