Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
Finance Committee Chairman Walter Jones discusses details of the fiscal 2025 budget passed Monday night.
The Homewood City Council Monday night authorized the mayor to sign Lester Smith to be the city’s finance director.
Smith, who most recently worked for the city of Birmingham and Southern Research Institute, follows recently retired Robert Burgett, who was arrested for stealing $950,000 from the city.
“That’s one of the reasons Lester was seen as such a good candidate through the interview process,” Council President Alex Wyatt said prior to Monday’s meeting. “He comes very highly recommended from his previous jobs as well as by outside groups who have worked with him. He is one who has either done a good job of building or improving financial departments, both in the public and the private sector. That’s what we need, someone that can take on rebuilding our finance department in a better way than what it was before.”
Smith will be called on to put policies and protections in place to prevent future corruption. Additionally, Wyatt said Smith will be tasked with creating efficiencies within the department that will allow it to operate more effectively.
Smith will work closely with the new city manager when that person comes onboard.
“In just about every city, they work closely together and I would expect us to be no different,” Wyatt said. “Finance plays into every other department. That’s not true of every department. As the city manager is managing the city and the other departments, certainly finance would need to be involved in those discussions to understand what can and can’t be allocated to those requests.”
Could the finance director ultimately become the assistant city manager?
“It’s possible,” the council president said. “That will be something that needs to be discussed with the city manager once that person gets here. Certainly, it’s entirely possible that a department head would be an assistant city manager. There are plenty of cities that do operate that way. Other cities hire a separate position as an assistant city manager. I think that’s something we likely would discuss with the city manager once that person’s hired.”
The subject of hiring an interim city manager was discussed as recently as last week’s council committee meetings. Those discussions have taken a backseat to passing the fiscal 2025 budget, which was adopted during Monday’s meeting.
That budget totals $107.6 million, up from the $98 million budget of fiscal 2024. Walter Jones, who chairs the council’s Finance Committee, said that increase shows that the city is investing more in capital projects and more in its 537 employees with a cost-of-living raise, doubling the recommendation to 4%, or $943,000. There are also $587,000 in merit increases for employees.
“We are expanding different services, such as Amwaste, which we haven’t had in the budget before,” Jones said, adding that the city is picking up the 4.75% increase in employee health insurance at $237,000. “We’re trying to be as efficient as we can but it does reflect additional city services for Homewood.”
Lifting a large white 3-ring binder, Jones said he had been “living and breathing this thing the whole month.” The Finance Committee chair said the 2025 budget features capital projects such as the Interstate 65 diamond interchange, the greenway trailhead, Central Avenue sidewalks, an addition to Fire Station No. 3, pocket park equipment and police vehicles.
Other features of the budget include:
- General fund, $68.8 million.
- Grants fund, $1.3 million.
- 7-cent gas tax fund, $1 million.
- 4-cent and 5-cent gas tax fund, $468,000.
- Board of Education Fund from the 1-cent tax, $10.47 million.
- Debt service Fund to satisfy warrants Homewood owes on general $10.1 million.
- Capital Projects Fund, $6 million.
- Environmental Escrow Fund, $81,000.
- Insurance Fund, $1.45 million.
- E911 Fund, $1.1 million.
- Corrections/Jail Fund, $319,000.
- Corrections/Court Fund, $278,000.
- Municipal Court Special Fund, $8,000.
- Inspections and Technical Fund, $48,000.
- GOW Construction Fund, $6 million.
- Judicial Administration Fund, $63,000.
In other council action, the panel:
- Accepted the bid of $667,289 from Southeastern Silcoating, LLC for stormwater improvements on Kenilworth Drive.
- Approving budget transfers of $22,250 from worker’s comp to contractual services, $12,500 from wages to park activity for flag football for public works, and $11,985 from wages to building grounds maintenance, $28,100 from Delcris sidewalks to Reese Street sidewalks and $400 for uniforms for engineering.
- Approved the installation of a crosswalk crossing Linden Avenue at Reese Street.
