Birmingham Post-Herald from Birmingham, Alabama • 21

-wy I I 1 ywti December 28 (ZQu Sinrangham INttW SATURDAY Birmingham Post-Herald i I Editorials C2 Short reports C3 The top 10 events had lus for groaning as By Steve Joyat Birmingham Post-Herald 21 is the time when we look beck over the year that ii about slip from our gram to think about the things that have gone wrong and those that have gone well It's important to remember but more important to learn from the things we remember In Birmingham 1996 wu much ten a year of startling events what we in the media call breaking news Julie Hunter than it was a year of JZ Poet-Herald developing stories ZZ Horace things that simply Parker a gained momentum the Birmingham further along Water Works and Sewer And in many of these Board instance we saw ven- erable nizatio crumble listens during merang or the board earlier this year a al ANgNOni Or lavish spencNngby the board 4 surfaced in 1996 From the stalwart sheriff we thought would always be there to the people we count on for the necessities of life such as water transportation and even the news we were re-minded fels year more so than others in re-cent history that everything changes Hen then in no particular order are 10 stories (Tom the Birmingham area that the Birmingham' Post-Herald has selected as among the most important of 1996 -'iio- y-x'if 1 The Over We uw the proverbial tip of floating in a glass of sparkling tap water in i of the iceberg August when media reports began to chroni-- cle relatively minor acts of lavish mending Z't by the Birmingham Water Works and Sewer Board Board members who make $285 for each they attend also had the meetings to the tune of nearly $23000 In 1995 That worked out to somewhere be- tween $400 and $700 per meal It also was revealed that the board had 2Z paid so-called consulting fee of $255000 to farmer employee Audrey Perine who had filed and then withdrawn a discrimination ZZ complaint against the board Ms Paine at the time the contract was ZZZ publicly revealed in September had not done any measurable consulting work far the board These revelations well as information about $700 000-plus public relations fees paid by the board brought the state into the lure as auditor Pat Duncan with the king of Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a full-scale audit of the board one that will take seven to 10 auditors nearly eight months to complete Chairman Anthony Barnes called a 25 press conference in late October to say "We Z': have identified a number id areas where the board should have exercised better Employee credit cards and private dub Z2 memberships were canceled First dan travel gave way to economy class and the board canceled its lunches Instead choosing ITy light snacks Even so the board turned right around id spent more than $30000 on public rela-i doctor! Chris Grimshawe And the secrets continued to leak out things like how fee board had contributed $848000 of money to a variety charities between 1993 and 1996 using Zl little or no official Then came fee I process story aboi ind how I about board Director $40000 worth of water service upgrades done at his house 2 somehow were billed to the board As the year cornu to an end it seems fairly clear that the spending party is over at fee Water Works but it seems equally clear that we have not yet heard the total price tag for that party 5V- 5 A Schoolhouse Divided ZZ The month of May wu not a good one far fee Birmingham Board of Education and ZZ things gotten much better since ZZ' Interim Superintendent Ed LaMonte re-ZZ signed only four months after starting the job The board laid off 334 teachers ana 178 ZZ support personnel in a reorganisation effort Mana Hazel Germany the board president surge is Mo siovy Sim I The Associated Pren Here are the top 10 stories of 1996 from acrou Alabama: GOP serge The November vote gave Alabama two Republican senators for the first time this century and a ma- board had developed criteria far taking schools and school systems that were fail over chod syste to reach the acceptable levels in bed testing Birmingham it was feared was on the hit list Geraldine Bell wu selected the next interim superintendent far Birmingham a position the board extended until June 1998 in order to address other problems One-third of the teachers and employees who were laid off nearly 200 of them were hired back in June and the board put together a balanced budget the first one in five years But things started to break down again The schools were facing a severe shortage of bus drivers and the community committee that had been put together to advise the board on a new overall strategy wu coming apart over complaints that the board wu meddling too much Richardson returned to Birmingham to address the board a whole He made it abundantly clear that the entire Birmingham system wu on notice and unless board members moved more swiftly and decisively on a plan of attack the state would do it far them And then the entire school lunch program came into danger of losing a substantial chunk of federal funding became the program failed an audit Now it seems if everyone is waiting to see which shoe will drop next Donde esta Legion Reid? As we said not all of the news wu bad Birmingham quite literally surprised the world when it held Olympic soccer games and at Legion Field between July 20 and 28 More importantly perhaps the city surprised many of its own residents Local aspersions such as way will the football maniacs in this town pay to see some soccer or a sissy gave way to a stunned silence when 83810 screaming fans most of them from this country region and even state packed fee stadium to see the United States play Argentina 11 games 333359 people showed up in the football capital of the South Please tara ts 1998 page C3 The University of Alabama at Binning ham has been searching for a new president since Claude Bennett announced his resignation! Ho plans to Join Join a phsrmaeeutieal eompany as PfMKMflle Phil Williams and Public Safety Director Gene Mitchell in an ethics dispute: Prison Commissioner Ron Jona also signed after talking of putting women inmates on chain gangs The shakeup affected other top aida stumbled in dealings wife the Legis- lature 8 Schaolhaese doer revisited Former Gov George Wallace paid tribute to Vivian Malone Jona and Jama Hood fee two blacks whom Wallace tried to stop from enrolling at the University of Alabama in the 1963 in the Schoolhouse Wallace honored Mra Jana wife the first Lurleen Wallace Courage Award from his foundation 9 Michael Figures dla The president pro-tem of the Alabama Senate one' of the hlgheat-ranklng black legislators the country died of a brain hemorrhage stunning mends and colleagues The 48-year-old Mobile lawmaker had been an Intense eloquent supporter of minority causes 10 Baby search hoax Reports of a valiant tearful attempt to rescue a baby from a Gadsden river drew wide notice attention that grew even wider when it wu discloaed that the officer Billy Vasaer wu suspected of per- petrating a hoax Vaasa who denied the allegation resigned after the department auapended Urn and lodged an administrative charge against him of conduct unbecoming an of fica Me hip A' jority of the House delegation GOP in statewide judicial races coupled wife unprecedented Republican gains at the State House in 1994 put the party at the end in control of the moat powerful political offices 2 pdld deaths The deaths of children in troubled hones drew news at- tween the state's child welfare agency and attorneys suing it put the spotlight on the human tragedy 3 Tsrmoll ia higher edncatien battles over state funding cutbacks in higher education the University of Alabama chancellor leaves the University of Alabama gets a new president at the Capstone the presidency and top jobs at the University of Alabama at Birmingham are in transition and Auburn president panders a move before getting a contract 'sweetener 4 Chuck fires Three rural black churches in Greene County are left charred by suspicious fires as news reports focus on a rash of such blazes acrou the South including others in Alabama Concern that the fires are signs of hate crimes on the rise are later diminished by reports that other motives are behind many and that white churches also have burned in similar numbers 1 State Heue comption The year began wife a once-influential State House lawyer and insider John Tanner and two formerly powerful state a tors Bill Drinkard and Ray Campbell pleading guilty to charges brought In a State House corruption probe of Jim years governor and lieutenant Other former Folsom allies onetime Cabinet members Jama Dill and Dan Turner and ousted environmental chief John Smith also fought Indictments involving financial wrongdoing wife charga against Turner withdrawn 6 Skuk ad A campaign spot run by Supreme Court Justice Kenneth In gram dredging up old divorce allegations against GOP opponent Hamid See a skunk marked a low point in Alabama's increasingly bruising and confer judicial election Even See's ex-wife denounced the ad The sailed spate left by all the muJrihgtag prompted calls aad formation ef a judicial cemmissiaa ta reform the way Alabama picks fee peeplc wha administer Justice 7 Jama Cabinet shakeap Gov Fob Jama' second year at fee helm wu rattled by the resignation of three of hla top Cabinet officials Chief of Staff Bobby Davis Finance Director wu ousted from her seat by the ham City Council in favor of Rev Larry 0 Coleman the pastor at Council woman Antris Hinton's church Not long after state Superintendent Ed ZZ Richardson visited with Mayor Richard Ar-IT rbigton who In turn met individually wife ZZ each board member Under the new tienal accountability hw fee state scho wu Karl StotletaPoat-Herald Comments suoh as way will the footbafl maniacs in this town pay to see some sooeer or a sissy gave way to a stunned slenoe when 83810 screaming fans Inducing those from this state packed Legion Field to see the Unite States play Argentina last summer i i.