A group opposing LGBTQ rights and Diversity Equity and Inclusion programs has put up billboards around the city urging residents to vote “no” in Tuesday’s annexation vote.

Why has Faith Family Freedom Coalition Metro Mobile put up the signs? What’s the link between their opposition to LGBTQ and DE&I issues and the proposed annexation? And has the group violated any state campaign laws with its sign campaign?

The Coalition is named on at least two billboards advocating for a “No vote” on annexation, is not registered as a political action committee with the Alabama Secretary of State, the office confirmed late Wednesday.

A cluster of smaller signs, posted in city right-of-way along busy stretches of roads and advocating for a “No” vote, does not reference who might be paying for them.

Faith Family Freedom Coalition Metro Mobile would not have to register with the Secretary of State’s Office if it spends less than $1,000 campaigning, according to state law. It’s unclear how much the billboard advertisement costs.

Anti-annexation push

One billboard is on Airport Boulevard near Baker High School includes an image of the Civil War cannon on Government Street in midtown Mobile as it was painted last year in colorful rainbow hues during LGBGT Pride Month.

“Our values are under attack,” the billboard reads. “Vote NO on annexation July 18th.”

Martin Scott Catino, a Mobile resident whose resume includes a stint in the military and as a Fulbright Scholar specializing in security studies, is the organization’s main spokesman. He did not return a call or email from AL.com on Wednesday for comment.

Earlier in the day, Catino told a local radio station that the annexation vote is a “huge decision.” He also claimed that the “civil liberties, your investments, your children and families and their well-being” was at stake.

Catino blasted Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson, an annexation proponent, for supporting Diversity and Inclusion training within the City of Mobile and for having LGBTQ liaisons to boost the city’s Municipal Equality Index through the Human Rights Campaign.

“The social component is inseparable from the economic,” Catino said while interviewed by Dalton Orwig and Dan Brennan during their morning show on FM Talk 106.5 in Mobile on Wednesday. “This race-based priority system is the same policy that has ruined cities around the United States.”

Catino has made appearances before local organizations and debated Mobile City Councilman Ben Reynolds during a forum hosted by the Common Sense Campaign tea party last month.

Reynolds said he advocated for annexation because of the financial benefits to the city, and to residents who rely on city police and fire protection services. He also said that if people are concerned about social issues, their only recourse would be with being able to vote during a municipal election, something which residents outside the city limits cannot do.

“Scott Catino came in and did his presentation that was based on social issues and was all about DEI and LGBTQ and all the federal stuff going on nationally and that the city would be this overwhelming influence into everyone’s lives and forcing issues down everyone’s throat,” Reynolds said. “My answer was simple: If you don’t like the policy of the City of Mobile, the way you influence that policy is by way of the vote.”

Common Sense support

Catino has the support of the Common Sense Campaign, a group that has played an influential role in past elections in mostly GOP-heavy Baldwin County. Notably, they were the main opponents to a special property tax referendum in Baldwin County in 2015, which was overwhelmingly defeated by voters and prompted the school system to search for alternative ways to raise revenues to support the construction of new schools.

Former Alabama Auditor Jim Zeigler, who has had the support of the Common Sense Campaign in the past, was the forum’s moderator. He said the forum drew about 60 people, and that Catino was vocally critically of DEI and LGBTQ programs.

“His pitch was we don’t need to be joining a city that is promoting San Francisco-type progressiveness and Chicago-type progressiveness,” said Zeigler, who will vote on Tuesday but declined to say where he stood on the issue.

Kay Day, a representative of the Common Sense Campaign in Mobile County who lives in Theodore and will not vote on Tuesday, said she believes about “95% of our folks would vote ‘No.’”

Day said in her personal opinion, the city has “so many things they are working on …that are just not good for the community or our children.”

She said part of her organization’s frustrations was with Mobile hosting an LGBTQ Pride Month event during Art Walk.

Read more: Anti-LGBTQ comments in Mobile raise questions about prayer before public meetings

“We reached out to the mayor many times with no reaction,” said Day. “A no reaction means you are just going to go ahead with your plan.”

Stephen Worley, who is the spokesman of the “One Mobile PAC” — pro-annexation political action committee – declined to comment. Worley was the campaign manager for Stimpson’s re-election campaign in 2021.

Rankling supporters

The opposition also comes at a time when Mobile city officials are attempting to tout the benefits of annexation.

Mobile City Councilman Joel Daves, at the conclusion of Tuesday’s council meeting, said that the city will look at rolling back its three-mile police jurisdiction after the election. He said that means police and fire protection services could likely not be provided to around 71,000 residents living within the jurisdiction – a population the size of Dothan.

Daves said Wednesday that he did not make the comments as a response to the opposition campaign.

The opposition’s emergency is rankling longtime annexation proponents who believe it’s nothing more than a last-minute effort aimed at torpedoing Mobile’s annexation plans to add nearly 26,000 residents.

“This is a public safety issue and has nothing to do with social issues,” said Freddy Wheeler, secretary of the West Mobile Annexation Committee that was formed about five years ago to back the issue.

The special election includes four areas west of the city limits who will get a chance to vote “Yes” or “No” on whether they want to be included within the city’s corporate boundaries. If all four areas include a majority of “Yes” votes, the city’s overall population – currently at 184,952 – would surge beyond 200,000 and elevate Mobile from the fourth to the second-largest city in Alabama trailing only fast-growing Huntsville.

Del Sawyer, chairman of the West Mobile Annexation Committee, said he believes Catino is jumping into the annexation debate to “raise awareness to himself.”

“Where has this Catino guy been for the past six years?” Sawyer said, referring to the approximate length of the annexation debate in Mobile leading up to Tuesday’s special election.

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