You talked, we listened...

Transcription

1 Vol. 6: 1 MARCH, 2011 You talked, we listened... Two Roads to Reform As you all know, we have been holding Listening Sessions from Headland in Henry County to Huntsville in Madison County and spots in between. We have listened to what you are saying. The message came out loud and clear that people want more than one choice in the type of reform legislation we urge our legislative sponsors to offer to fellow legislators and to the voters. Some wanted to stay with the resolution for a constitutional convention that we have urged for the past few years. Some also wanted to give the legislators who said they would rather support an article by article approach a chance to do so. And some were also in favor of asking the Governor to support those options as well as a Commission, similar to the one sponsored by Governor Brewer in 1971 or the one sponsored by Governor Riley in So we listened and we paid attention. Consequently, we are going to work with legislative sponsors to provide two types of legislation: one that offers a resolution calling for a constitutional convention, and another that offers a bill that will allow for home rule (local government control for counties). In addition, we will talk to Governor Bentley to see if he will support both of those approaches and if he would consider setting up a Commission of persons to recommend changes to the Constitution. We think this year will bring us success, especially since many new legislators came in office asking for reform. But you are the key to any success because it is your conversations with your legislators that encourage them to make the right decisions. IN THIS ISSUE: Crazy amendments Mobile chapter news Tale of two states Statewide photos

2 MARCH, CRAZY AMENDMENTS Is this the kind of stuff you want our constitution to include? Tell your legislators you want a chance to vote for a new constitution! Amendments have been required and approved by the legislature and the total population to provide fire protection districts in Jefferson County, as well as to provide for the collection and disposal of trash (Amendment 239 and 314) Separate amendments were required to create water treatment and provision in Winston, Lamar, Fayette, Franklin and Jackson Counties, just to name a few. Amendment 351 was required to allow people in Mobile County to control mosquitoes and rodents. Amendment 301 amends amendment 195 which amends amendment 193 which amends amendment 151 which amends amendment 122 which amends amendment 100 which amends amendment 18 which of all apply to ad valorem taxes in Mobile County. Amendment 348 was enacted to change the method for giving NOTICE to delinquent Madison County taxpayers of the fact that they had failed to pay their taxes. Counties and municipalities must receive permission through amendments to establish AUTHORITIES so that they can establish parks and libraries and housing districts. Amendment 201 provides for the production, distribution, marketing, use, improvement promotion of the cattle industry. Similar amendments promote EACH: the swine industry, the catfish industry, the grain industry, the poultry industry, the peanut industry, the milk industry, the cotton industry and the soybean industry. On the other hand, Amendment 449 allows for control of the Boll Weevil.

3 3 MARCH, 2011 THE VOICE OF ALABAMA Amendment 334 tells Madison County how to fill vacancies in their Circuit Court. Amendment 537 allows the City of Attalla to elect a Board of Education. Amendment 552 allows the City of Dothan to do the same. Amendment 548 does this for Talladega, Amendment 544 for Pell City and Amendment 535 for the City of Tallassee. Amendment 521 was required to allow Pickens County to dispose of solid waste. Amendment 523 allowed St. Clair County to collect a fee from out-of-state companies who disposed of SOLID waste in their County. Amendment 503 allows Pike County to modernize the operation of their county government. Similarly, Morgan County had to go to the legislature and the voters for an amendment to allow it to abolish the office of Constable. Elmore County had to get Amendment 356 passed so they could transfer officers to other officers jobs. And Amendment 366 was required to allow Pickens County to do the same. Madison County had to have legislators pass amendment 520 and all the state had to vote to allow the county to excavate human graves, when there was a need to do so by family or police. Mobile chapter goes collegiate Since the last publication of The VOICE, ACCR s Mobile Chapter has been quite busy. There has been a lot of energy surrounding the new University of South Alabama Chapter of Alabama Students for Constitutional Reform. Cory Samz and Rachel Bright kicked off the formation of the Chapter with a viewing of the riveting documentary Open Secret, followed by an open forum discussion. The event was attended by 110 participants made up of students, professors, and concerned citizens. The lively panel discussion which followed went on for hours following the showing. Participating on the panel were Lucy Tufts, Regional Chair of Bring it Back Home, and Karlos Finley, Chair of the Mobile Chapter of ACCR. Jonathan Boatright from the state office of ACCR was also in attendance. Rachel and Cory became interested in the reform movement after separate viewings of Open Secret in Mobile and Montgomery respectively. They were extremely moved by the depiction of the 1901 convention and it ignited a passion in them both to make a change in their State. Cory said: After the viewing, we got a chance to go to the state house and observe an actual legislative session. There I saw legislators debating and voting on such trivial issues such as when and at what frequency county commissions would meet. It became clear to me that I had to become a part of this movement for progress. Rachel said: I felt empowered by the knowledge that I received from the documentary. Knowing how the foundation of our laws was formed, and the inequities that the process contained, I knew that I had to become involved with this movement to honor all who had come before me and struggled so that I would have the right to participate. Rachel and Cory have written the charter for their schools chapter and are awaiting final approval from the University of South Alabama. They have begun scheduling meetings to educate and empower others in their student body. The University of South Alabama is not the only Mobile area institution for higher learning that is involved in Constitutional Reform. Spring Hill College s Department of Communications Arts Student Agency class is currently doing a case study on the constitutional reform movement and is tailoring a suggestion for an image for ACCR. Recently they acquired over 400 surveys from intercept interviews conducted at Mobile s Government Plaza. Professor Pat Hartman and her students are hard at work developing a message that will resonate with the masses.

4 MARCH, A TALE OF TWO STATES Georgia achieved reform. Why not Alabama? By Ivy Grimes* ACCR, Inc. Intern Georgia is an interesting case study for Alabama because Georgia is so close to Alabama and shares so much with Alabama culturally, but Georgia is more politically progressive. Georgia has had a total of ten state constitutions, which is one indication that Georgians might be more willing to reassess and change their government than Alabamians are. Alabamians tend to think of Alabama politics as hopelessly corrupt. Even if they are truly dissatisfied with their state and local governments, they don t feel personally empowered to change things. Alabama is also rooted in conservative politics, which are often associated with resistance to change. This might be a window in time when the conservative movement is excited about change. The growing popularity of the conservative tea party movement is causing the Republican Party to become more populist and interested in reform. Furthermore, the Alabama state legislature now has a Republican majority for the first time in 136 years. While liberal governors of Alabama have usually pushed harder for constitutional change than conservative governors, the current governor is a Republican who supports constitutional reform. However, many past Alabama governors have been in favor of constitutional reform without being able to win support for this issue in the state legislature. The state legislature has reason to be concerned about a constitutional convention that might have very few legislators as participants. If voters are insistent, elected officials will The Alabama pattern is typically that governors enter office and champion constitutional reform, but they are quickly met with strong opposition from members of the state legislature and many special interest groups have to listen. The only way that Alabamians will be interested enough to care is if they begin to feel that Alabama politics is not hopelessly out of their control. The prospect of a citizen-elected constitutional convention might be the impetus for hope. Alabamians might begin to believe that they can help contribute to an Alabama that they can be proud of. For ideas on how to get there, we can look at how reform-oriented Georgians brought about the ratification of their new state constitution in How Georgia succeeded The 1982 constitution was revised through a governor-appointed commission rather than through a constitutional convention. In 1976, Governor George Busbee appointed a Select Committee on Constitutional Revision to revise the constitution article-byarticle, with subcommittees revising particular articles. These revisions were unsuccessful with the state legislature as well as voters. As an alternative approach, Governor Busbee asked the Office of Legislative Counsel to reorganize the entire state constitution at once rather than article-byarticle. This revised constitution was approved by Georgia voters three to one. While the constitution was not radically changed, some major changes to the Georgia constitution included eliminating local constitutional amendments and making judicial elections nonpartisan. The advantage of appointing a commission to draft a new constitution is avoiding the constitutional requirement that two-thirds of the

5 5 MARCH, 2011 state legislature approve of a constitutional convention. However, disadvantages to this method of constitutional reform are that the commission is usually politically one-sided (since it is appointed rather than elected), and also that the lack of a convention and election of convention members means that the public is less aware of the changes taking place. This type of constitutional revision is less democratic and progressive and more likely to reinforce the status quo. The constitutional reform movement in Georgia enjoyed popular support as well as backing by government officials. Melvin Hill, a professor at the University of Georgia who was the staff director of the Select Committee on Constitutional Revision, delivered a speech on constitutional reform to Cumberland Law School explaining why there was popular support for constitutional reform in Georgia. He identified four reasons why he thinks Georgia s reform efforts were successful: public exhaustion with the subject, almost universal agreement that a new state constitution was needed, unified state leadership, and an open and representative process. The problems he identified with the constitution that caused reform to be such a popular topic were the number of elected officials it provided for, the length and difficulty in altering the constitution, and the fact that people had to vote on many local amendments in each election. The people got the attention of their leadership by voting no on 118 of 132 amendments in Would Georgia s methods of constitutional reform work in Alabama? Georgia voters were more aware of and concerned about constitutional reform than Alabama voters. Melvin Hill emphasized that in order for constitutional reform to be successful, all elected officials executive, legislative, and judicial must be unified in wanting change. In Alabama, elected officials have usually been divided about constitutional reform. The pattern is typically that governors enter office and champion constitutional reform, but they are quickly met with strong opposition from members of the state legislature as well as many special interest groups. It is not that members of the state legislature profess to be antireform. A survey published in 2001 showed that sixty-one percent of the Alabama House and sixty-two percent of the Alabama Senate favor constitutional reform, and members of the state legislature have also led unsuccessful efforts to reform the constitution. Yet there is so much division about issues such as home rule, earmarking, and the state tax system that no one can agree on what to reform at the same time. Governor James Folsom repeatedly called for a constitutional convention during both of his terms, but the legislature was opposed, and the effort failed. Governor Albert Brewer organized the Alabama Constitutional Commission in 1970 This Commission submitted a final report advocating constitutional revision, particularly due to the issue of home rule, in By this time, Governor George Wallace had been reelected, and he did not support the Commission s recommendations. Governor Fob James was a Republican who was excited about constitutional reform, and he also appointed a committee to make recommendations to reform the constitution, and the committee s new THE VOICE OF ALABAMA version of the constitution passed in the Alabama Senate. However, it did not pass in the Alabama House of Representatives because of disagreement about the committee s recommendations in favor of establishing local home rule and ending earmarking taxes. In 1993, Senator Mac Parsons introduced a resolution providing for a popular Continues next page... * Sources John Dinan, Accounting for the Success and Failure of Southern State Constitutional Reform, , 3 Charleston Law Review 483, 501 (2009) G. Alan Tarral and Robert F. Williamson, Foreword: Getting from Here to There: Twenty-First Century Mechanisms and Opportunities in State Constitutional Reform, 36 Rutgers L.J. 1075, 1084 (2005) Melvin Hill, Why the Georgia Constitution Revision Effort was Successful, Symposium on Constitutional Reform, Cumberland Law School, November 2000 Alan G. Tarr, Understanding State Constitutions 144 (Princeton University Press 1998) William H. Stewart, The Tortured History of Efforts to Revise the Alabama Constitution of 1901, 53 Ala. L. Rev. 295, 319 (Fall 2001) Howard P. Walthall, Sr., A Doubtful Mind: Understanding Alabama s State Constitution, 35 Cumb. L. Rev. 7, 13 ( ) Governor Bob Riley, Speech to the Alabama Legislature at the Opening of the Special Session on the State Budget (Sept. 15, 2003), cited in Walthall, A Doubtful Mind at H. Bailey Thomas, The Struggle in Alabama for Constitutional Reform, 7 T.G. Jones L. Rev. 29, 45 (2003)

6 MARCH, from page 5 vote on the issue of a constitutional convention to rewrite the 1901 constitution. He was able to pass the resolution through the Alabama Senate, but not the Alabama House. The Speaker of the House, as well as many political analysts, warned of the likelihood of special interest groups like trial lawyers dominating any constitutional convention. I spoke with Mr. Parsons about how he passed his resolution through the Senate, and he said: The main reason it passed was that I became such a nuisance was that it was easier for them to pass it than hear about it every day. He also acknowledged that most of the members of the Alabama Senate who voted for the resolution at the time did not expect it to pass the House. A few years later, Governor Don Siegelman also strongly advocated constitutional reform, but he was also met with public indifference and political opposition. The most recent attempt at constitutional reform was made by Governor Bob Riley when he appointed the Alabama Citizens Constitution Commission to make constitutional revisions in five areas (home rule, increasing governor veto powers, ending earmarking, recompiling the document, and requiring a threefifths House and Senate majority for tax increases), and the state legislature only allowed one of the areas of revision (recompilation). Another deterrent to substantive constitutional reform during Governor Riley s term was that voters defeated his Tax and Accountability Package. Tax reform became associated with the constitutional reform movement, which made the possibility of voters supporting a new constitution seem more distant. Riley s reflection on the failed measure was that he did not see the defeat as a rejection of the reform but, rather, a clear message that the path to change must first begin by re-establishing the people s trust in their state government. What will unite elected officials behind efforts for a new constitution? The easiest answer is overwhelming popular outcry for constitutional reform, and that does not currently exist. If Georgia voters were tired of the issue (as Melvin Hill said) because it was discussed so often, then the same cannot be said Many Alabama voters might have heard that Alabama has the longest constitution in the world, but it is not an object of much discussion or concern. Instead, it seems more like a joke another example of Alabama lagging behind the rest of the country of Alabama voters. Many Alabama voters might have heard that Alabama has the longest constitution in the world, but it is not an object of much discussion or concern. Instead, it seems more like a joke another example of Alabama lagging behind the rest of the country. Additionally, it is possible that Georgia s revision method of a governor-appointed commission would be unfavorable to Alabamians. Alabamians tend to favor a more democratic approach to revising the Alabama constitution than a governor-appointed commission. A survey taken in 1993 shows that about 82% of Alabama voters do not favor legislators being involved in rewriting the constitution, and that voters instead prefer to elect a constitutional convention to revise it. Alabama voters might have more confidence in the current legislature than they have had in past legislatures. Voters took the initiative to enact a major change in the legislature, and for the moment, they have faith in their new representatives. This might be the first time in Alabama that a new constitution written by elected officials by legislators or a governor-appointed commission would be well-received. One benefit of a constitutional convention with delegates elected by the people is it would come with a sense of political excitement and citizen empowerment something Alabamians rarely feel. Politics are already changing in Alabama as the Republican Party is changing, and this might be a time when more Alabama voters are open to the possibility that a positive difference can be made in state government. The example of Georgia s new constitution offers lessons in how a successful constitutional reformation might be brought about. The Alabama Supreme Court held in 1983 that legislators cannot revise the constitution by offering a new constitution as an amendment, but legislators can revise the constitution article-by-article and submit these revisions to voters. If Alabamians currently trust the state legislature more than they have in the past, perhaps Georgia s model of revising the constitution through state legislators (in Alabama s case, article-by-article) would be more successful in Alabama than it would have been in the past. However, it is also important to remember the different attitudes of Alabama and Georgia voters, and the fact that Alabama voters tend to be less comfortable with government change than Georgia voters.

7 7 MARCH, 2011 THE VOICE OF ALABAMA ACCR activists continue to organize throughout Alabama in pursuit of reform. Top left: At new UAB College Council Listening Session (ACCR intern Christina Varghese at far right). Top right, in Huntsville Listening Session. From bottom left clockwise: Friends of the Baptist Church of the Covenant planning Listening Session; students and faculty following Samford University Listening Session (intern Eric Click at far right); Oneonta Listening Session; and University of Montevallo College Council members, including new chair Stephanie Chilton, left.

8 MARCH, Published by Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform, Inc. We welcome submissions of articles, announcements, opinions, photographs, and suggestions related to Alabama constitutional reform. All submissions are subject to approval by the ACCR editorial board. To submit: accrvoice@yahoo.com ACCR, Inc. P. O. Box Birmingham, AL (205) ACCRInc@constitutionALreform.org ACCR, INC., is a 501(c)4 non-partisan advocacy organization. We grew out of a rally in Tuscaloosa on April 7, 2000, as part of a grassroots movement for civic renewal and constitutional revision. We are devoted to the idea that people deserve the best government they can design. We want a state constitution that unites, rather than divides, our people. We want to create a civic atmosphere in which politics can function for the benefit of all citizens, rather than for a few powerful interests. The Constitutional Reform Movement begins with the citizen, who holds the highest office in our democracy. For FREE subscription, go to: