UPDATE APPENDED 4:20 PM: Council Admin retracts security memo.

Not that there was any question, but Birmingham City Hall is under occupation. Mayor Larry Langford has enacted strict security procedures that will limit the public’s access to building, and virtually prohibit City Hall reporters and the like from lurking about. Anyone wanting to visit City Hall must make an appointment a day in advance with the person they want to see. A memo to the councilors from the council administrator explains the new procedures (after the jump).

To: All Councilors
Fr: Cheryl Kidd
Re: New City Hall Security Procedures

Mayor Langford has established new procedures for City Hall visitors. Since your constituents and business associates will be affected, it is important that you are aware of your role and responsibilities.

By 8:00 am of each weekday, each Council office is asked to prepare a list of visitors you are expecting. This list will be submitted to the guards who manage visitor check-in points. When visitors arrive, their names will be validated by the guards and those individuals will be sent directly to the 3rd floor.

When people come to City Hall and they are not pre-announced via this list, the guard will call your office to confirm that the visitor is a pre-arranged guest. That person will be asked to wait until verification is determined. If you are not in, the guard will call the Council receptionist. For this reason, it is a good idea to give a duplicate copy of the list to the receptionist at the start of each day.

The security measure takes effect immediately.

I began covering Birmingham city government more than six years ago, when a reporter — or any other citizen, for that matter — could walk the halls freely in a building owned and paid for by taxpayers. If I needed to, I could meander into the City Council offices undeterred, chatting up committee assistants, department heads and other helpful bureaucrats (yes, there is such a thing). Since then, however, the council offices have been restricted, everyone who doesn’t work at City Hall must now wear a bright florescent visitor’s sticker, security cameras have been installed, the skywalk to the parking garage has been closed, everybody who visits the building must sign in and out, and metal detectors scan everyone at the front door. And now, under the Langford administration, citizens must get permission before entering the building.

The Iraqi Green Zone should take notes.

UPDATE APPENDED 4:20 PM 

Council Administrator Cheryl Kidd now says the memo she sent to the council was the result of a miscommunication. According to Kidd, the City Hall security chief told her “exactly the things I said in the memo to the council.” However, since the memo went out, the mayor’s office has informed Kidd that there had been a misunderstanding, she said. City Hall security will continue to put all visitors through a metal detector at the front entrance, but visitors will not be required to make appointments and security will not further limit access throughout the building. Kidd said she was drafting a second memo to the councilors which would retract the first.