The Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama has called Jefferson County’s budget inadequately transparent. On Wednesday, Commissioner David Carrington blasted PARCA and defended the county’s budget, even though a user-friendly line item budget does not exist.

The proposed ban would prohibit smoking in enclosed public spaces, including offices, restaurants, bars and in private clubs when the general public is invited, and in most outdoor areas, including most patios and in amphitheaters and stadiums.

Before the meeting, Rogue Tavern co-owners Jeremy Hackney and Travis McGriff said they attended the meeting to learn about the ordinance. Hackney said Rogue Tavern, which has a large outdoor patio, does not allow smoking inside — “That’s been our preference since we opened,” he said — and that even some smoking customers are fine with that. “We have a lot of patrons that smoke that enjoy no-smoking inside,” he said.

McGriff’s concerns were different. “To me, if they would do a statewide ban, I would be all for it,” McGriff said. But he worried that some smoking patrons might choose to stay in the suburbs and not patronize his establishment, which is located downtown. “Why would they come downtown if they could stay in Homewood?”

Brian Huff, who serves as the presiding judge of the Jefferson County Family Court, took to the podium first and addressed Austin and city councilors Valerie Abbott and Jay Roberson. He thought the smoking ban might be good for the city’s image.

Huff cited statistics, likely drawn from a poll done by the Mellman Group of the United Way of Central Alabama, that said a large majority of area voters would be in favor of the ban. “I’d ask the council to take notice that the vast majority — about 75 percent of citizens — support this ordinance, and I believe that business owners will actually see an increase in business.”

In the Mellman poll (PDF), which polled 600 likely Jefferson County voters over three days in July 2011, 76 percent of respondents said they’d favor a law “prohibiting smoking in indoor public places, including all workplaces, offices, restaurants and bars.” Many of those respondents — 70 percent — said they’d strongly be in favor of such a measure, while 17 percent said they were strongly against.

The poll also suggested that bars and restaurants might see an increase in business if a smoke-free law was passed. Some studies in the U.S. have shown a decrease in business for service establishments, while others have indicated an increase in business. A 2006 study by the U.S. Surgeon General cited numerous reports that found no negative economic impact from city and state smoking bans, but bar owners are still worried.

The same Surgeon General’s report extolled the potential negative health effects of secondhand smoke.

“It is harmful and hazardous to the health of the general public and particularly dangerous to children,” the report said. “It increases the risk of serious respiratory problems in children, such as a greater number and severity of asthma attacks and lower respiratory tract infections, and increases the risk for middle ear infections. It is also a known human carcinogen (cancer-causing agent). Inhaling secondhand smoke causes lung cancer and coronary heart disease in nonsmoking adults.”

Councilor Johnathan Austin said after the hearing that he would be amenable to changes in the smoking ban ordinance related to restrictions on patios at bars, restaurants and lounges.

Bar owners were careful to note that children are not allowed in their bars, and that adults choose to enter their establishments. Marty Eagle, who has been a business owner in Birmingham since the 1980s and owned Marty’s Bar since 1993, seemed to speak for much of the service industry crowd. He said there’s a sign posted outside the door of his bar (smoking is allowed at Marty’s) that notes that secondhand smoke is dangerous, but people still come in. “This is an industry in which every single patron and employee is an adult,” Eagle said. “Let them make their own decisions.”

Lou’s Pub owner Mike Carpri had some similar reservations. “If you’re an adult and you come into my establishment — nothing I sell is healthy,” he said, causing some folks in the gallery to laugh. “It’s a fact!”

Carpri said there were some good provisions in the ordinance, “and some things we need to compromise on, I believe,” but if the ordinance is passed as written and is limited to Birmingham proper, it will put him out of business. “If this passes, I can just shut my doors,” he told the committee.

Many of those speaking in favor of the ban worked in medicine or represented health-related associations and organizations, including Melanie Bridgeforth of the American Heart Association. She said that exposure to secondhand smoke increases the risk of coronary heart disease by 25 to 30 percent, and said that 30 minutes in a smoky environment is like smoking a cigarette.

“Mounting evidence shows that smoke-free workplace laws are an effective tool in fighting cardiovascular disease,” Bridgeforth told the committee. She wanted the ban passed with no exemptions. “Every exemption that you allow is a potential life lost.”

Earlier, Bridgeforth told Weld that exposure to secondhand smoke “increases the risk of coronary heart disease by 25 to 30 percent.” She also indicated concern about workers in such environments. “If they work an eight-hour shift, that’s an equivalent of smoking 16 cigarettes,” Bridgeforth said. “You can imagine that their risk for heart disease and for having the heart attack is definitely elevated by that exposure.”

Laura Clemons spoke for non-smokers’ rights to breathe smoke-free air. “I’m here to represent the young, single people that go out drinking to these establishments,” she told the committee. Clemons is allergic to smoke, she said, and though she said she’s friends with many bar owners, she can’t patronize their establishment due to the smoke.

“There’s a lot of talk of rights. I should have rights too,” Clemons said. “There has to be a solution where we get rights too.”

When it was Hackney’s turn to speak, he emphasized changes to the ordinance that would allow people to smoke on Rogue’s patio — changes supported by representatives from the Wine Loft, Dave’s Pub and the Blue Monkey lounge. “As it stands, I do not support the bill,” he said. “With some compromises, I think it could work.”

Blue Monkey owner Bernie Smith Bernie Smith said patrons enjoy smoking outside on the patio at Blue Monkey, especially visitors from out-of-town, he said. “This will directly effect my business, my sales and my tax dollars to the city.”

As written, the ordinance bans smoking in outdoor “Within a reasonable distance of 30 feet outside entrances, windows and ventilation systems of enclosed areas” and within 20 feet of outdoor seating or serving areas. That rules out many of the existing outdoor smoking areas in public places in Birmingham.

After the hearing, Councilor Austin seemed amenable to changing the patio provisions of the ordinance. “I think we do need to look at the distance requirements as it applies to smoking on the patio because I think we have to strike a good balance between our businesses and our citizens,” he said.

Austin also indicated his intention to lobby other municipalities to pass similar laws, and the ordinance itself says that Birmingham will work with Jefferson and Shelby county governments with facilities in Birmingham “to establish local operating procedures in cooperation and compliance with this ordinance.”

Alabama state Sen. Vivian Figures (D-Mobile) has also proposed two versions of a statewide ban in the Alabama legislature.

The proposed ban is expected to come before the full Birmingham City Council in two weeks, Austin said.

Until then, smoke ‘em if you got ‘em.

Related reading: 10 Things You Should Know About the Proposed Birmingham Smoking Ban

Elected officials, including a few of the county’s mayors, were on hand as the The FreshWater Land Trust unveiled their master plan for a countywide greenway Tuesday night, Feb. 21, at the Birmingham Museum of Art.

Guests at the Museum of Art Tuesday night viewed sketches of the greenways in Jefferson County's new Red Rock Ridge and Valley Trail System. Photo by Mia Watkins.

Guests were invited to view sketches of the six major greenways that would ultimately connect the county. Each corridor will span from east to west through a combination of street-level paths and greenways. For example, the Jones Valley Corridor will stretch 28 miles from Bessemer to East Lake Park connecting 30 schools and other destinations along the way.

FreshWater Land Trust’s Wendy Jackson said the project will cost about $200 million to complete over an estimated 30 years.

One major motivation for the greenways is promoting options for healthy activities among citizens.

According to Jefferson County Health Officer Dr. Mark Wilson, one-third of people surveyed by the UAB School of Public Health reported no exercise in the previous month. However, one-third of those who said they were inactive said they would exercise if they had a place to go that encourage both biking and walking.

Wilson also pointed out that inactive people who start walking three times a week reduce their direct health care costs by $600 a year.

“Each and every person that would take part in it would probably benefit from the exercise. It would be less medical overall, I believe we’re talking about millions and millions of dollars saved,” Redmont resident William Tatum said.

The initiative began over 18 months ago under the name Our One Mile. According to Jackson, planners listened to the voices of about 3,000 citizens in about 30 different county communities.

Planners also spent a lot of time on the ground in all of the areas involved in order to create realistic goals.

“By spending such a tremendous amount of time ground tripping, it enabled us to lay out a plan that’s truly constructible,” Wilson said.

John Cock, Southeast regional manager of Atla Designs, said Red Rock Ridge could serve as a model nationwide for communities looking to increase green space and even community partnerships.

“We literally do not see in other communities the partnerships of land trusts, public health agencies, private businesses and dozens of local governments all working together towards this goal,” he said. “Many other regions have partnerships but none as broad or as deep as what this project is exhibiting,”

The diversity among the involved communities surprised Cock. Most areas building these types of trails tend to be largely white and middle-class.

“Birmingham has broken the mold in all of those facets and, literally, that does not happen,” he said.

Hoover resident and avid cyclist Brian Kelly said the trail ties the county together in a different way.

“I don’t want to just stay in Hoover, I want to be able to get anywhere throughout the city,” he said. “Being able to have that interconnectedness to get from Hoover on just my bike without having to resort to a car is great.”

Mia Watkins is a contributing writer at Weld for Birmingham. Send your feedback to editor@weldbham.com.

You see, McGill has read the Bible, in which he learned that God weighed the mountains and the valleys on a scale. He believes this, not in any metaphorical way, but very much in the literal sense: God measured every thing’s weight the same way your butcher prices a slab of bacon for you at the grocery store. You could, of course, ask why God would have to weigh anything — doesn’t He just know? But that would require some thinking, and for McGill, thinking can be a dangerous thing. And he’s put a lot of thought into why the Almighty puts so much attention into the weights and measures of the landscape.

“My answer to that is that he knew he was going to be spinning it real fast, and it needed to be in balance,” McGill said.

God Almighty — Harlem Globetrotter.

And just like God keeps the world from caterwauling out of control by keeping it in balance, government can keep its employees in balance by how much it pays them — more for lawmakers. Teachers? Not so much.

If you are thoroughly confused and think you’ve read something above wrong, don’t bother rereading it. You cannot follow this line of thought without stubbing your toe on it. Just understand that this man has been elected by his constituents to make laws in this state — laws you and I have to abide by.

And McGill is keen on banning all abortion with a law so broad it might even prevent fertility doctors from being able to help couples get pregnant through in vitro fertilizaton, and he bemoans the fact that he doesn’t get the support from the public he’d like. When he pushed the bill last year, he got one phone call from a pastor, but when the legislature dealt with budget issues he got thousands of phone calls and emails.

But wouldn’t that indicate to him that the public cares more about bread and butter issues like jobs, the budget and the economy?

“Not necessarily,” McGill said. “It could be less educated.”

McGill made it clear that he thinks his abortion bill is more important than the jobs bills the Republican leadership is pushing and more important than even the state budget.

So why is it so important to focus on one legislator from a place called (and I’m not making this up) Woodville, Ala.?

Because he’s not alone. An Alabama lawmaker has introduced a bill that would allow students to leave school so they can study creationism off campus for class credit. (Apparently Sunday School just isn’t doing the trick anymore.) The Alabama Supreme Court has contradicted Roe v. Wade’s definition of a person. And on the national level, the GOP has somehow rekindled a debate about birth control. It’s not just one legislator, or even one legislature. From the senator from Woodville to the race for the White House, the religious right is on the march again.

Last week, President Barack Obama attempted to compromise with religious leaders who objected to their charities being required to offer birth control in their employee health insurance. The president’s compromise would have required the insurer to cover that free of charge, but still the religious right would not let up. Many of the pundits said that Obama had lost another battle, caving again to conservatives.

If Obama had lost, then that must mean that Republicans had won, right? Yes, but only until the GOP had time to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. A panel of religious leaders, convened by Rep. Darrell Issa to speak about the issue with Congress, didn’t include a single woman.

On the campaign trail, Rick Santorum has used the opportunity to remind voters why a majority of voters in Pennsylvania wouldn’t even reelect him to be their Senator. Santorum has called contraception dangerous and said that it gives people “license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.” By “doing things,” he means recreative, non-procreative sex.

Procreative sex is OK, even when it’s rape. When asked whether rape victims should be allowed to have abortions, Santorum has argued that it’s better to make the best out of a bad situation. He’d require women to take their rape babies to term.

And Santorum’s church-state mingling isn’t confined to icky sex stuff. He believes the Bible dictates environmental policy, too. Defending comments in which he questioned the president’s Christianity, Santorum explained himself in a very Shadrack McGill sort of way.

“Well, I was talking about the radical environmentalists,” he said. “That’s what I was talking about: Energy, this idea that man is here to serve the Earth, as opposed to husband its resources and be good stewards of the Earth. And I think that is a phony ideal.”

I’m not exactly clear what it means to “husband” the Earth, but you can be sure when Santoum does it, he’s not going to wear a condom.

Santorum is guided by his religious beliefs, and while many presidents have leaned on religion to help them make decisions, Santorum takes things a step further. He does not believe that there should be a separation of church and state. America, as he would have it, would fit the definition of a theocracy.

It’s early yet, but if the rest of 2012 follows the first two months, this will be the year of the Republican Party’s missed opportunity: When Americans were in general agreement that government had grown too big, and too costly rather than exploiting that conventional sentiment, the GOP decided its time was better spent making women into baby farms. When the public believed government had become too intrusive, the religious right decided it hadn’t gone far enough. Just like 1992, the GOP is turning control of the party over to religious chauvinists and driving women voters (and many men, too) away — just where the Democrats would have them.

The Messenge Shoot Back is a column about political culture.

The bill, known as Senate bill 213 or SB213, provides that members of the Employees’ Retirement System, the Teachers’ Retirement System or the Judicial Retirement Fund who plead guilty to or are convicted of a felony forfeit any future benefits. A federal, Alabama or other state judge must determine that the felony involved the felon’s public position. The felons are also refunded the money they’ve invested into the system, plus any interest.

Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) sponsored the bill. “When a public official violates the trust of those they are intended to serve, the last thing we need to do is reward them with taxpayer-funded retirement benefits,” Orr said in a press release.

The bill passed with no opposition. It now needs consideration and approval by the Alabama House before becoming law.

SB213-eng

KoronisFest is named after Koronis, a figure in Greek mythology who was a mother to Asklepios, god of medicine, and a grandmother to Hygeia, goddess of good health. She is symbolized by a crow, and in the stars as Corvus, a constellation in the southern sky.

“In essence, KoronisFest is trying to harness the grass-roots, indie-spirit creativity that’s gone into YouTube & the rest of the burgeoning social media and bring it to focus to benefit the public’s health,” neurologist, fiction writer and professor Dr. Steven Rudd told Weld in an e-mail. KoronisFest is funded by an endowment Rudd established. “Quixotic? You bet. Grandiose? No argument. But it’s too late now to put the concept back in the bottle.”

The festival takes submissions from all comers (“regardless of age, academic status, experience, etc.” Rudd wrote) in three categories of public health communication: live public service announcements (PSAs), animated PSAs and posters. Submissions in all categories are judged by a panel drawn from folks in the local art and visual communication fields. First place winners in each category win $500; second place gets you $250 and $100 goes to third place winners.

Second place poster winner, 2011 KoronisFest. "Do the Math" by Shaun Crawford

Submissions are due in by March 9 on the KoronisFest website, koronisfest.org. PSA submissions (60 seconds or less) require a YouTube link; poster submissions are accepted via Dropbox.

After the deadline, interested parties can vote online for the people’s choice awards. The People’s Choice Koroni winners will see their submissions screened at the KoronisFest festival, scheduled for April 5.

First place poster winner, 2011 KoronisFest. "Lung Likeness" by Forrest Cannon.

Rudd said that past winners have seen their PSAs aired in between films at the Sidewalk Film Festival, and posters have been shown in UAB’s Ryals Public Health Building on UAB’s campus.

“We’re in talks with everyone from state & local health departments to ad councils to make the clips available for a wider audience,” Rudd wrote. “At this point, we’re sort of where the end credits began to roll in ‘Field of Dreams’: We built it, they came… now where do we go with it?”

First place live action winner, 2011 KoronisFest. “Fresh Grown” by Anna Lloyd

First place animation winner, 2011 KoronisFest. “Absentee Landlords” by Thomas Wood

Alabama may see 25.4 ounce beer bottles sooner than expected.

A bill that would allow the bigger bottles made it on to the Alabama’s Senate special order calendar for today. If the bill, SB294, is considered today when the session begins at 5 p.m., it will need to survive a procedural hurdle called a Budget Isolation Resolution (BIR) that requires approval by a two-thirds super majority. If it passes the BIR, the bill can be brought up for final passage — a simple majority vote — and then await consideration in the House.

“Alabama is the only state that restricts beer bottle size to 16 ounces or less,” Free the Hops president Gabe Harris told Weld in an e-mail. Right now, those 16 ounce tallboys are the biggest beers, in terms of container size, that we can get in this state. That means that there are still many beers that Alabama brew aficionados have to bootleg from neighbor states.

For extensive information about the House and Senate bills and to read the bill, click here.

Free the Hops notified the public of the bill’s listing on the special order calendar today, and urged supporters to contact their legislators.

In 2006, President George W. Bush signed a renewal of the Voting Rights Act into law.

With Shelby County’s court challenge on track to potentially reach the United State Supreme Court, legal analysts tell Politico that the make-up and record of the court makes it “between likely and extremely likely” that it will soon strike down significant portions of the Voting Rights Act, which requires Alabama, among six other states, receive clearance from the Justice Department before redrawing districts or changing election laws.

Brandon Moseley at Alabama Political Reporter writes that Reagin endorsed Beason (R-Gardendale) over another candidate, Al Mickle, partly because Beason had already won an elected office.

Reagin was running to unseat U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus, a Vestavia Hills Republican who has taken criticism from the right for allegations related to trades he made. Bachus is currently under investigation by the Office of Congressional Ethics and he recently set up a legal defense fund.

Reagin is a veteran of the Air Force and a mechanical engineer in Leeds. You can view his campaign website here.

Read more about Reagin’s endorsement at Alabama Political Reporter.

Goat Hill: Where ethics and good ideas go to die.

If you wanted to go to either Alabama-LSU game this year, chances are you had to pay a premium price, but more than 150 lawmakers, lobbyists and public officials were able to buy tickets at face value from the university, according to the Tuscaloosa News. Alabama’s ethics law allows public officials to buy tickets for face value, even when the general public can only get them through scalpers and online brokers for several times that amount.

Until the state’s new ethics law went into effect last year, lawmakers could get tickets for free, so perhaps that’s an improvement, but Birmingham resident-turned-activist Jim Metrock isn’t satisfied. For the last two years he has fought a public relations campaign against the special privilege for Alabama legislators.

Metrock said legislators convey an “unspoken message” to the university when they request tickets, characterizing it as: ” ‘I want to go to the National Championship game. I vote on your school’s appropriations. I want to go to the head of the line for tickets, past students, faculty members and scholarship donors. I need tickets and I don’t want to pay what my neighbors are paying, and I sure don’t want to make a contribution to any scholarship fund. I will pay no more than face value.’ ”

However, according to UA spokeswoman Cathy Andreen, no threats are needed. The university reaches out to public officials with offers of tickets.

Birmingham lawyer and election law blogger Edward Still had an interesting question on his blog Sunday.

If I offered a legislator a $10 gold coin (which is on sale from the Franklin Mint for $899), would I get to argue the “face value” interpretation? Or would I be considered to be offering an $889 “thing of value”?