MOBILE — It was a polite, laid-back forum for Mobile’s open seat of mayor – no snippiness, and not much back and forth.
The large sanctuary of Mobile’s Cottage Hill Baptist Church was about three-fourths full on Tuesday night, and that is a large crowd for a forum in a city election.
The audience was diverse, including black and white voters. However, there were few youthful faces, which is all too common.
Six candidates for mayor were there in person. One, State Rep. Barbara Drummond (D-Mobile), had called from Montgomery and was tied up there on a bill she is supporting in these last three days of the session. She quickly filmed a video presentation, and it was used for her three-minute opening and her two-minute closing. She missed the question and answer period, and the meet and greet afterwards, a problem that could have been avoided if the forum had been scheduled two weeks from now, after the session was over.
The candidates were able to control what issues they addressed only during their brief opening and closing. In between, the hosts gathered the questions from those submitted by individuals. Each candidate got to address two questions, but no rebuttal to their answers was allowed.
Because of the limiting format, there were obvious issues heard in the streets and coffee shops of Mobile that never came up in the forum.
Those include:
1. How to get the I-10 Bayway Bridge started and built.
2. How to pay for the I-10 Bridge.
3. The large pay raise just granted to the next mayor by vote of the city council.
4. Tourism.
5. Amtrak route from Mobile to New Orleans and how to pay for it after the first three years.
6. Retiring Mayor Sandy Stimpson.
With Stimpson having been mayor for 12 years, it was surprising that neither of the two questioners nor any of the six candidates mentioned his name in the forum.
The candidates participating in person were:
- Lawrence Battiste, former Mobile public safety director
- Jermaine Burrell, former city council member from the 3rd district (2009–2012)
- Spiro Cheriogotis, former Mobile County district judge (2019–2025)
- Connie Hudson, Mobile County commissioner from the 2nd district (2010–present) and former Mobile city council member from the 6th district (2001–2010)
- Stephen Nodine, former Mobile County commissioner from the 2nd district (2004–2010), former Mobile city council member
- Paul Prine, former Mobile chief of police
The Mobile municipal election for mayor and city council seats is on August 26. Candidates must qualify by June 10 to run. Stimpson is not running again. A new mayor will be inaugurated in November.
Lawrence Battiste
Former police chief Lawrence Battiste emphasized, “[W]hen we work together, positive things happen.”
Battiste was also the director of probation with Mobile’s juvenile court. He challenged the audience to “get involved with our youth court.”
When asked whether he supported relocating the metro jail, he said, “I can’t say whether I’m for or against relocating the jail.”
Battiste added that the jail's current location is a prime real estate spot. He suggested possibly moving the jail to the Happy Hills community.
Jermaine Burrell
Former City Councilman Jermaine Burrell said he overcame poverty and was the first person in his family to graduate college. He said many Mobilians are being left behind because they are not equally benefiting from prosperity.
"The status quo is complacent and detached, and it’s holding us back. These issues are impacting more than Mobiliams and their families," Burrell explained. "They’re hurting our city’s growth.”
“I want every kid to know they can succeed here no matter where they’re from or whatever their background," he added.
Burrell stated, “Our campaign is about building Mobile’s future together, a future where everyone is heard and everyone can enjoy the city’s prosperity.”
When asked about the number one infrastructure need, he did not specify one. He said it was poor roads, flooding, and sewage overflow.
Spiro Cheriogotis
Former District Judge Spiro Cheriogotis said some know him as “Mr. Lucy Greer.” He is married to the daughter of the Greer Grocery family, a long-time Mobile family, and they have four young children. He said he is invested in Mobile.
He stated, “[T]he next mayor cannot be content to complete the big projects – the river bridge, the downtown airport and the new civic arena. He has to be looking forward to what’s next for the city.”
Cheriogotis added, “[O]ver the next five years, we expect to add about 6,000 jobs to our economy. Those jobs are just numbers on the page if we don’t connect those jobs to the field workers. So that means we need to be looking at what’s next.”
“For a family of four that makes a household income of $70,000, there’s really not a house in this city they can afford. That’s not just a problem for Mobile families. That’s an economic development issue," he explained.
“We need to take a hard look at our aging infrastructure. Mobile is the 18th oldest city in the nation. We still have wood drainage pipes in parts of our city," he outlined.
Cheriogotis declared, “People are not going to choose to live and work in our city if we don’t address crime. As a former prosecutor and a former judge, I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t work.”
“We have a youth gun violence problem in this city," he lamented. "It’s not a problem that we can just arrest our way out of.”
When asked about the city’s most pressing challenge, Cheriogotis said public safety. He noted that crime is down over 50% over the last decade, “but it doesn’t feel like it.” He said that Tuscaloosa has “an amazing drone program that has had a great deal of success. The judge stated that artificial intelligence can detect people “squaring up to fight or having a verbal argument, or a gun in a waistband."
“The goal of public safety is not to arrest everyone but to prevent crime everywhere you can," he explained.
“We can refocus some of our detectives and resources specifically on youth gun violence. It’s the problem. I saw it every day (as a judge). I see the hopelessness that all these young men have in common. We’re talking about young men from age 14 to 24," said Cheriogotis.
County Commissioner Connie Hudson
“Public service is a calling for me – a calling and a passion. It gives me a deep sense of fulfillment and purpose. I have the knowledge, the experience, the work ethic, the skill set, the vision and the passion to step into the office of Mayor and lead Mobile into an even brighter future. With the 24 years of experience I have in local government, I am well prepared," Hudson outlined.
“Public safety is and should be the number one priority of any city," she added. "As your mayor, I will not tolerate the senseless violence in our streets and neighborhoods, and I am committed to doing everything within my power to stop that. My administration will hire additional police officers and re-establish neighborhood park patrols, will focus on addressing youth gun violence and gang activity, and partner with the school system and community-based organizations to establish mentoring and vocational programs for at-risk youth.”
“I will address blighted properties and incentivize affordable housing developments," Hudson stated.
“We have to stop the exodus of people leaving our city and attract families back into Mobile," she continued. "We’ll expand and improve parks and recreation.”
When asked about annexation as a means of growing the city of Mobile, she replied, “I think annexation is a means certainly of growing the population and territory of Mobile, and I support it under certain circumstances. The citizens (to be annexed) would have to be a majority interested in joining the city for the services and protections. But at the same time, the city has to look to see what the cost would be. There is a cost because you’re maintaining and policing additional area.”
Hudson added, “We have to be judicious about how we go about it.”
Stephen Nodine
"When I worked on the city council with Connie Hudson and then served on the county commission, we experienced some outstanding growth," Nodine explained. "We achieved a great deal in attracting industries to the community. But unfortunately we lost most of the people who took those high-paying jobs to Baldwin County.”
“Mobile has lost 1,500 taxpayers a year for the last 20 years," he continued. "We can attribute that to the quality of life and to crime. We must make Mobile great again.”
“We must implement a Mobile office of government efficiency to get control of these outrageous increases in departments, 37%. We must achieve some consolidation of areas such as engineering and building and permitting, growth planning and zoning. We have to start reducing the size of government now," he declared.
“The greatest quality of life that you have to start looking at is the reduction of taxes – sales taxes and business taxes," Nodine stated. "We have to bring retailing back to Mobile. ... We’re going to put the pride back in Mobile.”
When asked about ways to compensate and retain city employees other than pay raises, he said he would look at restoring the health insurance committee and bidding out the services contract.
"We need to get innovative with our benefits package for employees," Nodine added.
Paul Prine
“A community can work, live and play with quality of life only if the citizens are safe," Prine said. "It has to be safety first. We have to ensure that the men and women of the fire and police departments have the tools they need without political interference to be able to do their job.”
"When I was police chief, we reduced crime better than it’s ever been done in 38 years," he continued. "That’s on the record."
"Number two," he continued, "one of the biggest contributors to crime is simply the poverty mindset that poverty steals resources."
“I plan to help and do what Baldwin County has done. We need a one-stop shop for our workforce development. Our kids are woefully unprepared for the workforce," Prine outlined.
"Three, we have to have an emphasis on homelessness," he added. "Drug addiction, affordable housing, transportation."
“Paul Prine is for the people, the people’s chief, the people’s choice, certainly the people’s mayor,” he declared.
When asked what three steps he would take to put the city on a firm financial footing, Prine responded, “First thing is to audit the books. We have to be a good steward of the people’s money. We have to do away with some of those contracts that are frivolous.”
“Number two, bringing the staffing and police department up," he added. "We’re not able to be business-friendly if people don’t feel safe. At least a year ago, we were budgeted at 489 officers. We average about 455 officers. Twenty-eight years ago, we were at 550 officers, and now that we have added 20,000 people to protect, we should be somewhere around 600 to 620 officers. We are woefully unprepared.”
"Third, we have to look at compensation insurance. The only way to do that is to truly open up the market to be competitive," Prine added.
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler writes about Alabama’s people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at [email protected].
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