Montgomery officials no longer pursuing city school system

MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) - At its work session on Tuesday, the Montgomery City Council discussed where it would allocate an unexpected $150,000 in funding after members decided to not put it toward laying the foundation for the a city school system.

Mayor Todd Strange told WSFA 12 News in August that the 2018 fiscal budget would include up to $200,000 in funding to create a Montgomery City School System. Now, council members are saying they do not want to pour money into a team to lay the groundwork for a city school system with the state intervention underway.

"We don't need to worry about that now. We need to worry about what's going on in the City, and let them handle it," Council President and District 9 Councilman Charles Jinright said. "They've got a lot of disturbance over there, a lot of situations that they need to work out, and we just don't need to add to the mix up of whatever is going on. Let it be settled out evenly right now and then we'll go in there down the road."

Jinright said the intervention process, so far, has already provided the City with valuable information it did not have before and that moving toward a city school system now would be confusing.

"We have to support what is going on there because we can't have people confused about who's leading what or about who wants to do," Jinright said.

With the feasibility off the table for now, the council discussed two potential ways to utilize the extra $150,000. One of the options is to put the money toward road paving projects that are eligible for the state to match funding four-to-one.

Jinright, who is in favor of using the money for paving projects, said that $150,000 would become $800,000 with state matching.

"All of a sudden it's a really good investment if we do it that way," Jinright said. "All of these state streets through the city have to have 20 percent money for the City to get them done. Carter Hill Road, Court Street, Norman Bridge Road, Madison Avenue, Vaughn Road, so many. We need that matching money to do that."

Tracy Larkin, District 5 councilmen and president pro tem, proposed the money be used to create a Neighborhood Revitalization Program for the City.

"We have a number of abandoned structures, vacant lots, buildings that need to be demolished," Jinright said. "A number of problems people feel are not being taken care of by the City. They feel the City has neglected their neighborhoods."

Larkin said he is not opposed to paying for more paving projects but feels neighborhood work is a "bigger deal."

"I feel that we need to create, not just a program, but an entire neighborhood department that focuses on neighborhood revitalization," Larkin said.

Larkin, whose district includes Downtown Montgomery, said he receives a number of complaints that the City is not paying as much attention to the upkeep of its older neighborhoods as it is to developing Downtown.

"While their neighborhoods are crumbling around them, they don't feel that they City is paying any attention to them," Larkin said.

Larkin's vision is for a new program to be created to oversee neighborhood issues such as excess litter and trash, abandoned buildings, demolition needs and the implementation of a system to regulate renting properties in the city. However, some members of the council stated there are current resources as well as new features that will go into effect once the new budget is passed that will address these issues.

The proposed budget includes $400,000 to be used for the demolition of dilapidated properties throughout the City.  The budget also includes funds to hire a city employee who will oversee these projects as well as manage the vacant lots. Jinright said he feels the council should let those efforts grow and see what gets done before putting money into creating something similar. On the other hand, Lark said he is one who pushed for the creation of that position and does not feel a neighborhood revitalization program would overlap any upcoming efforts.

The council will meet on Oct. 3 to vote on the budget for the fiscal year that will start on Oct. 1. The two highly contested issues are how to spend this money and the issue of whether or not to increase the City's lodging tax by one percent.

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