Commission Larry Langford: First, he’s for it. Then he’s against it. Now he’s for it again.

Commission President Bettye Fine Collins: First she’s against it. Then she’s for it. Now she’s against it again.

Commissioner Langford wants the Jefferson County Commission vote up or down on the BJCC’s proposed arena plan. In the commission’s Thursday work session, Langford introduced two resolutions for a vote next Tuesday. One resolution says plainly that the commission will continue its $10 million per year payments to the BJCC for the BJCC board to spend as it sees fit. Those payments are due to end within the next few years. The second resolution endorses the BJCC’s plan to build a 40,000-seat arena.

“I would like to put this issue to rest once and for all,” Langford said.

The proposed resolutions come after a story in the Thursday Birmingham News saying that a majority of the commissioners are now opposed to the BJCC project: Langford and Shelia Smoot for it, and Jim Carns, Bobby Humphryes and Collins against it. In the meeting, Carns said he didn’t see the point.

“We all saw how we’re going to vote in the paper, anyway,” he said.

In this morning’s meeting, Collins said she would not vote for the project as long as the Alabama Legislature threatens to repeal Jefferson County’s occupation tax. Langford responded that if the occupation tax gets overturned, the BJCC would be the least of their problems.

“If they invalidate the occupation tax, the county is bankrupt anyway,” he said.

That makes several role reversals for Collins and Langford. In February, Langford said that he would support a 40,000-seat arena at the BJCC, but when the BJCC board approved that plan in March, Langford opposed the idea. Now he says he would approve such a plan, if improvements to Legion Field were included.

Similarly, Collins has flip-flopped herself. She has long opposed a dome stadium at the BJCC, but at the March BJCC board retreat, she voted for the 40,000-seat plan. Now she opposes the county funding the plan.

In other business …

Commissioner Shelia Smoot attacked the county’s Community Development department and her Republican colleagues for shifting funds for Brighton and Lipscomb fire station. Under the proposed Community Development Block Grant budget, the county will use those funds instead for water treatment in northwest Jefferson County.

Her volume escalating steadily, Smoot accused the Community Development department of ignoring 600 letters from constituents and giving urban residents short shrift in favor of rural areas.

Two weeks ago, the commission pulled the CDBG resolution from the agenda, after Smoot complained. In the interim, there have been no meetings on the issue and the county has not taken any input. Commissioner Carns wants a vote on the matter and doesn’t want to delay it any longer.

“If you want to be adversarial for the sake of being adversarial, so be it,” Smoot said, eliciting an incredulous laugh from Carns.

Smoot then began yelling at the other commissioners, even as Langford tried to broker a truce. Carns moved to adjourn the meeting and Collins seconded the motion.

“It is funny that the only people who get respect down here are three people who don’t look like me,” Smoot said.

— Kyle Whitmire

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