City Council to vote on new laws, improvements at meeting tonight

By WVUA 23 Digital Reporter Kyle Hamrick

The Tuscaloosa City Council will vote tonight on a variety of measures to help Tuscaloosa police, amend the city’s budget and investigate improving city roads.

An amendment to the city code authorizing citations for misdemeanor possession of marijuana and lengthier sentences in the county jail for suspects who flee police passed the Public Safety Committee earlier this month.

If passed tonight, the amendment would allow people to pay a fine rather than spend time in jail.

On the other hand, the amendment would increase the penalty for those who try to elude authorities from a fine of $500 and six months in jail to $5,000 and one year.

The longer sentence and higher fine is meant to deter suspects from leading police on high-speed pursuits.

The Tuscaloosa Police Department is also seeking the Council’s approval to purchase a hangar for $750,000 at the Tuscaloosa National Airport to house its aviation unit.

The Fiscal Year 2022 budget is also up for amendment, changing the current revenue from$64,650,000 to $67,263,944, and the current expenditure from $78,258,347 to $77,795,960.

Transfers from the American Rescue Plan fund worth $2,613,944 along with special bonuses worth $2,041,131 drive the proposed amendment.

A resolution allowing Birmingham architecture company Gresham Smith to conduct a feasibility study of the intersection at University Boulevard and Brookhills Road for $28,000 will also come to the council for voting tonight, along with authorizing payment of $909,058 to Alabama Power Company to convert overhead distribution lines to underground utility lines as part of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard/Jack Warner Parkway Improvements Project.

To view the full agenda for tonight’s meeting, click here.