COLUMN: A Curious, Yet Productive Crossover Episode Of Tuscaloosa Political Theater

*This is an opinion column*

TUSCALOOSA, AL — I was picking at a loose seam on my boot when District 4 County Commissioner Reginald Murray caught me completely off guard, insisting I introduce myself to a room full of area elected officials on Wednesday during an informal luncheon at the Chamber of Commerce's new downtown office.

They all knew my name, but that wasn't the point.

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"I'm just a hired geek," I blurted out, putting my hands up and impulsively stumbling through a defense-mechanism of a quote from one of my favorite writers. It was wholly unoriginal, but the best I could come up with before nervously rambling through my ill-rehearsed biography in front of a room full of people who had a hell of a lot more important things to do on a Wednesday than watch me wave my press clippings.

They were kind-eyed and gracious, though, and attentive listeners. For the only Northside High graduate in the room, it felt good.

My story was just one of several, though, as elected officials from Tuscaloosa County, the City of Tuscaloosa and the City of Northport gathered for a kind of meet-and-greet, organized by Northport Councilwoman Jamie Dykes and Councilman Woodrow Washington III.

One by one, they went around the long conference table, introducing themselves in between gnawing on BBQ sandwiches, each explaining their local backgrounds and the individual nuances they face in office.

The overarching goal of the meeting was to provide valuable face time for the officials, as communication between the elected bodies was the obvious theme.

As this reporter can attest, communication has most certainly been an issue with respect to how the different bodies have historically conducted business with one another. Topics such as crime, health care, infrastructure, education and tourism all unite these elected bodies in some way or another, but social media diplomacy in recent years has only served to widen divisions and strain relationships.

I've seen it. You've seen it. At best, lobbing social media mortar shells back and forth is poor form politically and something that has been in dire need of being addressed.

Dykes and Tuscaloosa Councilman Norman Crow both spoke to the need for stronger, more personal connections, saying oftentimes diplomatic avenues are limited to the realm of cyberspace, as opposed to a quick phone call or text message.

"There are so many things, like PARA, which is a classic example, that we have to work together to move the community forward on," Crow said. "Somebody in Northport likes to come to Tuscaloosa and do things. Tuscaloosa people go to Northport, to places like the Faucett Center, which is in the county, but still. We are all a part of this together."

Tuscaloosa County Park & Recreation Authority (PARA) has been arguably the most noticeable source of division in recent months, as funding of the quasi-governmental agency and its operations have remained an ongoing source of debate and contention.

ALSO READ: 5 Takeaways From Maddox's Proposal For Northport's PARA Funding

Indeed, it can be easy to overlook the vastly-important range of services shared by the two rapidly growing cities and the county, among them: The Tuscaloosa Public Library, the Tuscaloosa County Economic Development Authority, The Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Unit, the Tuscaloosa County Road Improvement Commission, DCH Health System, the Tuscaloosa Metro Animal Shelter and the list goes on.

I've sat through more public meetings than I can count with grown adults bickering over funding for a damn library. Mind you, I was a middle class kid who grew up in the rural north end of the county, so going to the library as a kid was always a special event.

I have a long-standing love for the Grateful Dead (to a fault) and it was solely because my Mama took me to the Tuscaloosa Public Library when I was 12 years old. There, I was able to check out "Dick's Picks Volume 24" of the band's 1974 concert at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California. I still play guitar nearly every day because of that album ... all thanks to our public library.

But I digress.

ALSO READ: Tuscaloosa Public Library Battles Continued Budget Constraints

In turning back to formality, though, it's important to point out that there were no chief elected officials in attendance at this meeting. No mayors. No probate judges. The luncheon was also absent of both city council presidents, due in part to scheduling conflicts and day jobs getting in the way, Dykes told me.

However, each legislative body did have an adequate showing, with all four County Commissioners in attendance, joined by three Northport Council members and five Tuscaloosa Council members.

It was like a celebrity crossover episode of Scooby-Doo, where the gang is joined by The Harlem Globetrotters or Phyllis Diller in solving a mystery. The curious mixture of people was certainly noticeable when looking at it through this specific reporter's lens, but, as with most Saturday morning cartoons, the end result was a productive one.

"The more we're trying to do on the airport, which I think will help Northport, frankly, as much as it will us," said Tuscaloosa Councilman John Faile. "It will bring tourism and conferences and [Northport] might wind up with another hotel or two because the airport."

As the meeting moved forward, each official also provided insight relating to their individual districts.

Tuscaloosa Councilman Lee Busby, for instance, used his sharp wit to draw laughs from the entire room, explaining to others in attendance the odd nature of his district. Indeed, Busby represents not only a large segment of townies in the city's historic district, but also Tuscaloosa's downtown entertainment district and the University of Alabama.

ALSO READ: Takeaways From Maddox's PARA Pitch To County Commission

This stood in interesting contrast to District 2 for the County Commission, which is represented by longtime Commissioner Jerry Tingle.

Tingle explained at length the challenges of representing fives municipalities in his district in the eastern part of the county, which includes Brookwood, Coaling, Lake View, Vance and Woodstock — each with their own mayors, city councils and nagging problems.

Again, it was strange. These officials are actually human ... and I think that's an easy thing to lose sight of when putting everything they do under a microscope. It was politicking, sure, but at least it was civil and light-hearted. I would hope each of the officials in attendance would agree that I never take it easy on them, but this seemed like a rare moment where there wasn't some underlying agenda or conspiracy at play.

"We just wanted to do a collaboration of all of us," Dykes said. "We couldn't figure out if this had ever taken place before, where you have the three [elected bodies] getting together like this. We know how each other feel, we go through the same things, we get the same phone calls, we deal with the same issues. If I need to call [Norman Crow] about something — he just asked about the Watermelon Road project — that we just discussed in our Projects Committee meeting. So, now he can pick up the phone and call [Northport Councilman John Hinton] and say 'let's move forward on getting these sidewalks and paths done.'"

The project she was referring to will see resurfacing of a little more than two miles on Watermelon Road, in addition to sidewalk improvements from McFarland Boulevard to Union Chapel Road and intersection improvements at Rice Valley Road. The project — covered by federal and state funding sources — skirts the city limits of Tuscaloosa and Northport, and carries an overall estimated price tag of $2.3 million.

With respect to city limits, Faile — a retired police officer — was also vocal in his willingness for increased communication, as he pointed out that criminal activity does not factor in such inconsequential boundaries.

"I think this is good, because too many times and I don't want to call it a rivalry, that's not the right word, but there are people [in Tuscaloosa and Northport] who say 'don't tell us what to do,'" he said, expounding on the political divides that separate the two cities. As this reporter has witnessed and written about extensively, all three bodies have at some point or another taken issue with the way another does business.

When it's all boiled down, though, many of the aforementioned challenges would be made so much easier to overcome with better communication.

Crow tiptoed around the term "mistrust," but I think it's a fair description of what I've seen in how the bodies interact, not just in my time since founding Tuscaloosa Patch, but since I was old enough to understand the stories in the newspaper.

"I think it's because there hasn't been good communication," Crow said. "I think you can send a text or tweet something or send something to someone and they can take it the wrong way. There's probably a lot of things that have happened between our communities that shouldn't have happened that way."

It is the sincere hope of Tuscaloosa Patch that this meeting will lead to more productive dialogue in the future among the officials, fostering stronger relationships and unity in making our small part of the world the absolute best it can be.

Have a news tip or suggestion on how I can improve Tuscaloosa Patch? Maybe you're interested in having your business become one of the latest sponsors for Tuscaloosa Patch? Email all inquiries to me at ryan.phillips@patch.com.