Randall Woodfin

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Randall Woodfin

Randall Lee Woodfin (born May 29, 1981 in Birmingham) is the Mayor of the City of Birmingham. He is a former assistant city attorney and former president of the Birmingham Board of Education.

Early Life and Education

Woodfin, the son of Cynthia Woodfin-Kellum, grew up in North Birmingham. He attended North Birmingham Elementary School, Putnam Middle School, and Shades Valley High School. While in school he worked as a bagger at Food Smart. Woodfin grew up with three siblings; his older brother Ralph was killed by gun violence in 2011. Woodfin's nephew Ralph Woodfin III was killed in August 2017.

Woodfin has a bachelor's degree in political science from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia and served as SGA president during his senior year in 2002-2003. Woodfin went on to earn his juris doctorate at Samford University's Cumberland School of Law.

Early Career

After college he returned to Birmingham as an assistant to Birmingham City Council president Lee Loder, and later as a staff member for the Birmingham Division of Youth Services and at the Jefferson County Committee for Economic Opportunity, where he participated in implementing programs through the Birmingham Weed & Seed Task Force.

After law school he went on to clerk for one of the firms representing the Board of Education. Woodfin was then appointed an assistant city attorney for the City of Birmingham in 2009.

He ran unsuccessfully for the District 3 seat on the Birmingham Board of Education in that year's municipal election. In the 2013 Birmingham municipal election, Woodfin ran for the vacant District 5 seat on the Board. He took over the role of president of the new board that emerged from state takeover and was responsible for addressing the needed improvements outlined by the AdvancED accrediting agency.

During the 2016 presidential election campaign, Woodfin served as statewide organizer for Hillary Clinton's campaign and briefly chaired the Young Professionals Advisory Council for the Birmingham office of the United Negro College Fund.

In August 2016 Woodfin announced his candidacy for the 2017 Birmingham mayoral election. Ed Fields managed the campaign while Pine Street Strategies of Washington D.C. conducted a national fundraising drive which targeted Morehouse graduates and pushed positive stories on Woodfin to the national media. He was endorsed locally by the Grassroots Coalition, the Birmingham Professional Firefighters Association, and the Birmingham Local Chapter of National Letter Carriers Association; and nationally by Our Revolution and the Political Revolution PAC. He garnered the largest number of votes on election day, advancing to a runoff with incumbent William Bell.

On October 3, 2017, Randall Woodfin won the run-off election for Mayor of Birmingham with 59% of the votes defeating incumbent Mayor William Bell.

Mayorship

Woodfin named Fields, Charles Krulak and Bobbie Knight to his transition team. On November 14 he announced that Cedric Sparks would serve as his chief of staff, with Kevin Moore as chief of operations, Kevin Datcher as chief of governmental affairs (to liaise with the City Council), Ed Fields as chief strategist and senior adviser, and Nicole King as city attorney. He was sworn into office on November 28, 2017.

On March 15, 2018 Woodfin hosted a public event at the Alabama Theatre to publicize "The Woodfin Way", the combined reports of his transition teams' analysis of city operations during his first 100 days in office. The report suggested several major changes to priorities and organization of City Hall. The mayor held a public event, called "The Big Picture," on March 21, 2019 at the Alabama School of Fine Arts' Dorothy Jemison Day Theater to update progress on his agenda. Woodfin delivered a mid-term update at Haven on December 3, 2019. He touted the growth of the Birmingham Neighborhood Revitalization Fund, which has made possible the paving of 16 miles of streets, the repair of 27,516 potholes, and the demolition of more than 700 dilapidated structures. He also spoke about the city's coordinated efforts to revitalized downtown Ensley. Other programs mentioned included the Birmingham Peace Campaign, the restructuring of the 311 service, the Pardons for Progress program, and the Birmingham Promise Initiative. Going forward, Woodfin announced future efforts to restructure the city's recycling program, to promote environmental justice, to reduce homelessness, and to support women- and minority-owned businesses.

Woodfin has been recognized for his use of social media to speak up on behalf of the city, in discussions about Civil Rights as well as a way to communicate with businesses considering expansions, such as Amazon, BMW, Cook Out, Delta and Kroger.

During the protests that followed the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, a group began vandalizing the Confederate Soldiers & Sailors Monument at Linn Park. Woodfin arrived at the scene and asked them to give him 24 hours to "finish" what they started. The next evening, during a citywide emergency curfew, crews did remove the upper part of the monument, in defiance of the Alabama Memorial Preservation Act. Woodfin's quick action was applauded by many, but also brought criticism and death threats from others. One significant telephoned threat led to a lockdown at Birmingham City Hall and nearby buildings. The lockdown was lifted after Warrior resident Brian Vest was arrested at home and charged with threatening the lives of Woodfin and others.

Woodfin announced his re-election campaign for Mayor of Birmingham on August 24 2020. In January 2021 Our Revolution - Birmingham, with support of Our Revolution National, released a statement repealing their previous endorsement of Randall Woodfin for Mayor of Birmingham, ahead of the 2021 municipal elections in Birmingham, Alabama. Two week earlier the Birmingham chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) - Birmingham Chapter released videos condemning Randall Woodfin's policies, which included a critic of his FY2021 budget that furloughed of hundreds of city employees while increasing the budget for the police department, and acknowledging that they will not be supporting his re-election campaign.

In January 2021 he was admitted to Princeton Baptist Medical Center for two nights to treat pneumonia related to COVID-19.

On April 20, 2021 Woodfin issued blanket pardons for all those convicted of misdemeanor marijuana possession in Birmingham Municipal Court. The action was taken after it was reported that his "Pardons for Progress" program had only reached a small fraction of those it was intended to help.

Preceded by:
April Williams 		Birmingham Board of Education president
2013–2015 		Succeeded by:
Wardine Alexander
Preceded by:
William Bell 		Mayor of Birmingham
2017– 		Succeeded by:
TBD

References

External links

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