Cover Story

By Ashley Toland Editor

It’s a life-or-death situation, according to Mayor Sam Jones. In more ways than one.

When the residents in the unincorporated areas of West Mobile step into voting booths Tuesday, Sept. 18 to decide if they would like to be annexed into the city, Jones says it’s not just about revenue and garbage collection, but about safety and the future prosperity of the city.

Police and fire response times have grown rapidly along with the area, and the mayor feels it could put these citizens, as well as those living inside the city limits, in danger, if public safety continue to be so thinly spread.

But it’s not just these lives he’s worried about, but also the life of the city.

“This city and this region is growing faster than it ever has before, and we have got to be competitive in providing services and quality-of-life issues for the whole region. And if we don’t, we’re going to lose that edge in drawing new companies and new people.”

But a group of citizens living in the area aren’t so sure “bigger is better,” and feel like the mayor looks at them as a sugar momma of sorts – not really caring about them, just their money.

They contend the boundary lines for areas Jones seeks to annex have been drawn in such a way that the administration is essentially “cherry picking” voters and allowing separate areas to vote to come in or out, which could essentially create “islands” of unincorporated areas. They believe this is a clear violation of state law and have filed suit.

A judge will decide if their argument has merit Sept. 12.

Here we go again

While this is Jones’ first annexation rodeo, it’s not for many of the residents. Annexation attempts have failed several times over the years. The last attempt under the Dow administration was defeated by 49 votes in December 2005.

The area is slightly different from the ‘05 vote.

It is bound east to west by Cody and Schillinger and north to south by Zeigler and Hitt Roads. It is divided into four separate areas – A, B, C and D. Areas B, C and D are almost entirely residential and confined to neighborhoods.

If there is a sugar momma, it would be area A, and certainly Jones wants her on his arm. This area includes the impoverished Mobile Terrace community, which failed to come into the city by only one vote in 2005, and the “commercial corridor,” all the businesses on Airport Boulevard from Cody to Schillinger and then, of course, the revenue power houses or ” super boxes” like Wal-Mart and Target lining Schillinger.

Including the richy, rich corridor with the poorest area closest to voting for annexation is why the Committee of Citizens Against Annexation, say this is “gerrymandering.”

The mayor disagrees. He says the lines were drawn in the fairest way possible – to keep neighborhoods together and businesses on an even playing field.

“Tell them to define gerrymandering. What is it? We have drawn the lines from Zeigler to Hitt. How can anyone say that is gerrymandering? The difference is this – the last annexation in 2005 the lines were drawn all over the place. This annexation, lines are drawn from Cody Road to Schillinger, from Zeigler to Hitt. It’s a box. We don’t consider that gerrymandering at all. We attached the commercial corridor to one of the areas because everybody wanted to be consistent. If we attached portions of the corridor to each section and some voted to come in and some didn’t, we couldn’t have consistency among the businesses,” Jones explains.

Still, the committee feels there should be no lines, just one big vote. This will be an issue Judge Rick Stout will have to decide Sept. 12, according to Steve Clements, the attorney for the committee.

Clements says the election violates his clients’ rights to equal protection under the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit claims the boundaries “arbitrarily, invalidly and unreasonably exclude certain electors.”

If the case is not dismissed, as the city hopes, another hearing is set for Thursday, Sept. 13.

Money, honey

Currently, businesses in unincorporated areas charge 7.5 percent in city sales tax on retail purchases – that number will increase immediately to 9 percent in the areas that vote to come in.

The administration predicts it will collect around $10.1 million annually from the area, based on 2006 figures.

By state law, property owners couldn’t be taxed for five years, but when they do kick in, the mayor says a property appraised at $100,000 will only pay about $70 more a year.

For better or worse?

The increase in sales tax is another reason why the Committee of Citizens Against Annexation chairman Jeffrey Harris is against it.

“We would like to say that we believe the citizens of Mobile are being mislead by the current mayor that annexing this area is going to bring more prosperity. The bottom line of this election is dollars. The only thing the city wants from this area is the businesses along Schillinger, and that’s what they are mainly after – to get the tax dollars out of us, not the citizens of the area,” Harris, a Westover resident in Area B, said at a Sept. 5 press conference.

The mayor and administration see it differently.

They say just because these residents happen to live near these stores, doesn’t mean they are the only people spending money there.

“The businesses in the commercial corridor are patronized by a transient economy. People from Mississippi, inside the city and even across the bay patronize these businesses, so it’s not accurate for people to think this is just the money of people who live in unincorporated areas,” Mayor Jones explains.

City attorney Larry Wettermark adds, “It is ridiculous for them to think that just because they just happen to live by these stores, they can take sole ownership of the revenue generated.”

But Harris also points out the tax increases on power and other utilities and services.

“I believe that no intelligent person who lives in the western part of Mobile would vote themselves a tax increase,” Harris barked.

Another member of the Committee, which is comprised of roughly 20-50 people, Donna Reed, who lives in A, says their police and fire services are just fine – a notion the mayor dismisses, pointing to the numbers.

“For us, public safety is a top priority to us because of how overtaxed our public safety departments are in the police jurisdiction. Forty-three percent of calls in the police department’s second precinct out in that area and 35 percent of the calls from the fourth precinct out in that area are from the police jurisdiction, which strains all of our resources. It draws resources from the city and puts them out there, and it makes the call time for us to respond much higher in the city and outside the city, so that’s a real problem for us.

“And the same thing with fire. And fire is more important because it’s all dependent on where stations are located. That being the case, we want to get six-minute response time, 90 percent of the time at each station. And the four stations out in west Mobile hardly ever hit that – they may hit it about 30 percent of the time,” Jones says.

The remedy to this problem is also a major benefit to not only the police jurisdiction but also the city, Jones says. He added that if annexation passes, the city will build a public safety complex or “super station” on Airport Boulevard, right near the airport.

All of the projects would be funded out of the new revenue gained from the annexed areas. Just the “super station” itself would cost about $5 million to build and about $2 million worth of equipment apiece for the police and firemen, as well as the additional costs of payroll for over 50 employees and maintenance costs on at least two fire engines and two ambulances.

“The initial outlay would be about $15 million dollars and it would be about $7 million in recurring costs a year. But we think it benefits that area, the new unincorporated area, as well as the inner city in a very comprehensive manner so that’s one of the reasons, in fact, that is the driving force behind annexation. And I ask you, if we’re generating $10 million dollars (annually), where is the city’s big windfall?” the mayor quizzed.

But Reed worries about it coming to fruition.

“I was at a meeting where the mayor stood up and said it wouldn’t be staffed immediately. What’s the point of having it if it’s just going to sit there empty?” Reed asked.

Chief of Staff Al Stokes says she’s absolutely correct.

“Without a doubt, there will be some lag time. Like most projects, it takes some time to get things up-and-running, but we expect it to be up in a year to 18 months,” Stokes explains.

Harris says he believes the mayor is,”trying to draw this cloudy thing that if it doesn’t go through he can withdraw the services and that’s far from the truth because a percentage of our taxes are already being paid to the city for police and fire protection.”

Jones says the services will not be withdrawn but they will continue to deteriorate.

“We will have to just have to start making some decisions – we will say do we now continue to patrol in the police jurisdiction? Or will we just answer calls, like other cities do?”

He also says people are often confused about what the law says about the level of service the city must provide to the police jurisdiction.

“The misinterpretation we hear all the time is that people say the state law says the city is supposed to provide services commensurate with the sales taxes collected. That’s not the law. The law says the city is supposed to provide service commensurate with the business license tax that is collected, which is a tremendous difference. Right now, we collect $800,000 a year in the area in question in business license tax. With $800,000 – we maybe could put a fire truck out there,” he said. “Even now, we are providing a lot more than we are legally required to do.”

Besides sirens, what else is in this for me?

Though public safety is the biggest carrot, Jones says there are many other benefits – including more parks, street lighting (which currently unincorporated citizens must pay for privately), street paving and sweeping, traffic calming devices and garbage and trash pick-up. Garbage collection alone costs many residents around $300 a year.

Some residents in the area agree.

“The city services more than outweigh the cost involved. It’s going to help the city, and we have to look at the city as a whole,” says Mike Gibbons, who lives in the Westover subdivision in B.

Another benefit, if not necessity, according to the mayor, is our growth will not be stagnated. He points to Birmingham, which has been basically landlocked by 38 smaller municipalities.

“The only way they have left to grow is up. If we get to be like that, we will die. Cities who don’t grow, die. It’s as simple as that,” he warns.

He feels this will give us a tremendous opportunity to keep adding to the city; these are just the first four pieces of the puzzle.

“This is just phase one of our plan. Some were concerned we didn’t give them the opportunity to vote, but we are really interested in talking to those who have an interest in the city. But they have to be contiguous, so we are building, as we can,” Jones said.

School Tax ambiguity

One area that is still murky is what will happen to a half percent of sales tax that is currently going to the school system, which roughly generates about $2.5 million a year annually.

Though they will lose the sales tax, they will gain 8 mills worth of property tax revenue. A mill is $1 of tax for each $1,000 of assessed property. Revenue Commissioner Marilyn Wood said she estimated, based on the latest appraisals, this would generate about $1.2 million dollars annually. So there would be a loss to the schools of about $1.3 million dollars.

But there seems to be some question as to when this loss would begin. Property owners are exempt from paying taxes for five years, but by law the taxes for schools would go into effect almost immediately.

Superintendent Harold Dodge questioned whether the schools would also get to keep the sales tax revenue for five more years, which he said would,”soften the blow.”

At press time, City Attorney Larry Wettermark was also unsure what was going to happen with this, though he pointed out according to economic studies, ThyssenKrupp is expected to bring in an additional $22 million dollars for the school system, which he said would clearly offset any short term loss.

Dodge agreed.

“Anytime we get $22 million dollars, I’m OK with it,” he said. “Even with the loss, we’d still come out ahead.”

Depending on what happens in Judge Stout’s courtroom, polls will open at 7 a.m. on Sept. 18. For voting centers, visit www.annexationelection.com or call 251-574-8480.

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

Archives