Birmingham mayor calls process behind neighborhood funding “crazy”
Randall Woodfin addresses concerns from local neighborhood associations.
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin called the 17-step process for neighborhood associations to receive funding “crazy” in a press conference Thursday morning, BirminghamWatch reports.
Woodfin has been criticized recently by neighborhood associations for not adding money to their individual funds in his proposed FY 2018 budget. He pointed to the funds they have sitting in their accounts, but neighborhood officers say that the process of trying to spend those funds is unnecessarily difficult and sometimes interminable.
Woodfin didn’t back down from his proposed budget changes – he said the $500,000 typically allocated to neighborhoods will go toward priorities outlined by neighborhoods in December — but he did vow to make it easier for neighborhoods to spend their money. “I don’t care what it takes to cut down that type of red tape, that type of crazy bureaucracy to make sure that this process is more efficient,” he said. “We’re going to do whatever it takes. Before this year is out, we will have come up with a process that works for everybody.”
Read the full report at BirminghamWatch.
