05/01/02

Birmingham Mayor Bernard Kincaid on Tuesday accused Homewood Mayor Barry McCulley of being untruthful about his city's attempts to settle a land dispute.

McCulley stood behind a column he wrote in The Birmingham News last week in which he detailed attempts by officials of his city to discuss Homewood's plans to buy Birmingham land for municipal complexes. McCulley listed six conversations or letters between officials of the two cities, including three conversations he had with Kincaid.

"That is not true," Kincaid told the Birmingham City Council on Tuesday. "You may have read it in the paper, but that is not true."

Kincaid said he has had only one brief conversation with McCulley at the Jefferson County Mayors Association meeting in Gardendale early this year.

McCulley said he wouldn't retract a word in his column.

"You can't change facts," McCulley said. "I'm sorry he's taking that approach."

On Jan. 14, the Homewood City Council agreed with the Georgia-based owners of the Palisades mall to investigate buying the shopping center as a municipal complex. In a separate plan, the Homewood council on April 22 approved a deal to buy 110 acres in Birmingham's Oxmoor Valley for $2.45 million to build ball fields. That plan had angered the Birmingham council because Homewood officials said they would pursue it regardless of whether the city de-annexed the land.

Three weeks ago, the Birmingham council passed a resolution condemning Homewood's actions and stating its intention not to lose commercial property.

The Palisades brings about $925,000 in tax revenue to Birmingham each year, Kincaid said.

Birmingham officials discussed the quarrel Tuesday when a council member asked Kincaid about the column and how he intends to stop Homewood from buying and then de-annexing city land.

Councilman Roderick Royal said Homewood's vote to buy the 110 acres was a "slap in the face."

"I would remind Barry McCulley that he is not mayor of this city," Royal said.

Kincaid told the council he was considering options, but would not discuss them. He said after the meeting that the city's law department is researching the issue. He called McCulley's column a poison-pen letter that hindered the ability of the cities to settle the problems amicably.

"This is being played out somewhere other than the halls of Birmingham City Hall," Kincaid said.

Councilwoman Gwen Sykes supported Kincaid's statement that McCulley's column might have contained false information. "I want to say one thing about The Birmingham News: It does not always print the truth," she told her council colleagues.

Birmingham Councilwoman Valerie Abbott said Tuesday that she had written a letter in January to the Homewood council, which McCulley did not mention in his column.

"Selective memory seems to go across city borders," she said. "Somehow the City of Birmingham, we're the bad guys for protesting."

McCulley held out hope both cities would meet to discuss the proposal.

"Anywhere there's a chair," McCulley said, "because it may be a long meeting."