Some Birmingham City Council members want to explore alternatives to using the Jefferson County Personnel Board for hiring and firing employees, but leaders of the police and firefighter unions strongly objected at Tuesday’s council meeting.

“We have literally no leverage with the Jefferson County Personnel Board if we are dissatisfied with them,” said Birmingham City Council President Darrell O’Quinn.

The city voted Tuesday to adopt its legislative agenda, issues on which it wants to lobby the state legislature.

A proposal to “support enabling legislation that would allow the City of Birmingham to opt out of the Jefferson County Personnel Board” was dropped from the agenda even though O’Quinn emphasized that it was simply a means to explore options.

“It is not pulling out,” O’Quinn said. “It is seeking permission to consider that as an option.”

Stephen R. Cook, president of the Birmingham Firefighter’s Association, Local 117, spoke against the effort to stop using the county personnel board and said city employees were taken by surprise by the proposal to seek out alternatives.

Cook said that it would make it harder for the city to retain employees if it leaves the county personnel board. City employees looking to jump to a suburban fire department in the county personnel system have hurdles to clear with the board, he said.

“You have to resign first,” Cook said. Without that hurdle, the city risks an exodus of employees, he said. “It’s an easy route for all employees to leave.”

Council member Crystal Smitherman thanked Cook for expressing employee concerns. “You are the heartbeat of the city and we appreciate that,” Smitherman said.

Council member Valerie Abbott said she was puzzled why the city would ponder leaving the county personnel board without a backup plan.

Setting up a personnel board would be a costly venture and open the city to potential lawsuits, Abbott said. “It costs millions,” she said. “I have heard nothing on our alternatives.”

Lawrence Billups, vice president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 1, said the county personnel board has a history of protecting employees from being fired inappropriately.

“You have to keep protections,” Billups said. “I’ve seen situations where people have been done wrong.”

Dexter Cunningham, a retired Birmingham police officer and former FOP president, said the personnel board offers an independent, merit-based hiring system that improved on previous systems that were dependent on political connections. “It’s not a spoils system,” Cunningham said. “It’s fair and equitable.”

Birmingham and other police departments in Jefferson County hire from a list provided by the Jefferson County Personnel Board. But that list of available potential officers has been shrinking for years, from more than 1,000 to several hundred. That has caused concern about adequate police staffing and public safety.

The city’s legislative agenda that did pass included enabling legislation that allows for enhanced fines for littering, dumping, and weed abatement; foreclosure authority on properties that are nuisances; amending the AL Land Bank Act; Class 1 vacant property registration; seek funding for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund; enabling legislation to create the Birmingham Housing Trust Fund; and enabling legislation to cap employee liability.

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