Alexander City Mayor Woody Baird is vindictive, childish and not a very good leader, according to City Councilman Eric Brown.
Brown made those comments in a lengthy Facebook post, which was shared on the Mike Densmore For Mayor page. Brown’s comments were in response to an opinion piece on Baird’s record written by APR editor Bill Britt.
In the post, Brown cited the opinion piece almost line by line and added substantial details to many of the criticisms and observations. Brown made it clear that he has been unimpressed by Baird’s work and found that the mayor often took credit for projects that were in the works before he took office, and at least one project that he actively opposed.
In the APR opinion, Britt pointed out four businesses that have opened in Alex City since Baird took office—and that Baird takes credit for luring to the city—but stated that those businesses were in the process of moving to the city before Baird took office.
“All the businesses that were listed in the article were all in process before the current mayor was elected,” Brown wrote in his post.
Specifically, though, Brown said he was most appalled by Baird’s attempts to take credit for a Publix grocery store that opened in the last five years.
“The mayor fought against the development and gave the developers a hard time throughout the project,” Brown claimed. “He still poor mouths the development. He always talks about how the city has to pay the debt for the development.
“The debt is paid for by the tax revenue that the development generates. What he fails to tell everyone is that the city still makes money off the development. Out of the 4% (the city’s portion of the 10% sales tax) that the development generates, 2.75% goes to schools, Sportsplex, ACRIP (the city’s paving program). 2.25% goes to paying off the debt with a 10-year cap on the loan. If the development does really well the debt will be paid off in less than 10 years. Which is highly likely based on what it has produced so far.”
Brown also took issue with the fact that Baird has failed to communicate with the city council members, often causing problems that could have been avoided with a simple discussion. One such time involved the potential building of a concrete plant in Alexander City.
According to Brown, Baird worked with the developers of the plant for months without alerting the council. The site selected for the plant, according to Brown, was in a residential area of the city—a location that was wholly unpopular with residents and ultimately unpopular with the council members.
“The location that the mayor was pushing was not a suitable place for a batch plant,” Brown wrote. “The mayor worked with the developers for months behind the scenes. If the Mayor had reached out to the city council early on, we could have saved the developers time and money. The council would have told them that it would not go over well with the residents, and another location would be better. So much for the transparency that the mayor always talks about.”
Brown said the council has also taken issue with Baird’s treatment of citizens who speak at city council meetings, calling it unprofessional conduct. Brown said that Baird often makes inappropriate facial expressions and comments. It became such a problem for the council that it made the decision to kick Baird off the dais.
“The council had enough and made the choice to remove the mayor because of his lack of manors,” Brown said. “As an elected public official, you have to treat everyone with the respect you would like to receive. As a decent human being that is how you should react. Even if you don’t like what they are saying. Even if they did not vote for you. Even if they don’t make sense. You better believe in 9 years I have had to bite my tongue and control my thoughts. By doing that I have learned to look through other people’s eyes. Learn who they are and where they are coming from. Learn to embrace all of our differences and uniquenesses. This Mayor has an extremely hard time with this concept.”
Brown also insisted again that Baird doesn’t live within the city limits—a requirement to hold the office of mayor in Alabama—and said many of the successes the city has experienced in getting its finances in order were due to the current city financial director.
After five years working with Baird, Brown said he has been unimpressed with the mayor’s demeanor, communication and tact. And he said the qualities he looks for in a good leader are lacking in Baird.
“To me, a good leader brings people together to accomplish the goals they are trying to achieve,” Brown wrote. “They don’t hold grudges. They are not vindictive. They do not alienate people. A good leader builds people up. A good leader knows how to find common ground. A good leader can handle opposition to their ideas or the direction they want to go. A good leader knows that they are not always the smartest person in the room. A good leader welcomes opposition because it helps him or her really look inside themselves to make sure they are thinking the right way. Or going in the right direction.
“I have not seen any of these traits in the current Mayor.”
