And also an address at the Pita Stop building
By Kyle Whitmire
The Birmingham Mayor’s office has proposed a $150,000 contract with a consulting firm implicated in dirty tricks during the last city council election and also tied to unofficial mayoral aide John Katopodis.
The consulting firm, Stuart Consulting Group, has its Birmingham address at the “Pita Stop” building on Birmingham’s Southside. In a lawsuit against HealthSouth, Katopodis has claimed ownership of the building.
In 2005, Birmingham City Councilor Valerie Abbott was running for re-election. She faced opposition from two candidates, one of whom was Chris Hartsell, now Mayor Larry Langford’s chief operations officer.
During that council election, Katopodis supported Hartsell, donating to his campaign and soliciting support for him.
Abbott won that election handily, but not before a bizarre dirty trick was perpetrated against her campaign. In the waning days of the campaign season, an automated message went out to District 3 households from then-Councilor Bert Miller.
After a series of scandals destroyed his reputation, Miller was not seeking reelection, but he did endorse Abbott in the auto-dialer message. Using a technical ruse, the messages displayed Abbott’s home phone number on recipients’ Caller ID.
Abbott was furious and threatened to press charges against Miller for identity theft.
Birmingham police investigated the incident, tracing the automated messages back to their source. The messages did not come from Abbott’s home number, as shown by Caller ID, but rather from an address in Metairie, La., a suburb of New Orleans.
The calls were coming from the Stuart Consulting Group.
The police department’s investigation found that Stuart Consulting used a company called AccessCom Inc. to place the calls. The investigators subpoenaed Stuart Consulting, but the company would not honor the subpoena.
Stuart Consulting is owned by Frank Stuart Sr., the president of the company. Birmingham Weekly as learned that Stuart is a friend and associate of Katopodis.
Fast forward to 2008
At the city council’s Budget Administration and Finance Committee meeting Monday, Hartsell stood in place of his new boss, Mayor Langford.
In that meeting, the mayor’s office put before the council a $150,000 contract for Stuart Consulting for “Public Works Department management and operations assessment.”
According to the contract cover sheet, mayoral assistant Kevin Owens submitted the item to the council. Nonetheless, it was Hartsell who spoke in favor of the contract.
Hartsell told the councilors that the city needs a consultant to analyze the Public Works Department and recommend efficiency improvements.
“That is not a function that the director of public works can do?” Councilor Miriam Witherspoon asked Hartsell.
After taking office last year, Mayor Langford appointed Ricky Kennedy to be Public Works Director. Previously, Kennedy had managed a city landscaping crew that cut grass in Linn Park. The promotion came with a pay raise of more than $100,000.
“I think Mr. Kennedy is doing a good job,” Hartsell told the council. However, the city needs a consulting firm that might recognize improvements Kennedy had missed, Hartsell said.
Stuart Consulting did similar work with the City of New Orleans, Hartsell told the council. According to Hartsell, the firm has saved New Orleans more than $1 million with the improvements it recommended.
Councilor Witherspoon asked Hartsell why Birmingham could not simply adopt the same policies as New Orleans. Hartsell said that the different cities might require different policies.
Hartsell told the council that he very familiar with the Stuart Consulting Group’s work and he recommended it for the city.
Hartsell did not disclose that the firm’s owner and president, Frank Stuart Sr., was a close friend of Katopodis. Nor did Hartsell share any knowledge of Stuart Consulting Group’s activity in the 2005 council election.
Under one roof
The political correlations are conspicuous, but another connection now seems outright brazen, in light of recent news reports. Stuart Consulting Group now has a Birmingham office at 1102 12th Street South, Birmingham. Or at least, that’s its address here. That’s the same address of the “Pita Stop” building.
Since 2003, Katopodis has been engaged in a lawsuit against HealthSouth over ownership of that building.
In that lawsuit Katopodis claims that former HealthSouth CEO Richard M. Scrushy gave the Pita Stop Building to a non-profit he manages, the Council of Cooperating Governments.
Katopodis has used the Pita Stop building as the address for several of his charities and non-profits, including the Council of Cooperating Governments, the You Help Foundation and Computer Help for Kids. The building is also the address of the Holy Family Foundation — a charity set up under the name of Melva Langford, the mayor’s wife.
More recently, city documents show that the Pita Stop building is also the declared address of the Birmingham Education Initiative. Langford’s administration set up that non-profit to manage a taxpayer-financed program to give laptop computers to Birmingham school children.
It is not clear whether the Birmingham Education Initiative would pay the Pita Stop owner rent for using the space. Langford’s proposal allocates $500,000 for staff and administrative costs, including office space and storage.
In its lawsuit, HealthSouth has accused Katopodis of using Computer Help for Kids dollars, much of which came from public funds, to pay rent to the Council for Cooperating Governments, both of which he controls.
In that lawsuit, HealthSouth also accuses Katopodis of even living in the Pita Stop building.
Computer Help for Kids has been the subject of a criminal investigation. It was created by Langford, Katopodis and Scrushy, and it has received more than $1 million in public funds, including $200,000 in 2001 from the City of Birmingham. In 2002, a city audit attempted to determine how Computer Help for Kids had used that money. However, the audit was aborted after Katopodis would not give the city records it had requested.
The contract for Stuart Consulting is scheduled to appear on the city council agenda next week.
War on Dumb is a column about political culture. Write to kyle@bhamweekly.com
Also Read: Computer Help for Kicks
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February 19th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Good article. When did the Birmingham News grow a pair and start reporting on these scandals? It was just Kyle for a good long time.
It is slowly looking like a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’ Larry goes to jail…
February 19th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
I just read the series of articles on Langford and am pretty impressed with the fact that he goes about his extortion of city money so brazenly. In New Jersey they are much more sophisticated about it. Keep it hidden while still in power.
Does anyone read in Alabama? Are you really going to put up with this? I would demand of my Council representatives to wake up - otherwise you are going to have a Big Apple kind of mess.
It has to piss you off, this guy getting richer and his friends as well on your taxpayer money. For God’s sake. Don’t let the whole Country have another reason to laugh at Alabama.
-A Rainbow City transplant who loves our State!
February 20th, 2008 at 10:34 am
To even a casual observer of Birmingham politics the nature of Larry Langford was easily detectable from miles away. He is a career politician and a crooked one at that. Why did the citizen’s of Birmingham elect him? Why does our current City Council support him? I am glad that the reporting is being done to expose Langford’s past, but seriously - Why has it taken so long? Now the damage is compounded and we will all pay the price for this mess.
February 20th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Ralph, I think I wasn’t clear. The Birmingham News has only recently begun reporting on some of the rather obvious problems with the Langford administration (giving him a fairly large pass so far). There are of course different standards for a newspaper on what they can run with. However, up until recently they have not, IMO, been doing their job as the fourth estate. While you may take umbrage with Kyle’s writing, he has been investigating and reporting an obviously corrupt administration before it even took office. I cannot say the same for the Birmingham News.
February 20th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
To expound with an example if I’m a bit vague: Larry Langford’s budget has not made mathematical sense. It hasn’t since he took office. That seems to me as a resident like a fairly large story, and one that is easily pursued. The numbers simply don’t add up. Kyle wrote a few pieces on it, the News (in my readings, please correct me if I’m wrong) has largely ignored what is a fairly large fiscal issue. A mayor with a history of financial difficulties (of which has been obvious for a long time) has a budget that simply does not make mathematical sense. As a taxpayer, I want to know where my money is going, and I certainly want those responsible for spending it to be held accountable.
Again, perhaps I missed it. Please direct me to these articles (all of which should be archived on al.com) if I did.
February 21st, 2008 at 8:37 am
Mr.Whitmire,
I am interested in Mr Frank Stuart Sr. Background, education, hometown, usually someone in his position as leader of a consulting group has his resume posted.
Just interested?
CS
February 21st, 2008 at 11:49 am
Speaking of innuendo, Ralph, your comments are larded with it. You imply that Kyle is not a “real” journalist because he posts stories on the Birmingham Weekly’s blog. You imply that he doesn’t corroborate his stories before he posts them. I’m afraid you’re the one who is guilty of not checking the facts before you write. I don’t know how you define a “real” journalist, but Kyle has been employed by two real newspapers for a number of years; he writes investigative stories and opinion pieces for the Weekly, a real newspaper that has been in business since 1997, and he also writes for the New York Times, a real newspaper that has been in business somewhat longer. His journalistic credentials and ethics don’t magically disappear simply because his stories are posted online. The Weekly has recognized the fast pace of today’s news and chosen, wisely in my opinion, to supplement its print format with web-based updates. The Birmingham News does the same thing with its online breaking news.
You might also note that bloggers, with increasing frequency, are breaking stories that the traditional media has either missed or chosen to ignore. On the national level, Talking Points Memo followed the US Attorney firing scandal for months before it broke in the mainstream media, while the blog’s authors were mocked as conspiracy theorists by Time magazine’s Washington Bureau Chief, who later had to eat his words. Locally, you can check out Doc’s Political Parlor, where Danny often reports stories that are related to him by state legislators or others in the know before those stories make it into the newspapers.
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:11 am
Ralph, anyone who has read Kyle’s columns or other articles over the years does not doubt his competence as a journalist, whether you agree or not with his point of view. The only thing Kyle is “guilty” of is careful but lively writing, along with some healthy irreverence.
February 25th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Having been active in the Birmingham arena of politics for some 10 years now it is amazing this is all now just coming out. But then again I’ve amassed enough information over the years to put everyone from Arrington to Langford in the federal pen. Just saving it up for a rainy day in case they ever look at me for something. Just my little “scorch the earth” policy attatched to my “get out of jail free” card.