City Of Tuscaloosa Officials Discuss Future On Inauguration Day

TUSCALOOSA, AL — The City of Tuscaloosa's elected officials were sworn in on Monday during a public ceremony at the Tuscaloosa River Market, with a mix of incumbents and newcomers gearing up to do the city's business.

Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox won a three-person race to secure a fifth term and told local media moments prior to taking the oath on Monday that the city has a great deal of hope as it seems to be coming out on the other side of the coronavirus pandemic.

He also referenced the passage of the city's 1% sales tax in 2019 as providing a foundation for Tuscaloosa to "dominate" the coming decade.

"We want to be a safer city and our goal is going to be in every corner of this city, you have the best equipped and best trained police officers," he said. "We want to get into the rapidly expanding field of knowledge- and technology-based jobs and make sure our investment in recreation, infrastructure and experience is going to be an economic multiplier that’s going to serve this community for generations and, overall, raise our quality of life."

Maddox also expressed optimism for the changes on the City Council, despite the current vacancy on the District 7 seat that will be resolved with a special election later this summer. Among these shakeups will be District 5 Councilman Kip Tyner ascending to the council presidency as the most senior member of the city's legislative body.

"I believe Councilman Tyner is the right person at the right time to lead this council and I pledge to do everything I can to work with them," Maddox said.

Tyner told local media on Monday that the new City Council has gotten off to a fast start, as he has had regular meetings with new council members to discuss issues important for individual districts and the city overall.

"There’s an enthusiasm that I haven’t seen in many, many years, so I believe everyone’s heart is in the right place," he said.

When asked about the most pressing issues facing the city, Tyner said the residual effects of the coronavirus pandemic are still being felt, resulting in looming budget uncertainty with respect to revenue generated by local businesses, restaurants, bars and hotels.

"I think the priority for everyone is police, fire and public safety," he said. "We do know there is an epidemic almost with cities across the country with problems with the police departments losing our police officers. We’re losing about one every two weeks. We’ve got to do something to strengthen our pension fund for police and fire."

As additional uncertainty persists in the contentious race for the District 7 seat, both Maddox and Tyner offered support to residents of the district and said they would stay available to help serve as an interim voice for needs in District 7.

"I reach out today to the people of District 7 to let them know they can call me," Tyner said. "I think that’s the responsibility of the president of the council, to be responsible for District 7. Just like District 5 voters have always text, emailed or called me, I encourage the people of District 7 to do the same."

District 6 Councilman John Faile unseated incumbent Eddie Pugh to secure the office and will be one of the new faces on the incoming City Council. As he digs in for his first term, Faile said the reality of his responsibilities are becoming more real with each day on the job.

"When we started talking about this two years ago, we really never realized today would come and my wife and I have been laughing about it this morning that no matter what we’ve done over the last year, it’s reality now," he said. "Fortunately, we’ve had some meetings to get us up to speed a little bit. But when the mayor handed us a very large, three-ring notebook talking about the budget for the water department, not only does it take a long time to read it, but there are a lot of numbers in there that are bigger than what I'm used to dealing with. But we’ll get there."

The new Tuscaloosa City Council will hold its first regular meeting Tuesday at 6 p.m., with pre-council briefings set for 1:30 p.m.

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