Our Birmingham region is the epicenter of duplication and waste.

We have dozens of government departments and agencies doing the same thing.

ComebackTown has written about this before, but missed a major duplication.

In Jefferson County we have...

35 mayors and city councils

53 fire departments*

23 police departments**

14 emergency 911 call centers***

But there’s one more…

Sheriff Pettway points out the obvious

Sometimes it takes a newly elected official with a fresh perspective to point out the obvious.

I recently heard a speech from new Jefferson County Sheriff Mark Pettway.

Sheriff Pettway enthusiastically described efforts by his office to think regionally.

One of his early initiatives was to take responsibility for policing Fairfield—which certainly is helpful for a city that has been struggling financially.

But in his talk, he pointed out the number of jails we have in Jefferson County.

There are 17 jails in Jefferson County (15 municipal and 2 county).****

Sheriff Pettway is volunteering to facilitate a conversation on how we might consolidate some of them.

He thought this would be particularly helpful to some of the smaller municipalities—saving money and allowing them to concentrate their resources on other critical needs.

A number of years ago, an effort was made by Irondale, Mountain Brook, Vestavia, Hills and Homewood to consolidate jails. The city leaders couldn’t agree and millions of dollars have been spent on building, staffing, and maintaining separate facilities.

As a city council member of Vestavia Hills told me, we are talking about a ‘Barney Fife’ type jail.

How to become more competitive without combining municipalities

It’s not necessary to combine our municipalities—but we must find a way to consolidate some services.

That is exactly what Charlotte, North Carolina has successfully done. Charlotte and Mecklenburg County determined that it was not necessary for each to have its own fire department or police department. They divided responsibility for the major functions of government so no two entities were doing the same thing.

This year 23 Jefferson County bold and visionary mayors signed a Good Neighbor Pledge to agree not to steal businesses from one another.

This is a big deal for our region because it is our first step toward regional collaboration.

These mayors deserve our respect and applause.

But their work is just beginning.

Our elected officials need to find ways to eliminate duplication and waste.

It could be something as simple as garbage and recycling.

Or it could be major initiates like fire and police departments, 911 call centers, or jails.

I don’t know how many jails are too many, but our goal shouldn’t be to have as many jails as politicians.

Detailed list of Jefferson County departments and agencies below…

*Fire departments (53)

Adamsville Fire Adger Volunteer Fire Bagley Volunteer Fire Bessemer Fire Birmingham Fire & Rescue Birmingport Volunteer Fire Brighton Fire Brookside/Cardiff Fire Cahaba Valley Fire Cain Creek Volunteer Fire Center Point Fire Concord Fire Corner Volunteer Fire Eastern Valley Fire Fairfield Fire Forestdale Fire Fultondale Fire Gardendale Fire Glennwood Volunteer Fire Graysville Fire Homewood Fire Hoover Fire Hueytown Fire Indian Ford Volunteer Fire Irondale Fire Kimberly Fire Leeds Fire Lipscomb Fire Maytown Volunteer Fire McAdory Volunteer Fire Districts 1&2 McCalla Volunteer Fire District Midfield Fire Minor Heights Fire Mount Olive Volunteer Fire Morris Volunteer Fire Mountain Brook Fire Mulga Volunteer Fire North Smithfield Manor Volunteer Fire Palmerdale Fire Pleasant Grove Fire Rexlake Fire Rocky Ridge Fire Shady Grove Fire Shannon Volunteer Fire Sylvan Springs Fire Tarrant Fire Trafford Volunteer Fire Trussville Fire US Steel Vestavia Hills Fire Warrior Fire Warrior River Fire West Jefferson Volunteer Fire

**Police departments (23 plus Sheriff’s Department)

Adamsville Bessemer Birmingham Brighton Brookside Fultondale Gardendale Homewood Hoover Hueytown Irondale Kimberly Leeds Lipscomb Midfield Morris Mountain Brook Pleasant Grove Tarrant Trafford Trussville Vestavia Hills Warrior

***911 Call centers (13 municipal plus Jefferson County)

Adamsville Bessemer Birmingham Fairfield Gardendale Homewood Hoover Hueytown Irondale Midfield Mountain Brook Pleasant Grove Tarrant Jefferson County

****Jails (15 municipal plus two Jefferson County)

Adamsville Bessemer Birmingham Fultondale Gardendale Homewood Hoover Hueytown Irondale Midfield Mountain Brook Pleasant Grove Tarrant Trussville Vestavia Hills Jefferson County (Birmingham) Jefferson County (Bessemer)

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David Sher is Co-Founder of AmSher Compassionate Collections. He’s past Chairman of the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce (BBA), Operation New Birmingham (REV Birmingham), and the City Action Partnership (CAP).

Invite David to speak to your group for free about a better Birmingham. dsher@amsher.com

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