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The âfixer-upperâ: County Manager, former Mayor Tony Petelos ready to retire after 35 years of public service Photo by Erin Nelson. Jefferson County Manager Tony Petelos at the Jefferson County Courthouse in downtown Birmingham. Petelos is retiring after 35 years of public service in the Birmingham-Hoover area. When Tony Petelos left the Hoover mayorâs job to become Jefferson Countyâs first county manager in 2011, a lot of people told him he was crazy. Hoover was considered a âhappeningâ city where things were running smoothly, and Jefferson Countyâs government was in disarray, facing bankruptcy and still lacking public trust after 22 county officials had gone to prison for corruption in the preceding years. ....
Tamika Palmer, the mother of Breonna Taylor, right, listens to a news conference, Friday, Sept. 25, 2020, in Louisville, Ky. Family attorney Ben Crump is calling for the Kentucky attorney general to release the transcripts from the grand jury that decided not to charge any of the officers involved in the Black woman s death. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings) By Erica Wright The Birmingham Times What’s left to say about 2020 except that it’s over. But what a year with the well-chronicled coronavirus pandemic that killed more than 300,000; racial unrest that created division in across many communities and a presidential election that was over until it wasn’t. And there was plenty of more to a year that goes down as one of the most memorable in recent history. Here’s some of what happened. ....
Federal judge lifts consent decree against Jefferson County Updated Dec 21, 2020; Posted Dec 21, 2020 Jefferson County Commission President Jimmie Stephens, center, responds to a federal judge s Dec. 21, 2020 order lifting the consent decree against Jefferson County. Facebook Share A federal judge today lifted a 1982 consent decree against Jefferson County aimed at preventing discrimination in its hiring practices. “This is a momentous day,” wrote U.S. District Judge Lynnwood Smith in a letter filed with his order terminating the consent decree. Attorneys for both sides in the long-running lawsuit filed statements agreeing that the county has made dramatic strides in fairness for Blacks and females in hiring practices. ....
The Birmingham Times After nearly four decades under federal supervision for discriminatory hiring practices, Jefferson County today was released from one of the longest serving consent decrees in the country. In a nine-page order, U.S. District Judge Lynwood Smith terminated a 38-year-old consent decree writing that the county has “demonstrated its ability and commitment to function in compliance with federal law, absent judicial supervision.” The consent decree, which stemmed from a 1975-era lawsuit that claimed Jefferson County was discriminatory in hiring practices of Blacks and women, was entered on Dec. 29, 1982 and has involved tens of millions in legal fees, five years with a court appointed receivership and two years with a monitor. ....