Carole Smitherman
Carole Catlin Smitherman (born 1952) is the acting Mayor of Birmingham, having succeeded former mayor Larry Langford upon his conviction on federal corruption charges on October 28, 2009. Before that she represented District 6 and was President of the Birmingham City Council. She was first elected to the City Council in 2001 and was re-elected in 2005 and 2009.
Smitherman and her brother were adopted by her grandmother, a Lawson State Community College teacher, after her mother remarried and moved to New York. She graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta and received her Juris Doctorate from Miles College in 1979, graduating first in her class.
Smitherman was the first African-American woman to serve as a circuit court judge in Alabama. She and her husband, Alabama State Senator Rodger Smitherman, combined their law practices in 1993 and maintain an office at 2029 2nd Avenue North.
She was the prosecutor for the City of Irondale until October 2008. She was notified that her services were no longer needed shortly after the City of Birmingham approved a $55 million package of incentives for Trinity Medical Center to relocate to the HealthSouth digital hospital instead of to a site in Irondale. Irondale mayor Tommy Joe Alexander denied firing her, saying that while she remained an employee, her appointment as prosecutor expired on October 1 and that the incoming council would determine whether to reappoint her.
On the Council, Smitherman serves as Chair of the Administration, Budget & Finance Committee and as a member of the Economic Development & Job Recruitment and Education committees. In 2009, in her role as Council President, she took over responsibility for signing federal contracts after Mayor Larry Langford was barred from doing so by a federal administrative decision. With Langford's conviction in his October 2009 trial on bribery and corruption charges, she has assumed the Mayor's office until a special election can be held.
Political career
Smitherman finished 4,000 votes behind winner Bernard Kincaid in the 2003 Birmingham mayoral election runoff. She won the City Council presidency by virtue of seniority after the 2005 Birmingham City Council election. In 2007 she again launched a mayoral campaign, with the slogan "Birmingham Can, Smitherman Will". In that race she placed 5th of 10 candidates in the field, earning 1,804 votes out of 52,111 cast (3.46%)
Smitherman claims the following accomplishments in her official biography:
- Establishing an oratorical context for Birmingham students to develop language proficiency.
- Creating the Children of the Village program, aimed at teaching strategies for success
- Supporting Strings for Students to give children access to classical music training.
- Initiating Economic Development Summits to address concerns and challenges faced by small businesses and corporations operating in Birmingham.
Smitherman was a childhood friend of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and, in 2004, invited her to visit Birmingham. The Smithermans have four children.
| Preceded by: Larry Langford |
Mayor of Birmingham (acting) 2009 - |
Succeeded by: ' |
References
- Bryant, Joseph D. (September 2, 2007) "Hopefuls have just weeks to win votes." Birmingham News
- Wolfson, Hannah (September 24, 2007) "Smitherman brings heart, endurance to race." Birmingham News
- Bryant, Joseph D. and Anita Debro (October 3, 2008) "Birmingham City Council President Carole Smitherman calls firing from Irondale post retaliation." Birmingham News
- Debro, Anita and Joseph D. Bryant (October 8, 2008) "Mayor: Smitherman remains Irondale city prosecutor." Birmingham News
- "Birmingham City Council elections District 6: Carole Smitherman". (August 19, 2009) Birmingham News
External links
- Smitherman page at birminghamal.gov
- Smitherman for Council website
- Smitherman's responses to a Birmingham News questionnaire for the 2007 mayoral election