Birmingham Mayor William Bell failed to show up for a meeting on the 2018 fiscal year operating budget with the City Council on Wednesday afternoon.

"(Bell) set the meeting," Council President Johnathan Austin said, during the meeting. "He told us that he was going to be here at that time, and of course, he is a no-show."

The special-called Committee of the Whole meeting adjourned at about 5 p.m., about an hour and a half after the meeting started.

The 2018 fiscal year started on July 1. Without an approved budget the city is operating based on the prior year's spending levels as the mayor and council are at loggerheads over the new budget.

After the meeting, a spokesperson for the mayor, said Bell couldn't attend because he was pulled into a series of phone calls having to do with making preparations for Hurricane Irma evacuees and hosting Florida International University sporting events.

In the budget meeting, Councilor William Parker recommended the council talk about the budget anyway. "What I would like to do is talk through what we like and don't like," he said. "Let's put together what our thoughts are. Let's try to get this resolved."

That idea failed. Instead, the council voted to put the budget they first submitted to the mayor on Aug. 1 on the agenda for next Tuesday's City Council meeting.

Birmingham City Council President Johnathan Austin (City of Birmingham)

That budget, though, will be amended, Austin said, to include funding for long-time employees' longevity pay, and the mayor's requested funding for the human resources and equipment management departments.

The mayor still has to sign off on the budget before it can be placed on the city council meeting agenda.

Council President Pro Tem Steven Hoyt agreed that the mayor should have been at the meeting, and no more discussion needs to take place until the mayor participates.

"It is not fair to the citizens," he said. "We don't have the attention of the mayor to have this ... dialogue that needs to take place. We need to have a government that works together. We don't need to have another discussion until the mayor is here."

Last Wednesday, Bell presented the council with a "compromise" budget that added $1.1 million for longevity pay for long-time city employees and, as requested by the City Council, additional funding for Birmingham Public Library and Birmingham City Schools.

Bell presented his initial proposed budget for 2018 to the council in mid-May.

Bell, last week, dropped the council's requested Office of Minority and Women Inclusion. Bell said a staff member in his office can head up that effort, rather than creating a new position.

The mayor proposed allocating $16 million to the Birmingham Public Library. The council wants to fund the library at $17.6 million. In his initial budget proposal, the mayor had suggested $15.6 million.

Birmingham City Schools would receive $3.6 million in city money in the mayor's new budget. The council wants to fund schools at $3.9 million. The mayor's new proposal is about $1.3 million more than what the mayor initially allocated.

The City Council's proposed budgetallocates $6.5 million for neighborhoods, which includes weed abatement and home demolition, $4.6 million for Birmingham City Schools, $2.1 million for public libraries and $5.1 million for employee raises and $500,000 for the Office of Minority and Women Inclusion.



The council's changes include giving an additional $1.5 million to Birmingham City Schools, $500,000 in additional funds for police vehicles and an additional $500,000 for weed abatement and $1 million for home demolition.