EXPLAINER: The Anatomy Of A Northport Political Spat

NORTHPORT, AL — Tensions are high in the halls and backrooms around the Northport political scene amid public fallout from a leaked City Hall email that included candid words from City Council President Jeff Hogg to his elected colleagues and others.

Over the course of the last week, the situation has slowly deteriorated into one of snide memes and online bickering, with wholesale different political agendas at its core.

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The email, dated Jan. 5, focuses on The Townes at Clearlake — a proposed residential development by The Builder's Group, LLC.

As Patch reported in late January, nearly three weeks after the email was sent, the Council approved a conditional use request for the Tuscaloosa firm, despite months of sustained pushback and threatened litigation from residents of the nearby Northwood Lake neighborhood.

Prospective development on the property in question has been a contentious issue for years, going back to when other residential concepts were first considered for the site. In its earliest incarnation, for example, developers pitched the possibility of single-family garden homes, which required setback variances and ultimately failed to garner the support of the city's Zoning Board of Adjustments and Appeals. But, rock on a few more years and the townhouse concept began to pick up steam as a more cost-effective alternative that would not require any variances granted to developers in order to move forward.

One official, speaking on background, provided a humorous analogy with respect to the history of the site, saying instead of nearby residents of Northwood Lake "getting a nice dairy farm ... they got a hog farm."

The analogy is an apt one when considering the scale what's proposed, as a subdivision of one-story garden homes would have been far-less visible to those in surrounding neighborhoods than a multi-story townhome development.

Leaks & Accusations

The leaked email, as Patch has confirmed, was the result of an Alabama Open Meetings request by Perry Madison, who is a Northport resident and husband of Alabama House of Representatives candidate Kimberly Madison — a former local radio personality running in the Republican Primary for House District 61.

While sources across the spectrum have been tight-lipped over just how they were made aware of the individual email, a consensus was quickly noted in my reporting that it could have only been one of the seven officials who received the email.

But, apart from that, questions persist as to motives and timing.

According to city records obtained by Patch, the initial request by Perry Madison was filed on Tuesday, Feb. 1, which came nearly four days after his wife qualified with the Alabama Republican Party to run in the May 24 primary.

While Kimberly Madison declined to directly address any correlations — perceived or otherwise — she has stressed to Patch that her political ambitions and the fight against Northport City Hall are two separate facets of a very busy life. She also pointed out that she reached out to City Administrator Glenda Webb last October to request "certain things be preserved in anticipation of a formal records requests."

It's worth noting that a central campaign pillar for the political newcomer has been addressing the potential manmade causes of the historic flooding event. The flooding on that fateful day has been referred to by experts and elected officials alike as a "generational" and "500-year" event, as many affected homeowners like Madison knowingly lived in a floodplain for years without seeing the creek rise in such a rapid and destructive fashion.

The family's home in Vestavia East is one of the closest to the banks of Two-Mile Creek and was one of the hardest hit areas during the June flood.

ALSO READ: Northport Approves Drainage Study After Two-Mile Creek Flooding

But, apart from any political showmanship by either side or extenuating circumstances due to acts of nature, every meeting and public hearing where The Townes at Clearlake was discussed featured a vocal contingency of residents showing out in force to oppose the development. In their myriad arguments, residents cite traffic and connectivity concerns, aged stormwater infrastructure, threats to existing wildlife, current soil conditions, dam safety, impact to property lines and other issues.

The development, as it stands, will consist of 51 units and 103 bedrooms total. The homes, one representative previously said, will range in price from the high $100,000 range to $250,000.

But, out of the tumult from the controversial email being made public, a heated online back-and-forth grabbed the eyeballs of many, fueled in-part by a meme posted to Facebook by Madison's husband that juxtaposed her with Hogg, both of whom are wearing pink blazers in their respective photos.

While the husband and wife have argued that politics has little bearing in the fight against Northport City Hall, Perry Madison posted the picture featuring the Northport Council president with the caption: "Who wore Pink better?"

As officials and the couple show no signs of reaching a middle ground, this prompted Patch to set out and peel back the layers of such a visceral subject, in an effort to simply parcel out the truth.

DISCLOSURE: Ryan Phillips is the son of former Northport mayoral and city council candidate Dale Phillips, who is also a former member of the Northport Planning & Zoning Commission. We hope this provides further transparency for our coverage, which is part of our mission at Tuscaloosa Patch.

'Follow the money'

Ahead of the Jan. 24 vote on the conditional use request, which came to the Council with an unfavorable recommendation from its Planning & Zoning Commission despite meeting all of the necessary zoning requirements, Hogg sent the email where he appears to encourage the Council to move forward with its approval of the measure for The Townes at Clearlake, while providing thinly-veiled words of caution to his colleagues.

The full email correspondence can be found at the end of this story.

Indeed, Hogg is correct to point out that the property is zoned for the intended residential use required for the townhome development, which aligns with his past assertions that the city would open itself up to a costly lawsuit if the project meets all the necessary criteria, but is still voted down.

More than anything, though, it was Hogg's approach that drew the attention of some Northport residents on social media, saying "we look dumb, uneducated, and not know [sic] our roles as elected officials if we vote no to this and get sued just to lose and Builders Group is able to build anyways."

It's crucial to mention that, when put under intense scrutiny, nothing that Hogg said or did appears to have been illegal or unethical. Poor optics? Sure. But, when asked by Patch, more than a half a dozen government officials outside of Northport all stopped well short of saying the meeting represented any kind of breach of the law or public trust.

However, while no ethics complaints or lawsuits have been filed, concerns in the community center on Hogg informing the Council of the repercussions when going against the will of deep-pocketed developers who often bankroll campaigns. This was viewed by many outside of City Hall as Hogg encouraging his colleagues to ignore the desires of constituents in favor of protecting crucial donors to the campaigns of those currently in office — a notion Hogg has flatly denied since the correspondence went public on social media.

An exhaustive analysis of campaign finance records validates Hogg's once-private claim of the opaque financial influence of certain developers, chief among them being Tuscaloosa resident and businessman Ron Turner.

In the 2020 election cycle alone, Turner was the largest individual donor in three of the five City Council races and the three-candidate mayoral race. When comparing Turner's donations to other individuals, businesses and political action committees, it wasn't even close.

Indeed, Turner doled out $17,500 to Dykes, Herndon, Hinton and Hogg during the 2020 municipal election cycle, dwarfing even the largest contributions to individual races from political actions committees and other businesses.

While most were giving hundreds, Turner was pouring in thousands — $10,000 just to Herndon's mayoral campaign. In fact, Turner's three donations, alone, came out to a higher figure than was raised in total by Herndon's two challengers in 2020, in addition to casting a wide shadow over fundraising in each city council race on the ballot that year.

These donations are legal and have been reported, of course, but still serve to underscore Hogg's point about the overarching influence of developers in the local political ecosystem.

Attempts by Patch to contact Turner for comment have been unsuccessful as of the publication of this story.

Hogg went on to explain that the Council — with four members in their first full terms in office —is still in the first year of a new term. He then speculates in the email that issues over The Townes at Clearlake won't be a "hot topic" in four years when the next election cycle rolls around.

"Focus on what you do good for your district, what you do good for the city and how you've kept the city out of lawsuits," Hogg wrote. "You will gain more supporters by doing good things and that will outweigh the minority that will hold [one] item over your head ... and lastly, follow the money. These individuals [complaining] don't donate to anyone's campaign or hold signs. But guess who does? Developers and Builders!"

Hogg then told his colleagues he knew of seven different developers actively monitoring the situation as it unfolds with The Townes at Clearlake, going on to say the unnamed forces have been inquiring for potential candidates to run during the next municipal election cycle in four years.

He also told Patch that Turner was not one of the seven unnamed individuals he was referring to.

"They are the ones with disposable money," Hogg said in the email. "If you received any PAC donations in the past, this is typically Developers and Builders. They all work together. And trust me, they will work just as hard getting you out of office than any neighborhood will."

The conditional use measure for the townhome development would go on to clear the City Council by a 3-2 vote, with District 3's John Hinton and District 4's Jamie Dykes both voting in opposition.

The Builder's Group webpage that once showed designs for the development, however, now presents a message saying "Page Not Found" and no longer includes renderings or information on The Townes at Clearlake.

Following the money ...

• Four of the five Northport City Council members and the mayor reported campaign donations from developers in some form or another during the last election cycle.
• Objectively speaking, this is a common practice and far from an aberration isolated to Northport, with the donations being matters of public record that are easily accessible online at no cost to the general public.
• District 2 Councilman Woodrow Washington III was the only candidate to not receive donations from any developers that met the threshold required to disclose. The owner of a successful business, Washington primarily funded his campaign out of his own pocket.
• Campaign finance records show The Builder's Group gave separate donations of $500 each to the campaigns of Hogg and Northport Mayor Bobby Herndon in 2020. These donations were legal and reported in the required filings with the Tuscaloosa County Probate Judge's Office. They were also both far from the largest contributions received by either candidate at the time.

The anatomy of a political spat

Kimberly Madison insists the posting of the email was not done in an effort to boost her public profile in her bid for the Republican nomination for House District 61. Rather, she told me it underscores the way the city conducts its business when no one is looking.

"I don’t have much to comment on in terms of Hogg’s email other than he confirmed it’s authenticity to everyone on Facebook," Madison said. "In terms of fingers pointing back at me, I honestly have no desire to get in a tit for tat. I’m not running against him."

Hogg argued otherwise, taking to Facebook to ask if the email and subsequent criticism were intended side-effects of her bid for office. This came along with Hogg sharing the meme posted by Madison's husband on March 10.

"This childish act is why people don’t like politicians," Hogg said, before openly advocating for Madison's Republican challenger, retired Northport Police Captain Ron Bolton. "You can’t try to tear others down to build yourself up. People see right through that and know your true colors (which I am assuming is pink, based on the post)."

Perry Madison has been the most vocal supporter of his wife's grassroots campaign on social media and also told Patch the issues presented in the email are wholly separate from his wife's political ambitions.

A late entry into the House District 61 race, Kimberly Madison received the Alabama GOP's approval to run on the primary ballot on the last day of the qualifying period. While Madison's campaign signs have popped up with increasing frequency around the district in Tuscaloosa and Pickens counties, she lags her Republican challenger in fundraising by a staggering margin, spending nearly $6,000 during the most recent reporting period, to be left with $443.38 in cash on hand going into March.

Bolton, on the other hand, announced his candidacy last July and took advantage of an early entry into the race on his way to raising nearly $40,000 with a little more than two months left until the GOP Primary.

In stark contrast to his grassroots opponent, Bolton has the support of a wide-range of political action committees and developers. For instance, Ron Turner donated $4,900 to his campaign coffers in the month after he announced his candidacy — a single donation nearly equivalent to what Madison has raised to date.

But as Madison moves forward on her bid for Montgomery, while at the same time sustaining her battle against Northport City Hall, her husband and quasi-political advisor conceded to Patch that he does see how there could be a perception that the two issues are intertwined.

"Kimberly is running against corruption in politics, refusing to take PAC money, and wants to represent everyone fairly and equitably," he said. "The email speaks for itself but it appears to violate the open meeting laws."

This prompted him to file the Alabama Open Meetings request, alleging that Hogg had violated statutes relating to open meetings by sending an email to the entire Council over a future agenda item that was voted on less than a month later.

So ... is it legal?

In a statement to Patch, Perry Madison specifically cited §36-25A-1 of the amended 2015 version of the law, taking specific issue with the provision that states "Serial meetings or electronic communications shall not be utilized to circumvent any of the provisions of this chapter."

In his official filing, copies of which were obtained through a public records request by Patch, Perry Madison sought all emails and texts sent or received on a city-issued device or any other correspondence from Bobo, Herndon, and Hogg from Dec. 1, 2021 to Jan. 31, 2022.

Northport City Attorney Ron Davis said in an interview with Patch that he acknowledged receipt of more than a half-dozen public records requests, before Madison agreed to drop Herndon from the filings for the sake of expediency in seeing his request honored in a timely fashion — a notion Madison corroborated to Patch. In an effort to tie up loose ends, though, Patch has filed a formal public records request for the mayor's correspondence during this time.

Davis then elaborated, saying Hogg addressed the email to him and City Administrator Glenda Webb, with the mayor and other council members copied. While Hogg does appear to address the two veteran municipal attorneys at the beginning of the email, he pivots and seems to be speaking to the council as he presented a kind of cautionary tale.

To the longtime city attorney and in the view of several other outside officials who spoke to Patch to provide independent background insight, the email was a leaked internal statement that received zero interaction and thus not a violation of the Alabama Open Meetings Act.

"As to the Open Meetings Act, if there had been a group of Reply All emails back and forth between the elected officials in response to the email, then there could be a violation," Davis opined. "There was none. The only response was from me to the elected officials telling them that we were doing legal research and would get them something when we finished our research."

Hogg then backed up this claim when asked about any possible exchanges, asserting that the conversation was very much one-sided and one where he did not receive a single response from another elected official after sending out the message.

Patch also spoke this week with a representative from the Alabama Attorney General's Office, who declined to provide an interpretation or opinion of the situation at hand, opting instead to point to the Alabama Open Meetings Act as it is written.

"[There was] no other response by anyone," Davis said. "So, simply putting your thoughts in a email without a response by anyone is not deliberation and is not in any way a violation of the Open Meetings Act ... The key is if the members 'deliberate' a matter in private, which is later voted on in public. There are exceptions on what can be talked about in private, but clearly one email by one elected official, which is not responded to, is not a violation of the Open Meetings Act."

The full email from Hogg to city officials:

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