MONTGOMERY — The Alabama Senate Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday approved a substitute version of a bill by State Sen. Gerald Allen (R-Tuscaloosa) that would enhance the penalty provision of the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act.
The committee vote was 11-1, with State Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison (D-Birmingham) being the lone “nay vote” (and the sole Democrat in attendance on the committee).
This comes in the wake of the Alabama Supreme Court upholding the act and ruling that the City of Birmingham violated said law by obstructing the base of a monument to a Confederate soldier in Linn Park with a large plywood screen.
As a result, the City was fined $25,000. However, as emphasized by Mayor Randall Woodfin recently, the law as written only hands down a onetime fine per violation. The City of Birmingham maintains that the law does not actually require them to take the plywood screen down.
As substituted, SB 127 would adjust the penalty provision of the law so that a $5,000 per day fine would be imposed on violators rather than the existing $25,000 per offense fine.
A public hearing was held two weeks ago on the original version of SB 127, which would have imposed a $10,000 per day fine.
The City of Birmingham and Woodfin have spoken out against SB 127.
The substituted version, which now heads to the full Senate for consideration, would fine a city “five thousand dollars ($5,000) for each day that the violation continues and until the entity has taken full restorative action to comply with the requirements of this article.”
“Upon written request of the entity, and the submission of supporting documentation that restoration has begun, the Attorney General may stay the fine pending complete restoration,” the bill continues.
Coleman-Madison on Tuesday said the substituted version is still “punitive.” Allen maintains the bill will preserve all aspects of the state’s history, both good and bad, so it will not be forgotten.
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
