By Ashley Toland Editor

It was like watching a pack of dogs fighting over a tiny piece of leftover steak – starring the Mobile City Council as the dogs and $20,545 in leftover Community Development Block Grant monies as the steak.

CDBG funds are federal monies designed to go to low- to moderate-income areas and are typically split among the councilors who have qualifying tracts in their districts. This year, however, the council decided rather than split up the money they would channel it into one district – in order to make a bigger impact. The top dog this year was (ding, ding, ding, ding) Hillsdale in District Seven, represented by Councilwoman Gina Gregory.

You may remember there was some opposition to this by Councilwoman Connie Hudson, who wanted some of the CDBG funds to go to furnish the kitchen of the new fancy, schmancy West Mobile Regional Senior Center. After some question of eligibility and a general lack of support, Hudson had to get her Frigidaire funds elsewhere and the money went to Hillsdale.

But then… lo and behold…the councilors learned an additional $20K in CDBG funds would be coming down, though the Mobile Housing Board already had a plan for it – to go to the SWEET-P workforce training program, which gives summer jobs to high school kids, some of whom are supposed to become full-time.

The SWEET-P program had nearly a $20K deficit in funding this year and the CDBG funds could be used to shore this up. The majority of the council agreed with this move, as $20K really can’t do all that much in the world of capital improvements, but Connie and Johnny (Williams – District Four) had a problem with it.

A barking dog never bites

Of course, Connie had a problem with it, which is to be expected. She scraps over every single dollar available, especially since her district doesn’t really qualify for any of these funds and the last major capital improvement initiative started by the mayor didn’t include any in District Six.

She was quite vocal about all of this (some would say excessively; others admirably), and she was even more vociferous in her quest to build the senior center. And I think the mayor and council thought once she got it, she would shut up. But no, she’s been barking up a storm about this measly $20K. And you know, I’m kind of starting to love her for it. She’s like a pit bull that’s “been raised right.”

If you can’t run with the big dogs, puppy, stay on the porch

The biggest thing I learned during this dogfight is council newbie John Williams may have been kicked in the head at some point.

I’ve been wondering about him since he took over for Ben Brooks who won a spot in the state senate last November. Williams has been pretty quiet, except for what I would almost characterize as scolding his constituents who came to council a few months ago to complain about blighted and derelict properties in his district, which I thought was sort of dumb. But I just chocked it up to him being green and embarrassed. Hello, John – haven’t you learned anything yet? Tell them you’re very sorry and blame it on the administration. You don’t bark at the voters, crazy!

And then during the Entitlement Committee Meeting July 31 when the distribution of these funds were first discussed, he and Connie had a somewhat heated discussion prior, though he wasn’t really making any sense, which was obviously frustrating her.

And then as she walked out of the room in a little bit of a huff, he said, “will you fetch me some coffee while you’re up.” He was joking, but it wasn’t funny. He might as well have asked Clinton to go pick him some cotton.

Bad dog!

And his mess making didn’t end there, so that’s why I’m obliged to rub his nose in it some more. Hey – you gotta train’em!

At the beginning of the meeting Clinton Johnson, chair of the committee, proposed $15K go to the SWEET-P program and $5K go to Williams’ district for a sign for Morningside School. They were trying to throw him a bone, but somehow he managed to lose it.

William Carroll said he didn’t think these funds should go to a sign that the school board should provide. When Carroll asked him if he had any other projects in his district where he could use the money, he really didn’t have an answer beyond some vague plan for lighted paths somewhere, which clearly he hadn’t looked into. Normally, you ask any of the councilors where they can use money, they can name 5 to 10 projects with exact dollar amounts right off the top of their heads.

I know he’s still relatively new, but he needs to get with the program.

In the end, despite proposed amendments – one by Connie to put $10K to Penelope House to help with security flaws (is that something we really want to publicize?) and $10K to SWEET-P and one by Williams to put $10K in the Morningside School sign and $10K in SWEET-P – both measures were defeated and all of the money went to pay for the SWEET-P program.

So this is what we have learned – never bark up the wrong tree during dog and pony shows in the dog days of summer. Or something like that, doggoneit!

Ashley Toland is Lagniappe editor. Contact her at ashleytoland@lagniappemobile.com.

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