Our Birmingham region is the epicenter of duplication and waste.
We have dozens of government departments and agencies doing the same thing.
ComebackTown has written about this before, but missed a major duplication.
In Jefferson County we have...
35 mayors and city councils
53 fire departments*
23 police departments**
14 emergency 911 call centers***
But there’s one more…
Sheriff Pettway points out the obvious
Sometimes it takes a newly elected official with a fresh perspective to point out the obvious.
I recently heard a speech from new Jefferson County Sheriff Mark Pettway.
Sheriff Pettway enthusiastically described efforts by his office to think regionally.
One of his early initiatives was to take responsibility for policing Fairfield—which certainly is helpful for a city that has been struggling financially.
But in his talk, he pointed out the number of jails we have in Jefferson County.
There are 17 jails in Jefferson County (15 municipal and 2 county).****
Sheriff Pettway is volunteering to facilitate a conversation on how we might consolidate some of them.
He thought this would be particularly helpful to some of the smaller municipalities—saving money and allowing them to concentrate their resources on other critical needs.
A number of years ago, an effort was made by Irondale, Mountain Brook, Vestavia, Hills and Homewood to consolidate jails. The city leaders couldn’t agree and millions of dollars have been spent on building, staffing, and maintaining separate facilities.
As a city council member of Vestavia Hills told me, we are talking about a ‘Barney Fife’ type jail.
How to become more competitive without combining municipalities
It’s not necessary to combine our municipalities—but we must find a way to consolidate some services.
That is exactly what Charlotte, North Carolina has successfully done. Charlotte and Mecklenburg County determined that it was not necessary for each to have its own fire department or police department. They divided responsibility for the major functions of government so no two entities were doing the same thing.
This year 23 Jefferson County bold and visionary mayors signed a Good Neighbor Pledge to agree not to steal businesses from one another.
This is a big deal for our region because it is our first step toward regional collaboration.
These mayors deserve our respect and applause.
But their work is just beginning.
Our elected officials need to find ways to eliminate duplication and waste.
It could be something as simple as garbage and recycling.
Or it could be major initiates like fire and police departments, 911 call centers, or jails.
I don’t know how many jails are too many, but our goal shouldn’t be to have as many jails as politicians.
Detailed list of Jefferson County departments and agencies below…
*Fire departments (53)
- Adamsville Fire
- Adger Volunteer Fire
- Bagley Volunteer Fire
- Bessemer Fire
- Birmingham Fire & Rescue
- Birmingport Volunteer Fire
- Brighton Fire
- Brookside/Cardiff Fire
- Cahaba Valley Fire
- Cain Creek Volunteer Fire
- Center Point Fire
- Concord Fire
- Corner Volunteer Fire
- Eastern Valley Fire
- Fairfield Fire
- Forestdale Fire
- Fultondale Fire
- Gardendale Fire
- Glennwood Volunteer Fire
- Graysville Fire
- Homewood Fire
- Hoover Fire
- Hueytown Fire
- Indian Ford Volunteer Fire
- Irondale Fire
- Kimberly Fire
- Leeds Fire
- Lipscomb Fire
- Maytown Volunteer Fire
- McAdory Volunteer Fire Districts 1&2
- McCalla Volunteer Fire District
- Midfield Fire
- Minor Heights Fire
- Mount Olive Volunteer Fire
- Morris Volunteer Fire
- Mountain Brook Fire
- Mulga Volunteer Fire
- North Smithfield Manor Volunteer Fire
- Palmerdale Fire
- Pleasant Grove Fire
- Rexlake Fire
- Rocky Ridge Fire
- Shady Grove Fire
- Shannon Volunteer Fire
- Sylvan Springs Fire
- Tarrant Fire
- Trafford Volunteer Fire
- Trussville Fire
- US Steel
- Vestavia Hills Fire
- Warrior Fire
- Warrior River Fire
- West Jefferson Volunteer Fire
**Police departments (23 plus Sheriff’s Department)
- Adamsville
- Bessemer
- Birmingham
- Brighton
- Brookside
- Fultondale
- Gardendale
- Homewood
- Hoover
- Hueytown
- Irondale
- Kimberly
- Leeds
- Lipscomb
- Midfield
- Morris
- Mountain Brook
- Pleasant Grove
- Tarrant
- Trafford
- Trussville
- Vestavia Hills
- Warrior
***911 Call centers (13 municipal plus Jefferson County)
- Adamsville
- Bessemer
- Birmingham
- Fairfield
- Gardendale
- Homewood
- Hoover
- Hueytown
- Irondale
- Midfield
- Mountain Brook
- Pleasant Grove
- Tarrant
- Jefferson County
****Jails (15 municipal plus two Jefferson County)
- Adamsville
- Bessemer
- Birmingham
- Fultondale
- Gardendale
- Homewood
- Hoover
- Hueytown
- Irondale
- Midfield
- Mountain Brook
- Pleasant Grove
- Tarrant
- Trussville
- Vestavia Hills
- Jefferson County (Birmingham)
- Jefferson County (Bessemer)
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David Sher is Co-Founder of AmSher Compassionate Collections. He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).
Invite David to speak to your group for free about a better Birmingham. dsher@amsher.com
Not to mention more school systems, superintendents, and boards of education than I can count without doing research!
There are 12 school systems in Jefferson County.
I agree with the metro plex concept, fire , police , 911 system .
the schools Jefferson county at one time had the best school system in the state of Alabama , it also competed with any school system in the country. The poor management of the school system has left folks with out a choice cities that have their own school system are growing rapidly .
I loved Jeffery’s article. The fact we have had an explosion of apartment building and a return to urban living , reminds me of the hope we had when Morris Avenue opened , we had the WFL and the group I had the privilege of doing Market Research for the Birmingham Bulls all in the 1970’s. The Jaycees were active and we had a Regional Chamber of Commerce. The reality is we are a stagnant county in population with largest employers being in government . We have few major corporations and we tax for revenue including groceries and drugs. As a state we refuse to deal with prisons, medicaid and a balanced property tax, thus allowing a few to to create massive land holdings. Yet we are resilient as a people and it starts by voting and sending people to Montgomery that serve their voters not their influencers. Michael
Vouchers would improve the quality of those “educational” departments by introducing competition and innovation. Politicians are busy taking care of voters, and it’s just too bad the children can’t vote. Sorry!
Prattville and Autauga County share a jail.
Huntsville and Madison County share a jail.
What’s our holdback?
We must not be discouraged about consolidation efforts. As soon as just one “service” is consolidated and the money is returned to each city minus some contribution to the single service location, the roll back will begin. As the boom in re-sale clothing outlets across the country shows, almost all want to be in charge of their own money rather than having to fork it over to any government project that is wasteful.
What is a more OBVIOUS place to start than a Call Center. Think telephone lines, heat, ac, salaries, rental or owned space freed up, and much, much more less tangible such as gas for employees to drive to work, lowered traffic congestion, lowered pollution. IF ANYONE READS THIS COMMENT, I CHALLENGE YOU TO THINK OF BENEFITS I HAVEN’T NAMED.
WE CAN DO THIS! YES, we can.
SO——do it.