The mayors of Alabama’s 10 largest cities met with state legislators this week to discuss issues including guidelines for handling police body camera footage, 5G phone technology, internet sales tax and denying bail for violent offenders.

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle, Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed, Decatur Mayor Tab Bowling, Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato, Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson, Auburn Mayor Ron Anders, Madison Mayor Paul Finley and Dothan Mayor Mark Saliba were present at a press conference about their legislative agenda Monday morning. Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox was not able to be at the press conference, but was part of discussions this weekend.

“These 10 mayors represent 70 percent of the population base in state of Alabama,” Brocato said. “This is not 10 mayors that are just strictly interested in their 10 cities, but the entire state of Alabama.”

Here are the issues:

Internet sales tax

The mayors feel the way the state’s internet sales tax is distributed is unfair. The tax is distributed based on city and county population, with the most populous cities and counties getting the largest share of internet sales tax revenue.

“The distribution is unfair to cities, hospitals and schools,” Brocato said.

Alabama began collecting internet sales tax on Oct. 1, 2018.

Brocato said the mayors would like to see the legislature structure its internet sales tax revenue similar to the way Texas does it.

Battle said he wants to ensure cities are able to collect actual tax revenue on internet sales, instead of that revenue going to the state to be redistributed.

5G expansion concerns

As 5G service expands in Alabama, mayors want to be able to ensure they retain some control over rights-of-way companies will be using to lay lines for 5G technology. Many 5G bills require cities to give control of their rights-of-way to these companies for installation and maintenance.

Battle said some of that work to expand 5G may involve companies digging trenches for lines through residents’ yards.

“As soon as they’re digging a trench in someone’s yard, they’re going to be calling city hall,” he said.

Battle said he wants 5G legislation to allow cities to set some requirements for how rights of way can be repaired in the event any digging or other work is done during 5G installation. He wants to ensure residents their property won’t be left in disrepair after the installation of 5G technology.

Denying bail for violent offenders

Alabama mayors are supporting a bill that will give judges more leeway to deny bail for people accused of serious violent crimes.

“We lost an officer to someone who never should have been out of jail from another state,” Battle said, referencing the death of Huntsville police officer Billy Clardy III. Clardy died on Dec. 6 after he was shot during a drug task force operation.

Rep. Chip Brown, R-Mobile, is sponsoring a constitutional amendment to give judges more leeway to deny bail. The bill will be similar to the one he proposed last year that did not pass.

Section 16 of the Alabama Constitution affirms the right to bail except for those charged with capital offenses.

Brown’s amendment would expand the exception to cover Class A felonies involving danger to the victim, such as first-degree rape, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree robbery, murder charges that are not capital offenses, and others.

Releasing body camera footage

The mayors are also seeking guidance on another important public safety issue: police body camera footage.

The mayors want the legislature to provide some guidelines on when to release police body cam footage to the public and the press, Stimpson said.

Some body camera footage is used as evidence in court or as evidence in lawsuits. Stimson said the mayors want guidance on how to handle such images or videos, since they are both public information, but also information that could be used in court or in a lawsuit.

"There’s some media that would like to put it [police body camera footage] out there for the sensationalism, and that is detrimental to the legal process,” said Stimpson. “We’re looking for guidelines to help us make sure that across the state we’re threading that needle of something being public information that’s also detrimental to our legal process.”

The legislative session starts Feb. 4.