Wikipedia

Randall Woodfin

Randall Woodfin (born May 29, 1981) is an American lawyer and politician who is the 34th and current mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, after winning the October 3, 2017, runoff against incumbent William A. Bell.[1] He previously served as president of the Birmingham City School Board (2013–2015) and as a city attorney of Birmingham from 2009–2017.

Randall Woodfin
34th Mayor of Birmingham
Incumbent
Assumed office
November 28, 2017
Preceded byWilliam A. Bell
Personal details
Born (1981-05-29) May 29, 1981 (age 43)
Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
EducationMorehouse College (BA)
Samford University (JD)
WebsiteCampaign website

Early life and education

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Woodfin was born and raised in North Birmingham and Crestwood neighborhoods. He attended North Birmingham Elementary School, Putnam Middle School, and Shades Valley High School.[2] He graduated from Morehouse College, where he majored in political science and was student government association president.[3] Woodfin earned a Juris Doctor from the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University.[4]

Career

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Early career

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Between college and law school, Woodfin worked for the Birmingham City Council, the Mayor's Office Division of Youth Services, and the Jefferson County Committee on Economic Opportunity.[5] He ran unsuccessfully for the Birmingham Board of Education's District 3 seat in 2009, placing third in a four-person race.[6]

In 2009, Woodfin became an assistant city attorney for Birmingham, a position he held until he was elected mayor in 2017.[7]

In 2013, he ran for a seat on the school board again, this time successfully.[8] He was appointed president of the board two months after being elected;[9] he held that position until 2015 and remained on the board until 2017.[10]

He is a board member of several community organizations, including the Alabama Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, Birmingham Botanical Gardens, and the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama. He is a former board member of Birmingham Change Fund, American Red Cross, Birmingham Education Foundation, Birmingham Cultural Alliance, S.T.A.I.R., and past president of the Birmingham chapter of the Morehouse College Alumni Association. He is a graduate of Leadership Birmingham class of 2014, Leadership Alabama class of 2016, and was a featured speaker at TEDx Birmingham 2017.

Woodfin was the Alabama state director for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.[11]

2017 mayoral campaign

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Woodfin announced his run for Birmingham mayor in August 2016, challenging incumbent candidate William Bell along with 10 other candidates.[12] In the general election, held on August 22, 2017, Woodfin won 40% of the vote, triggering a runoff election with Bell, who placed second. Woodfin won the October 3 runoff with 58.95% of the vote, becoming the city's youngest mayor in over 120 years.[13]

During the campaign, Woodfin criticized Bell's failure to improve Birmingham residents' quality of life[14] and promised to focus his administration on revitalization of the city's 99 neighborhoods.[15]

Bell criticized Woodfin for receiving out-of-state contributions during the campaign; Woodfin argued that it was the only way to combat the incumbent candidate's sizable local donor base.[16]

Woodfin received support from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who recorded a robo-call telling voters that Woodfin would fight for Medicare for All. Our Revolution President Nina Turner visited Birmingham twice to campaign for Woodfin.[17]

As mayor

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Woodfin speaks at a town hall meeting in January 2019.

Woodfin promised throughout the campaign to conduct a forensic audit on city finances,[18] but upon taking office instead conducted a performance audit.[19]

In March 2018, Woodfin's transition committee announced it had discovered that the city's pension fund had been consistently underfunded for more than 15 years, endangering the city's credit rating and retirement benefits for thousands of city employees.[20] Woodfin increased funding to the pension fund by $2.9 million in the city's 2019 budget, and by $5.2 million in the city's 2020 budget — which Woodfin's administration claimed fully met the city's obligation to the fund for the first time in more than a decade.[21]

Woodfin's administration has drawn criticism for a perceived lack of transparency, with AL.com columnist Kyle Whitmire calling Woodfin's attempts to block public information requests "stalling and stonewalling" and a violation of his campaign promises to increase transparency.[22]

Neighborhood revitalization

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In his first two years in office, Woodfin budgeted $13 million for street resurfacing, $2.5 million toward clearing overgrown lots, and $6.5 million toward demolishing dilapidated structures.[23] Woodfin has argued that his predecessor's policy regarding urban blight was "not as aggressive as it needed to be" and that it would be a "priority" for his administration.[24]

[25] Birmingham's high violent crime rate was a central plank of Woodfin's campaign platform; his nephew, Ralph Woodfin III, was shot and killed in August 2017, just weeks before the general election.[26]

Shortly after Woodfin took office in November 2017, Birmingham Police Department Chief A.C. Roper announced his resignation.[27] After a lengthy search, Woodfin appointed former Los Angeles Police Department commander Patrick D. Smith to the position.[28]

In 2019, Woodfin's administration unveiled a public service announcement campaign titled "PEACE" featuring 30-second videos of mothers of gun violence victims telling their stories.[29]

The city's homicide rate has stayed approximately the same since Woodfin took office; the city logged 117 homicides in 2017, 110 in 2018, 115 in 2019, 125 in 2020, 141 in 2021, and 152 in 2022.[30] Woodfin has maintained that total violent crime has dropped in the city during his tenure, and points to the police department's removal of thousands of guns from the streets.[31]

Several high-profile gun deaths — high-schooler Courtlin Arrington, 4-year-old Jurnee Coleman, Kamille "Cupcake" McKinney, and Sgt. Wytasha Carter — happened during Woodfin's first two years in office.[32] Additionally, 2020 resulted in the highest murder rate in Birmingham, Alabama in 25 years.[33]

In January 2022, Birmingham Police Chief Patrick Smith announced his resignation. Woodfin appointed Capt. Scott Thurmond as interim chief.

Food deserts

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One of Woodfin's early campaign promises was to address food deserts in the city.[34]

COVID-19 response

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Along with the Birmingham City Council, Woodfin's administration passed a $15 million COVID-19 response plan in March 2020, allocating extra money for first responders' personal protective equipment, allocating overtime pay, and placing $1 million in a small business emergency loan fund.[35] Woodfin also urged the council to pass a "shelter-in-place" ordinance on March 24, which has been extended through the end of April 2020.[36] Under Woodfin, the Birmingham City Council voted to extend the city's mask mandates through May 24, 2021, after Governor Kay Ivey announced that the statewide mandate would end April 9.[37]

Confederate monuments

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For years, Birmingham residents had been requesting Birmingham take down the Confederate monument located in the park across the street from Birmingham City Hall. Due to years of inaction, and after the murder of George Floyd, residents took to the street to try and take down the monument themselves.[38] The next morning Woodfin ordered the removal of the Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Linn Park to try and prevent another protest. He also filed an executive order that declared a state of emergency, which established a 24-hour ban on public demonstrations and gatherings of all kinds in the city, and instituted a public safety curfew of one week.[39] Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall filed suit against the city of Birmingham for violating the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act.[40]

National politics

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He endorsed Joe Biden in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, despite having received Bernie Sanders' endorsement during his 2017 mayoral race. Woodfin said "We need somebody on the top of that ticket who can not only help down-ballot candidates be competitive, but also someone who can expand the map across the nation."[41][42]

Woodfin was selected as one of seventeen speakers to jointly deliver the keynote address at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.[43]

Political views

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Woodfin identifies as a political moderate, and in particular has championed policies such as criminal justice reform,[44] free college tuition,[45] and marijuana legalization.[46] In a 2019 interview with The Root, Woodfin argued that "being a moderate does not equal status quo... I support a lot of things on the left but—if I’m being real—I also believe you gotta win... The base of the Democratic party is the center."[47]

When running for mayor of Birmingham in 2017, Woodfin promised to "fight to make Birmingham a sanctuary city."[48] However, in 2018 he reneged on that promise and instead proposed to make Birmingham a "welcoming city."[49]

Woodfin acknowledges the harmful impacts of climate change and in 2018 he signed the "Alabama Mayors for 100% Sustainable Energy Pledge" by the GASP (Greater-Birmingham Alliance to Stop Pollution) to fulfill a campaign promise. His administration created the Mayor’s Office of Social Justice and Racial Equity that works to address problems caused in the city due to extreme weather events exacerbated by global warming.[50]

Personal life

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He grew up with three siblings; his older brother Ralph was killed by gun violence in 2011. Woodfin's nephew Ralph Woodfin III was killed in August 2017.[51] He is married and is Christian. He attends Sixth Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham.[citation needed] He is a fan of Mannie Fresh, Dr. Dre, The Neptunes, and Big K.R.I.T.[52]

References

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  1. ^ "Randall Woodfin wins Birmingham mayor's race: What they're saying nationally". AL.com. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
  2. ^ magazine, Birmingham (July 9, 2018). "Get to know Birmingham's millennial mayor". al. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  3. ^ Najja Parker, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "This Morehouse alum just became the youngest mayor of Birmingham in modern history". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
  4. ^ "ABOUT RANDALL". randallwoodfin. Archived from the original on May 20, 2020. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  5. ^ "ABOUT RANDALL". randallwoodfin. Archived from the original on May 20, 2020. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  6. ^ "Birmingham Board of Education: 4 new faces vie for District 3". al. August 18, 2009. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  7. ^ "ABOUT RANDALL". randallwoodfin. Archived from the original on May 20, 2020. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  8. ^ staff, AL com (August 28, 2013). "Birmingham election results: See who won mayor, City Council and school board elections". al. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  9. ^ "New leadership for Birmingham board of education". al. November 20, 2015. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  10. ^ "New leadership for Birmingham board of education". al. November 20, 2015. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  11. ^ Editor-at-large, Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN (October 4, 2017). "A Sanders-backed candidate was elected mayor in the south". CNN. Retrieved April 13, 2020. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  12. ^ "Assistant city attorney to run for mayor". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  13. ^ magazine, Birmingham (July 9, 2018). "Get to know Birmingham's millennial mayor". al. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  14. ^ "In Tuesday's Mayoral Runoff, Bell Touts Experience, Woodfin Pushes Change". WBHM 90.3. October 2, 2017. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  15. ^ "Randall Woodfin defeats William Bell in mayor's race". al. October 4, 2017. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  16. ^ Prickett, Sam (September 12, 2017). "Woodfin: Bell's Fundraising Allegations Are 'False and Misleading'". BirminghamWatch. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  17. ^ Post, The Washington (October 4, 2017). "Randall Woodfin benefited from Bernie Sanders backing". al. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  18. ^ Prickett, Sam (October 12, 2017). "First? Look at the Books: A Q&A With Birmingham's Next Mayor". BirminghamWatch. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  19. ^ Prickett, Sam (March 22, 2018). "A Work in Progress: Woodfin Assesses His First 100 Days". BirminghamWatch. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  20. ^ Prickett, Sam (April 16, 2018). "A Hole in the Balance Sheet: Birmingham's Impending Pension Crisis". BirminghamWatch. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  21. ^ Prickett, Sam (May 14, 2019). "Woodfin Highlights "Moral Obligations" of Proposed 2020 Budget". BirminghamWatch. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  22. ^ "Whitmire: What's Randall Woodfin hiding?". al. September 6, 2019. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  23. ^ "How Woodfin grades himself at 2 years". al. November 24, 2019. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  24. ^ "With First Demolition, Woodfin Promises "Aggressive" Approach to Blight". BirminghamWatch. December 1, 2017. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  25. ^ https://www.bhamwiki.com/w/Birmingham_homicides_by_year
  26. ^ "Teen killed in Tarrant shooting was Birmingham mayoral candidate's nephew". AL.com. August 12, 2017. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  27. ^ Prickett, Sam (November 29, 2017). "Police Chief A.C. Roper Retires as Mayor Woodfin Looks to Make Personnel Changes at City Hall". BirminghamWatch. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  28. ^ Prickett, Sam (June 4, 2018). "Birmingham Hires LA Commander to be New Police Chief". BirminghamWatch. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  29. ^ "Mayor Woodfin unveils PEACE Campaign to counteract violent crime". The Official Website for the City of Birmingham, Alabama. February 28, 2019. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  30. ^ "Birmingham homicides by year - Bhamwiki". www.bhamwiki.com. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  31. ^ Groover, Shilo (January 8, 2020). "Birmingham Mayor Woodfin gives State of the City address". WBRC. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  32. ^ "How Woodfin grades himself at 2 years". al. November 24, 2019. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  33. ^ "Birmingham: 2020 homicides hit 25 year high, 2021 starts with a torrid pace". January 4, 2021.
  34. ^ Prickett, Sam (October 12, 2017). "First? Look at the Books: A Q&A With Birmingham's Next Mayor". BirminghamWatch. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  35. ^ "Mayor Woodfin's $15 million COVID-19 Response Plan Approved by the Birmingham City Council". www.birminghamal.gov. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  36. ^ Prickett, Sam (March 24, 2020). "Birmingham Residents Ordered to Shelter in Place, Leave Home for Only the Most Essential Activities". BirminghamWatch. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  37. ^ Garrison, Greg (April 6, 2021). "Birmingham passes mask requirement to be an 'oasis' in a 'wild west'". al.com. Retrieved April 6, 2021.
  38. ^ "Protestors deface Confederate monument in Birmingham". June 2020.
  39. ^ "Mayor Lifts Birmingham's Curfew And Protest Ban At Midnight". June 8, 2020.
  40. ^ "Alabama attorney general sues Birmingham for removing Confederate monument". al.com. June 2, 2020.
  41. ^ "Woodfin makes endorsement in 2020 Democratic presidential race". al. December 16, 2019. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  42. ^ "Exclusive: Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin Endorses Joe Biden for President". The Root. December 16, 2019. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  43. ^ "Democrats Unveil A New Kind of Convention Keynote". 2020 Democratic National Convention. August 16, 2020. Archived from the original on August 17, 2020. Retrieved August 16, 2020.
  44. ^ Digital, WVTM 13 (April 19, 2021). "Birmingham mayor announces Civilian Review Board to improve police accountability". WVTM. Retrieved November 30, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  45. ^ Patterson, Catherine (January 5, 2022). "BCS high school seniors can now apply for Birmingham Promise". www.wbrc.com. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  46. ^ Glenn, John H. (November 16, 2022). "Woodfin testifies on cannabis legalization before congressional subcommittee". Alabama Political Reporter. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
  47. ^ "Exclusive: Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin Endorses Joe Biden for President". The Root. December 16, 2019. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
  48. ^ "A Bernie Sanders-backed candidate just got elected mayor in the deep south | CNN Politics". CNN. October 4, 2017.
  49. ^ "Whitmire: What's Randall Woodfin hiding?". September 6, 2019.
  50. ^ "Mayor Randall Woodfin calls for solutions to Birmingham's historic flooding issues". October 13, 2022.
  51. ^ magazine, Birmingham (July 9, 2018). "Get to know Birmingham's millennial mayor". al. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  52. ^ magazine, Birmingham (July 9, 2018). "Get to know Birmingham's millennial mayor". al. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
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Political offices
Preceded by Mayor of Birmingham
2017–present 		Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by Keynote Speaker of the Democratic National Convention
2020
Served alongside: Stacey Abrams, Raumesh Akbari, Colin Allred, Brendan Boyle, Yvanna Cancela, Kathleen Clyde, Nikki Fried, Robert Garcia, Malcolm Kenyatta, Marlon Kimpson, Conor Lamb, Mari Manoogian, Victoria Neave, Jonathan Nez, Sam Park, Denny Ruprecht 		Succeeded by
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