J. Hunter

Shelia Smoot on Birmingham's Side

What successes Birmingham accomplishes on its new vision quest will have to happen in tandem with the area's other largest government, the Jefferson County Commission. Commissioner Shelia Smoot, the former television reporter who took office in 2001, oversees community and economic development responsibilities for the county.

She comes with a passion to bring county resources to neglected areas, many of them in Birmingham neighborhoods that she and Commission President Larry Langford represent.

Smoot doesn't mind using her office as a bully pulpit. She's preached to developers about the need to build Summit-type shopping centers, restaurants and other amenities in western Birmingham. She has publicly criticized property owners and managers who run substandard apartments in the City and "encouraged" them to clean up their operations. And she's courting other new property developers to come with ideas to refurbish and build new housing in the poorest sections of the county, including the City.

Though the county took over the Workforce Investment Authority from the City, Smoot says she's passionate about helping people anywhere who need help. "My duty and my challenge is to help people prosper. Workforce development dollars are there to help capture those displaced workers, the man and woman who didn't complete high school," she says, "to help them be competitive and earn a decent salary for them and their families." Smoot and her staff recently reshaped the long-standing Workforce Investment Board. It oversees millions in federal job-training dollars across the county for about 3,000 displaced workers, under-educated adults and youths.

At one Workforce Investment board meeting, Smoot says she asked members, "'How many of you have hired any of my displaced workers or any of my kids?'' and nobody could raise their hand. I said, 'Why are you on this board? If the big boys can't hire my folks, why are you sitting here?" The board's new focus, she says, is to prepare disadvantaged citizens for jobs in the health care industry and in biotechnology, two important job growth sectors in the Birmingham area. She has also directed the Jefferson County Economic and Industrial Development Authority to explore building a new county industrial park that would attract biotech businesses to the county.

The County Commission recently set up a $5 million economic stimulus package that's administered through Operation New Birmingham, a non-profit group dedicated to revitalizing the City Center. The program extends short-term loans of $100,000 to $1 million (with interest rates around 1%) to businesses and developers who're starting or expanding their ventures. Smoot wants the program to help a wide spectrum of entrepreneurs and businesses. "So I'll be monitoring (ONB) to see not only who gets helped, but also who doesn't," she says.

Smoot is also working with Alan Hunter, a former MTV veejay and film producer, to establish a county film commission. Their goal is to recruit Hollywood film crews - and the wads of cash they unload in local economies - to the Birmingham region.

Next Page: Artur Davis Takes The Initiative
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