Less than a week after the 2025 spring legislative session ended, the leader of the Alabama State Senate found his way to Mobile in a familiar setting of a city council meeting.

“I’ve been in those seats,” said Republican Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger of Cullman during Tuesday’s Mobile City Council meeting, referring to 14 years he spent as a member of the Cullman City Council from 2004 to 2018. “I just wanted to let you know you’re partnering with the Alabama State Senate and it’s open for business with you guys and anyway we can work together, my office doors are open.”

Gudger’s visit to Mobile was part of a statewide swing for the Senate leader in what he called visits to areas of Alabama “that are making an impact on the state.”

Mobile visit

While in Mobile, Gudger visited with officials at the University of South Alabama and at the Alabama State Port Authority. His trip to the council did not include any policy specifics, but was simply meant as an introduction and as an opportunity to discuss if there were further opportunities for the government units to partner.

“I want you to know that you are making an impact where you are,” Gudger said during the council meeting. “We are trying to do the same thing at the state level.”

Council members largely thanked Gudger for the impromptu appearance. It’s unclear when the last time a high-ranking elected state official visited the Mobile City Council during a council meeting. Some longtime council members say they could not recall anyone of similar stature showing up to an official meeting and introducing themselves.

“We don’t always get this,” said Councilman Ben Reynolds. “You sometimes don’t hear it enough, but thank you for taking (the position) seriously and not just showboating and everything else.”

Back the Blue

Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson did praise Gudger and the rest of the Legislature for overseeing what he said was one of the more successful sessions during his tenure as the city’s mayor, dating back to 2013.

Stimpson pointed out the passage of most of Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey’s public safety package she unveiled and rallied around in February.

The most controversial bill was approved during the waning hours of the session last Wednesday and was entitled the “Back the Blue” provision. It was HB202 that, in short, would provide law enforcement officers with enhanced immunity protections.

The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Rex Reynolds, R-Huntsville, was largely opposed by Democratic lawmakers, who cited concerns over making it harder to hold law enforcement officers accountable for wrongdoing.

Stimpson called the immunity legislation “hugely important,” and credited the passage of the public safety bills to Ivey, Gudger and leadership in the Alabama House. The legislation, signed into law last week by Ivey, is also aimed at improving law enforcement recruiting that has sagged in some of the cities’ metropolitan regions such as Birmingham, Montgomery and Mobile.

Stimpson credited the session as the “most consequential for law enforcement.”

Mobile City Councilman William Carroll echoed the concerns from Democratic lawmakers that HB202 could make it difficult to hold bad police officers accountable for their actions.

The legislation prompted Democratic lawmakers to engage in a lengthy filibuster that was credited for stalling of bills aimed on local issues.

“First of all, I know we need to do everything we can to keep our police safe and protect them and that nothing happens to them on the street as they protect Mobile and the State of Alabama,” Carroll said. “But what concerns me is with the use of force, who is to determine how much is too much? Who is to measure that? I don’t know how it’s measured, and I think we need to take a look at that.”

The session also included other bills that Stimpson, as the head of the Big 10 Mayors Association representing the state’s largest cities, had advocated. Among them was legislation that got bipartisan support in applying a Class C felony on a person for knowingly possessing a machine gun conversion device – commonly called a “Glock Switch.”

The devices, which have been used in high-profile shootings in Mobile, are used to convert a semiautomatic pistol into an automatic machine gun.