City Attorney Warned Northport Mayor Of Possible Ethics Violation Ahead Of Resignation

NORTHPORT, AL — Northport City Attorney Ron Davis has confirmed to Patch that Northport Mayor Bobby Herndon was warned of a potential ethics violation regarding a proposed street renaming in front of his personal place of business prior to the mayor's sudden resignation Monday night after the measure failed without receiving a vote by the City Council.

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As Patch reported earlier this week, Herndon abruptly announced his resignation Monday night when the request failed after his push to rename a 300-foot stretch of 28th Street "Benevolent Way" to honor those who have made donations at his surveying firm, which he then delivers out to victims of natural disasters.

Davis pointed out in an interview with Patch that Herndon's surveying firm — Herndon, Hicks & Associates — is the only business located on the small side street off of Lurleen B. Wallace Boulevard.

And indeed, Alabama Code Section 36-25-5 states:

"No public official or public employee shall use or cause to be used his or her official position or office to obtain personal gain for himself or herself, or family member of the public employee or family member of the public official, or any business with which the person is associated unless the use and gain are otherwise specifically authorized by law."

"I leave the politics to the politicians but I tried to advise [Herndon] that the classic definition of an ethics violation is using your office for financial or personal gain," Davis said. "I expressed concerns that the only business located on proposed Benevolent Way was Bobby's private business ... I was just concerned about the optics of the city renaming a street where the only business on that street is owned by the mayor."

As Patch previously reported, Herndon claimed that the City Council worked in concert to influence policy regarding street renaming that ultimately barred the mayor from seeing his request honored.

"People say you just quit to get your way and that's not the case," Herndon told Patch in a phone interview Tuesday morning. "If [the Council] don't want to grant it that's up to them. I love being mayor and they know what I wanted and went out of their way to prevent it."

Still, Davis and other city officials argue that Herndon was well aware of the proposed ordinance, sitting in on multiple hearings of the Public Safety Committee — a committee the mayor is a voting member of. Multiple sources have also told Patch that Herndon threatened to resign over the matter on more than one occasion prior to Monday night's political theatrics.

ALSO READ: Column | The Unraveling Of Northport City Hall

In constructing an accurate timeline of the progression of the mayor's request and the changes made to city policy, it's worth noting that committee debate regarding the issue first began in April 2021 when the mayor first floated the idea and a first reading of his request was presented before the City Council.

As it stood before the changes were made to city law, the city's planning department confirmed to Patch that the previous protocols in place simply called for a petition with signatures from a certain percentage of residents. The law, as it was written, was vague and city leaders, including Herndon, agreed that a formal set of guidelines needed to be adopted.

Patch obtained Herndon's petition, which has only one signature.

However, at this point, the city's planning department informed Davis that Herndon was not following the proper procedures in place because there was no formal policy on the city books regarding street renamings. Despite Herndon's requests to be "grandfathered in" under the new ordinance, city leaders refused, due to the potential impact it could have on the street renaming process moving forward.

The mayor was also offered compromises in the form of tabling the measure to allow Herndon to start a nonprofit, which would then be eligible to make such a request. What's more, city officials offered to create the Bobby Herndon Benevolence Award that Herndon could then give to a deserving individual each year during the Northport Citizens of the Year banquet.

Compromises aside, though, the series of events leading to Monday night simply do not support Herndon's narrative that he was unaware of the ordinance change that barred his initial request.

So, here's the timeline:

• April 19, 2021 - First reading of proposed street renaming for Benevolent Way.
• May 11, 2021 - P&Z Board hears request to rename 14th Street in unrelated matter, which was tabled in favor of requesting the city's planning department to establish guidelines for street renaming.
• Oct. 18, 2021 - The City's Public Safety Committee, which Herndon is a voting member, moves forward with allowing City Planning Director Julie Ramm to formulate a set of guidelines for the process.
• Nov. 15, 2021 - The proposed street renaming policy is introduced to the City's Public Safety Committee and passed on to the full council for a vote.
• Dec. 13, 2021 - First reading of proposed ordinance changes regarding renaming streets.
• Jan. 24, 2022 - Second reading of proposed ordinance, which was then approved by the Council and signed into law by Mayor Herndon.
• Nov. 7, 2022 - City Council allows request to die without a vote, immediately prompting Herndon to offer up his resignation.

Davis said regardless of when the request was made by Herndon to rename the street, it became obvious to city officials that, apart from a potential ethics violation, the decision to grant the request had the potential to set a precedent that would open the door to mundane or eccentric street renaming requests.

While Herndon claimed to Patch that the Council had pulled a fast one on him with the ordinance change, it must be noted that Herndon's signature is present on the ordinance that was passed by the City Council and signed into law in January.

"I do know that there was some concern in the various committee meetings that we would start an avalanche of street renamings, so the staff came up with criteria," Davis said. "The council wrote it to accept those criteria and the mayor signed that."

Herndon is limited in his authority after ceding his power to the City Council to appoint members to the Planning and Zoning Commission upon assuming office so his surveying firm could continue doing business with the city. Still, Herndon retained his power to veto permanent resolutions such as the street renaming ordinance — authority that was at his disposal but went unused when the ordinance was signed into law by his own hand in January.

"Of course me, I never paid any attention to the rules and regulations and thought it would be straightforward and simple," Herndon said Tuesday. "Then it got to a couple weeks ago and I heard they were going to deny the request because it didn't meet the new regulations. They knew what I wanted to do, so why would they write the regulations that way?"

City officials also expressed frustrations over Herndon's execution of his resignation announcement, which was accepted 3-2 by the Council with District 2's Woodrow Washington III and District 4's Jamie Dykes voting against accepting it. Several longtime sources told Patch this week that Herndon immediately left at the conclusion of the meeting and had a TV reporter from a Birmingham news station waiting on him.

"I know [the reporter] was not in the Council meeting and they were not there to cover it," Davis said. "I do know this was planned and it was not spur of the moment. That's already been reported."

Yet, Herndon insisted in the public forum and to Patch that his decision was made that night. In an interview with another local TV news station the following day, Herndon also left open the possibility that he may ask to rescind his resignation — a decision one source likened to having second thoughts after jumping off a tall building.

"Under Alabama law he doesn't have the option of withdrawing his resignation now that the Council voted to approve it," Davis explained. "The new mayor on Jan. 1, 2023 will be whoever the council president is on Dec. 31."

According to Alabama Code § 11-43-42 (a), if the mayor of a city of 12,000 or more residents is unable to serve due to sickness or "any other good reason" such as resigning, the president of the council — in this case District 5 Councilman Jeff Hogg — would be the first in the line of succession to fill the vacancy as mayor pro tempore for the remainder of Herndon's unexpired term.

"The next mayor under Alabama law will come from the five city council members," Davis said, before mentioning that whoever ascends to the position to fill the remainder of the unexpired term will be forced to give up their Council seat. The Council would then be tasked with appointing a replacement to fill the vacant district seat.

At the end of the discussion, though, Davis insisted that his individual opposition to the street renaming as the city's legal counsel rested on the mayor and his personal place of business potentially benefiting from the decision.

"If it had been a request to locate it somewhere other than the one block his business was on, as the city attorney I would have had much less concern about it," he said.

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