From May 2 through Dec. 19, 2023, the Birmingham City Council held its Tuesday morning meetings at Boutwell Auditorium while renovations were underway on the council chambers at Birmingham City Hall.

The council returned to City Hall for its morning meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 2, and it was a welcome way to start 2024, council members said.

The renovation cost about $500,000 and took several months longer than initially planned, but provided updated video, sound and lighting systems, along with new seating for the public, Council President Darrell O’Quinn said.

“There were a lot of years of delayed upgrades that needed to happen,” O’Quinn said.

“We were trying to keep up with the times with outdated equipment.”

For years, council members have complained about the sound and lighting in the council chamber.

“I’m thankful for these new microphones,” said council member Valerie Abbott. “I can actually hear people and it makes me feel there’s not something wrong with me. The lighting in here is so much better than it was.”

Several decades worth of outdated audio-visual equipment had accumulated in the council chamber and the media control room that had to be replaced, O’Quinn said.

“The councilors couldn’t hear what the speakers were saying and the speakers couldn’t hear what we were saying,” O’Quinn said. “The audio was going in and out. We had trouble with the livestream.”

Conference Room A on the third floor of City Hall has now been equipped with modern video and sound technology as well, he said.

The cameras are now high-definition, which has its pluses and minuses, O’Quinn said.

“All your wrinkles were smoothed away,” O’Quinn said of the old cameras. “Now we’re in clear HD technology, so you can all of our warts and moles and disfigurements.”

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