Don’t expect much public debate as the Birmingham City Council discusses Mayor Randall Woodfin’s proposed spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year.

That’s because changes to the city’s charter in recent years stripped council members of most of their power to edit the budget. Now they can’t make changes unless they get written approval from the mayor.

“It makes the power of government unbalanced,” said Crystal Smitherman, the city council pro tem and chair of the Budget and Finance Committee. “There needs to be more balance in this process. The council is very frustrated with the lack of power in the budget process.”

The council will consider the proposed budget at a public hearing on June 5 at Boutwell Auditorium. Unless they make changes with the mayor’s approval, council members will essentially have to pass the budget as written or reject it altogether.

Birmingham’s budget process for years mirrored how it is done on the federal level where the president proposes a budget with priorities, followed by a series of hearings, debates, and often raucous rhetoric from both sides. Budget hearings drew a full house of residents, neighborhood leaders, activists and advocates, who waited in line to plead for funding. Council budget workshops stretched into the weekend, as people squeezed into a conference room to hear the discussion. Eventually the mayor and council reached a compromise to fund the city for the year but only after heated debate and many rounds of edits.

Things changed in 2016 when an edit to state law gave the mayor of Birmingham the power to approve any changes the council proposes to the budget. Any changes now require the mayor’s written consent. Disgraced former state Rep. Oliver Robinson, who left office over criminal convictions in a federal corruption case, sponsored the legislation.

Sungho Park, an assistant professor of public policy and administration at the University of Alabama, said the changes made Birmingham an outlier among peer cities across the country.

“Alabama has made Birmingham deviate from the national trend and the widely-accepted model of municipal budgeting,” Park told AL.com. “Specifically, this Birmingham case is unique due to the extent of state intervention in municipal budgeting, which is not commonly observed in other similar cases.”

Park said time will tell what the consequences of the change may be. He expressed concern that the budget process could stifle transparency and public participation.

“From the perspective of transparency and citizen engagement, this could hinder the city’s budget process from receiving significant and meaningful attention from the people it serves,” Park said. “There must be a valid concern about the act from this particular viewpoint.”

The changes were implemented during the final year of former Mayor William Bell’s last term. Bell frequently clashed with council members, particularly during budget season.

Mayor Randall Woodfin inherited the increased budget powers once he defeated Bell and took office in 2017. Unlike Bell, Woodfin’s relationship with the council has been mostly harmonious when it comes to the budget. Woodfin said his proposed spending plan reflects the basic needs of the city and takes into account the requests of residents and council members.

“Issues always come up,” Woodfin said. “What I’ve done a great job of doing is shutting up, just listening to requests, concerns, issues as well as desires from the council, from the public, and the things people want are literally in this budget.”

Smitherman agreed that relations between both branches of government are healthy under the current administration.

“We are not rubber stamps,” she said. “We’ve talked with the mayor individually and as a group before the budget. Now it’s time for us to see if he put these priorities in the budget,” she said. “I feel very confident that our priorities will be in the budget.”

Still, Smitherman cautioned that the current budget process that sets up a strong mayor/weak council format could create significant problems for the city in coming years when future mayoral administrations are less than amenable to collaboration with their cohorts across the hall.

“It needs to be changed, regardless of who is the mayor,” Smitherman said of the state law change from 2016. “It would balance the process more.”

State Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, dismisses complaints over Birmingham’s budgeting process, saying the council retains the power to request financial information from the administration and reject the budget if they object.

“They need to understand the powers they have, but not only that, but how to exercise those powers,” said Givan, who voted for the 2016 changes. “If there is something they do not agree with, they need to accept or reject the budget and send it back to the mayor.”

The fiscal year for the City of Birmingham begins July 1. If the council rejects the mayor’s budget proposal, the city will continue operating under the current budget until both sides reach an agreement.

Meanwhile, a grassroots organization seeks more citizen input in the budget process. Members of People’s Budget Birmingham are calling for greater citizen input in the city’s budget planning and approval. Speaking to the council recently, Gabriel Cabán Cubero, the group’s campaign director and strategist, outlined their efforts, including canvassing communities to interview residents and survey priorities. Cubero agreed that the city’s current budgeting process limits the council’s traditional role as resident advocates.

“I’d say it makes it more difficult for each of you to represent your constituents to the best of each of your abilities,” he said.

Cubero said his organization will schedule small group meetings with council members and citizens to set budget properties to release a “People’s Priorities Report.”

“We want to be a resource and a body of support in helping all of you regain your budget-setting powers,” he said. “We cannot take the lead on that, but we can support each of you because it is our best interest as it is yours.”

Councilor Carol Clarke, who represents District 8 in west Birmingham, said that even though the mayor collaborates with the council in drafting the budget, the system is dysfunctional.

“By design, people should be able to come before this body of elected representatives, and this body might actually change the budget in response to some of that input,” she said in response to Cubero. “It doesn’t function that way right now. The most basic level of participation and balance in the budget powers is non-existent at this point.”