Smitherman terminates Langford chief of staff
Citing public trust and budget issues, Interim Birmingham Mayor Carole Smitherman said Thursday morning that she had fired former Mayor Larry Langford’s chief of staff, Deborah Vance-Bowie.
The termination comes after a revelation earlier this week that the city’s finances are in shambles and the city budget might have to be redone.
Interim Mayor Carole Smitherman
“Ms. Vance-Bowie must bear substantial responsibility for the gross errors in the creation of the current fiscal year budget,” Smitherman said.
Vance-Bowie has denied knowing of the city’s financial problems until about three weeks ago. Vance-Bowie said early this week that she had suspected problems with the finance department, but bad communication had kept those issues from her. When she ordered a report from the then-Finance Director Steve Sayler, he revealed to her that the city had not included line items in its budget fore more than $20 million of necessary expenditures and also that the city was on track to miss its fiscal year 2010 revenue projections by about $15 million.
The financial problems came to light after Langford’s conviction, when Smitherman took over as interim mayor. According to Smitherman, Sayler told her that Langford’s staff new as early as June that the city had serious problems with the fiscal year 2010 budget.
Thursday morning, Smitherman said what Vance-Bowie knew was in some respect irrelevant. The chief of staff should be intimately familiar with the city’s finances, she said. The city’s financial problems had created uncertainty when the city needs a return to normality.
Former Birmingham City Council budget analyst Kevin Moore will replace Vance-Bowie as interim chief of staff. Moore is well respected by veteran councilors. He was hired away from the council’s staff by former Mayor Bernard Kincaid. At first he worked in the city’s finance department, before going to work as the business manager for the Parks and Recreation Department.
“Kevin did a good job for us when he worked for the council and we were all sorry to see him leave,” Councilor Valerie Abbott said after Moore’s appointment. “He was very competent, very honest and forthright.”
