A looming half a million dollar personnel settlement, two fire chiefs and a growing legal tab were not enough to spark action yesterday among Tarrant city leaders.

Instead, city council members and Mayor Wayman Newton, who lead the Birmingham metro city of 5,000, spent two hours digging up old battles, threatening physical violence and issuing personal insults.

Among the traded barbs, it was a punch lobbed by Councilman Tommy Bryant against Mayor Wayman Newton in a city hall parking lot two years ago that triggered new threats and a racial slur between the two political foes.

Things fell apart quickly when Newton initiated his recurring push to fire Police Chief Wendell Major, whom the council unanimously supports.

Bryant shot back. He said the move to oust Major goes back to his involvement in a case regarding an exchange between Bryant and Newton that ended with the councilman punching the mayor.

“He went on to talk vulgar about what he was going to do to my wife and then I hit him,” Bryant said, recalling the 2022 exchange with Newton. “And the court by the way said, ‘not guilty.’ That was fighting words that any man that had any reasonable guts about him at all would have hit him,” Bryant said from the dais.

Newton interrupted.

“So next time you call me a ‘boy’ I’m going to follow that and I’m going to hit you,” Newton said.

“You ain’t man enough to stand up to me,” Bryant shot back.

“Or better yet, why don’t you call me a “N*****” like you’ve been calling me,” Newton said, generating gasps among people sitting in the full chamber. “You want it?”

Among the uproar, Councilwoman Veronica Freeman jumped from her seat and rushed to Bryant’s side, shaking him and urging him to end the exchange.

“Tommy, Tommy, just stop! We’ve got to handle the city business,” Freeman said.

Bryant ignored her pleas and continued his allegations against Newton.

Ultimately, the move to fire Major was ignored. And in the end, no major business was accomplished as the most significant items that threaten to drain city coffers remained unresolved.

Two fire chiefs

The town currently employs two fire chiefs after authorities declared Newton had improperly fired the previous chief and reinstated him.

Chief Jason Rickels urged the council to settle the dispute, pay him back pay and allow him to remain on the books till his retirement in about two more years at a price tag of about $500,000.

“I would not sue this city for a single nickel if you just pay me my back pay and pay me for the next 22 months,” Rickels said.

“Just let me go away.”

Newton dismissed the case as “nothing more than a money grab.”

“You’ve run this city in the ground,” council member and Mayor Pro-tem Tracie Threadford said in response.

Utility rebate

Newton took turns during the remainder of the meeting sparring with his political foes, including the manager of Tarrant Utilities.

Newton spent about 45 minutes in his presentation where he handed out charts, budget sheets and played video news clips to make his case to dole out $75 to each customer. The total cost of the effort would be about $200,000.

Newton Monday said a publicly owned utility should give some of it its earnings back to its customers. He cited a higher than usual profit for Tarrant Utilities in 2023 as a justification for the rebates. Newton in his presentation noted that Alabama Power had issued credits when profits reached a certain threshold.

The council and managers at Tarrant Utilities pushed back on his proposal, at times panning it as a political ploy to gain favor since he was stripped by the council of serving as the superintendent, with powers later given to Threadford.

Threadford said she is not opposed to some form of rebate, but said more study is needed to be fair in issuing them. She also said the city needed regulatory approval from the Tennessee Valley Authority before granting the benefit.

“I don’t have a problem giving a rebate but I’m going to make sure it is fair and equitable,” Threadford said.

She also noted that the utilities department is already working on a rebate problem to refund a portion of deposits to longtime customers.

The mayor and all council seats are up for election in 2025.