Your Town Has Class or All Cities Aren't Equal

A reader recently contacted us concerning C. R.'s statement that recall of elected officials was not an option in Class 8 Municipalities (Cherokee). The question gave us pause on many levels. Just how many classes of towns/cities are there in Alabama? Per BallotPedia, all Alabama municipalities have been relegated to one of these classes since 1970:

• Class 1: All cities with a population of 300,000 inhabitants or more;
• Class 2: All cities with a population of not less than 175,000 and not more than 299,999 inhabitants;
• Class 3: All cities with a population of not less than 100,000 and not more than 174,999 inhabitants;
• Class 4: All cities with a population of not less than 50,000 and not more than 99,999 inhabitants;
• Class 5: All cities with a population of not less than 25,000 and not more than 49,999 inhabitants;
• Class 6: All cities with a population of not less than 12,000 and not more than 24,999 inhabitants;
• Class 7: All cities with a population of not less than 6,000 and not more than 11,999 inhabitants;
• Class 8: All cities and towns with a population of 5,999 inhabitants or less.

This listing is pretty straight forward; too bad the laws governing these classes aren't. We would suggest that anyone attempting to determine state law for their home town use the above classifications to initiate their search.

We also discovered a bill was introduced in the Alabama Legislature last year that would have legalized recall of elected officials for all incorporated towns. For whatever reason, the bill did not become law. Are there truly any out there who don't see the need for a new Alabama Constitution?

An interesting side note is the fact Florence and Muscle Shoals are the only two cities listed in Alabama's top 50 population wise. There seems to be no new developments in municipality consolidation in Colbert County, and we can't say we blame Muscle Shoals for their stance on the subject.

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We know that several local citizens are members of various groups calling for a new Constitutional Convention. We would be delighted to publish a guest commentary from you on this subject.

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Update on UNA robbery: We reported Tuesday that our source at the Florence Police Department stated the robbers used the victims' cell phones to contact other would be victims. According to WAFF, their source at the FPD stated all those contacted were female. Apparently robbery wasn't the only intent of these three miscreants. There's no word on any reward as of yet, but one seems in order.

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One Trip Pass comments on Florence, Alabama: Link

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Need a ride in Sheffield? Or know what year this service ended?: Link

Shoalanda

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