Tuscaloosa Councilmen Detail Issues With & Support For Proposed Public Safety Director Job

Leaders on the Tuscaloosa City Council are outlining concerns with and support for a new role at City Hall intended to oversee the police and fire departments, E-911 Service and more.

As the Thread previously reported, Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox has been advocating recently for the re-creation of a position - the Executive Director of Public Safety - which would head a new department under which all these services are grouped.

The role last existed in 1985 as the city's Public Safety Commissioner—a job that was eliminated when the current council-driven city government was established.

Last month, during an earlier-than-planned vote on whether to create the position, the council was split 3-3.  Maddox broke the tie, voting in favor of his proposed position. The tie was possible because Council President Kip Tyner was unable to attend the meeting as he was recovering from surgery.

Councilors Joe Eatmon, Ravean Howard, and Cassius Lanier voted yes, with Lee Busby, Norman Crow, and John Faile voting against.

Notably, the vote occurred without the approval of the finance committee, which had previously voted to table discussion of the position until November 3rd.

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In an interview with the Thread days after the vote last month, Councilman Busby, who chairs the finance committee, said he does not believe the role has been fully created even after the previous vote.

"My interpretation of our form of government is no - until it's funded, you can't hire anybody," Busby said, meaning the finance committee meeting tomorrow still matters, and discussion over this job will continue.

Busby said his issues are not linked to support for law enforcement officers and other public safety employees working for the city, which he said is unwavering.

The council has been universally supportive of Tuscaloosa's public safety employees over the last five years, voting in favor of recruitment and retention efforts that included pay increases, signing bonuses, take-home vehicle policies, and the costly conversion of their current retirement plans to the coveted but expensive state RSA plans.

Busby said the council still supports its police and firefighters, but he noted that some elected officials are not convinced the new position is necessary for their benefit.

"The divide is not that some council members are for safety and some are not," Busby told the Thread last month. "The divide is that some do not believe this proposed measure materially enhances safety. And I believe it will be the most important issue in this four-year term."

Busby said the core issue for TPD has been the same for several years: the city is unable to fully staff the police department.

"I believe the main safety problem in Tuscaloosa is our inability to hire an adequate number of police officers," Busby said. "I think that's the elephant in the living room in terms of making Tuscaloosa safer."

A police spokesperson said the current council-approved budget allows for 264 sworn officers, and in October, there were 21 vacancies. Money is there to hire these officers, but TPD has struggled to recruit and retain a full roster of officers who meet their standards.

Busby said TPD was once budgeted for 292 officers, but due to vacancies, that number was reduced to 275, then further reduced to 264.

Despite those cuts and costly measures to address recruitment and retention, Busby said the city consistently has 20 officers fewer than needed for a fully staffed TPD.

"The police department figured that an officer has a cost of about $174,000 a year. That's lock, stock, and barrel. That's hiring, equipping, salary, benefits, and now we buy them a car," Busby said. "With twenty vacancies at that cost, that's 3.5 million bucks that we've budgeted and is on the table but is not being deployed into making Tuscaloosa safe."

Ignoring that issue and narrowing in on the debate over the Executive Director of Public Safety, Busby said initial briefings and budget requests would put the salary for the role between $170,000 and $180,000.

"It instantly becomes the highest-paid position in the city," Busby said. "Could we come up with this money? Yeah, we're going to come up with whatever we have to in order to keep Tuscaloosa safe. The issue is really two-fold. Number one: Does this do that? Does creating another high-level executive position and eventually a Department of Public Safety make Tuscaloosa safer?"

Another key sticking point for Busby regarding this position is whether the new department head would be eligible for overtime. The city spends millions a year paying employees for working beyond 40 hours a week, and almost all of the top earners are public safety employees. AL.com reported last September that TPD Chief Brent Blankley alone earned nearly $38,000 in overtime pay in 2023.

"So, issue number two is the compensation. Now, I don't begrudge any fireman or police officer a nickel of any overtime pay," Busby said. "But I can tell you I believe absolutely when you move into a managerial executive-level job [like this executive director position], that is not how you should be compensated."

Busby said he's optimistic that after more discussions, the council will be able to come to an agreement about how to move forward, and those talks will continue in his finance committee tomorrow.

On the other side of the issue is councilman Joe Eatmon, elected earlier this year to represent West Tuscaloosa's District 1.

"I represent a district that's traditionally had an issue with public safety, whether it be fire or crime; my district is probably more impacted than any other district in the city," Eatmon said. "I just think we can't wait any longer. I think the longer we wait, the more vulnerable we make ourselves as a city."

First of all, Eatmon wants to reduce crime, and he said that if the creation of this role can prevent even a single criminal homicide, it would be hard to argue it wasn't worth doing.

"How much is feeling safe worth? How much is a life worth?" Eatmon said. "I'm not saying that this position will prevent everything bad from happening here. We don't know if it will, but on the other hand, we also don't know if it won't prevent some large-scale incident from happening here in Tuscaloosa."

Eatmon said Tuscaloosa regularly hosts events that draw thousands of visitors, including athletic matches, concerts at the Mercedes-Benz Amphitheater, major arts festivals, races, and more. This new department head could help ensure that all of these traditions can continue safely.

He also stated that now is the time to take steps toward crime prevention, as the current Presidential administration has demonstrated its willingness to deploy federal troops to restore order where it deems necessary.

"If you look around the country right now, you've got communities where the National Guard is having to come in and organize their public safety to try to solve their problems," Eatmon said. "I think this would be a proactive approach on our part that would hopefully prevent us from getting to that point."

Both sides will continue to make their cases as the meetings over this new role continue on Tuesday.

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