Political Hay
Birmingham Sewer Vanity Follies
Politicians leave a bad stench not only in Washington.
Elected in 2007, Larry Langford had to step down as mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, but not by his choice. A Tuscaloosa jury convicted Langford in October of all 60 counts of bribery, money laundering, conspiracy and tax evasion in federal court when he was president of the Jefferson County Commission.
Langford was undone by vanity. He charged more clothes than he could pay at many of the finest stores in the Birmingham area. Montgomery investment banker William Blount and lobbyist Albert LaPierre fixed this and a Langford tax debt, paying $235,000 in all. In return, Blount reaped $7.1 million in Jefferson County bond business related to the county’s sewer consent decree with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This included fees paid to Blount for bonds placed through Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs.
In a deal to testify against Langford, Blount and LaPierre pled guilty to two counts each. Blount is going to prison for 52 months and paying a fine of $1 million. LaPierre will serve 48 months and pay a fine of $372,000. Attorneys for Langford tried unsuccessfully to portray him as an innocent dupe of Blount and LaPierre.
If Jefferson County had only issued capital bonds for the sewer project, it would have been expensive but understandable. However, Jefferson County invested in derivatives such as interest rate swaps with predictable results; the county’s bond rate fell and sewage rates soared. Before the Langford conviction, eight other figures in the Jefferson County sewer case were convicted of giving or taking bribes. Langford topped them all.
A special election January 19 to elect a successor to Langford has been narrowed to two. Ivy League attorney Patrick Cooper, who lost to Langford in 2007, is facing longtime City Councilman William Bell. Bell was acting Birmingham Mayor in 1999. He has lost twice before, including finishing fourth in 2007.
City finances are ailing, not least because city operating funds are used to paper over capital funding shortfalls, both candidates agree. It is obvious that the city is at least $32 million in the red because of reliance on sales tax revenue and a peculiar tax levied against employees, both of which are recession-prone. The difference is that Bell wants to build a domed stadium and Cooper wants a mass transit system that works better than Birmingham’s current dysfunctional system.
Both Bell and Cooper are black, but Cooper’s complexion is less dark. Bell has accused Cooper of being a slave-trader from Mobile and doing the bidding of predominately white communities over the mountains from Birmingham. It is a calculated risk to try to paint Cooper as not being black enough and not being from Birmingham. So far, Cooper leads with young people and the white sections of Birmingham.
Still free before he serves life in prison, Langford has endorsed Bell, which some wags have called the kiss of death. Ironically, some of the places where Langford shopped for clothes are in predominately white communities over the mountains.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (60) | Leave a comment
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hunter| 1.5.10 @ 7:52AM
48 and 51 months prison for stealing millions. Hell, someone stealing a pack of hot dogs and loaf of bread would get twice that! This is a lot of whats wrong, get caught doing 'white collar' crime and you get a few months at the country club cabin, have time to write a book, pick up a better golf swing and come up with a better swindle scheme. Bastards like these should be on the rock pile for years, not coddle!
Rodney | 1.5.10 @ 12:36PM
I really wonder sometimes just how many people haven't done something that they could easily go to federal prison for. Have you ever cheated on your income tax? Have you ever used deductions that really weren't "real" expenses? Have you ever been paid any amount of money in cash and not reported it on your taxes? Have you ever sold anything and cashed the check instead of depositing it so that you wouldn't have to pay taxes? Have you ever been to the bank and drawn out $9000 at one time, and $1001 another time so that you could have cash and not have to fill out papers at the bank showing that you drew out more than $10,000 cash at one time. This list can go on and on, and I seriously doubt that a single person alive hasn't done some of these. It's just a matter of not getting caught. If you were caught they you would be at one of these country clubs that you talk about. You wouldn't be able to see your family except on certain days, and they may have to come hundreds of miles to see you. You wouldn't do anything for your golf game because there are no golf courses in Federal Prisons. You would be very dissopointed with your country club setting also. You would have to be in a locked down room a big part of your time. You wouldn't get any more than a minimum of medical care. If you needed a tooth filled it would probably be pulled instead You would get meals that probably aren't as good as you feed your dog. When you spent all that time writing a book you would be very dissapointed that you couldn't make anything off it because prisoners can't profit from their crime. What all of this means is that you have made statements that are nothing but "using your language" Bull Shit! You don't know anything about what you are talking about. How much time did Bernie Ebbers get? How about the other Bernie that just got 103 years? You need to do a little research before you open your big stupid mouth. I also guess if you had children that spending 5 years away from them wouldn't bother you? I believe I would call you an ignorant Bastard!!!
bob alou| 1.5.10 @ 2:00PM
Rodney, of course you are correct. Elected officials raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and kickback schemes is certainly a crime that we should treat the same as not wanting to fill out paper on a financial transaction, when you are not technically breaking the law. No doubt this is just another scheme by "the man" to persecute this poor black official who won't get to play golf and has to schedule family visits. I wonder if the people he stole from know how important it is for an elected official to look really sharp, all the time? Maybe he should have run on getting a clothing allowance for the mayor, then the people would have understood that it's not just about doing what you are elected to do, it's about looking good even if you are not doing it. Perhaps I am just an "ignorant bastard", too. But I am trying to do everything I can to stay home with my kids by not breaking the obvious laws, you know, the ones they send you to prison for. I would suggest that perhaps if Larry and the gang had paid a bit more attention, I mean just a little bit more, then perhaps they would still be working on that handicap at home instead of doing laundry for the state. Who's the real "ignorant bastard"; the one who commits crimes for which he knows the penalties are severe, or the one who defends him when those sanctions are applied?
Pat | 1.5.10 @ 4:36PM
Do you think these guys dreamed up these products?No, they were sold sophiticated and complex investments by those crimnals from Wall Street.Who do you think created CDO'S of which 2 trillion have still not been written down.JP Morgan,Goldman Sachs,Bear,Lehman have been screwing the public for years.These guys all walked away rich.They own both parties.One of the worst is Robert Rubin of Citi Corp via Goldman.These people are the greatest criminals.Rubin and Phil Graham (of UBS fame) got rid of the laws regulating these jerks leaving only fraud which is very difficult to prove.Theses people hold themselves out as experts selling the Shit to the whole world.I have worked on the street 25 years starting with Drexal.These outlaws that headed those are are back out doing the same crimes again except they got rid of the laws.It is called deregulation.It is really "cronie capitalism".The Sec of Treasury came to the New York Fed through Rubin.THEY OWN BOTH PARTIES.
kris lepine| 1.5.10 @ 11:02PM
Amen! I've agree with you 100% I wonder why the laws don't get changed? Could it be the people who make the laws and their "ilk" may have to pay the price? Kris Lepine
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Kingfish | 1.5.10 @ 9:37AM
It was JP Morgan Chase and Rice Financial Products that got the interest rate swaps and JP Morgan Chase that had to pay the fine although someone from Chase should've gone to jail. Jefferson County didn't invest in anything, it financed its bonds with interest rate swaps. The rates more than tripled overnight when the bond insurer's credit rating was slashed to junk, making the deal much more risky. Interest rate swaps are not a good idea for governments to use, period.
explosion proof light | 11.25.10 @ 1:34AM
That's the way it went in the U.S. for decades. People in poor communities were convinced that the police and justice system didn't give a hang about crime in their neighborhoods.
JCH| 1.5.10 @ 10:06AM
Too Funny! The "Mayor": HNIC?
JCH| 1.5.10 @ 10:08AM
Remember, no questions may be "axed" as they will be considered racist. Glad to clarify.
Oldefarte| 1.5.10 @ 1:51PM
This is all too typical of most cities where the predominately black populations demand that their elected officials, school board officials,etc all be black accordingly. Unfortionately, these elected officials are not professionally or intellectually capable of adequately managing their respective governmental enterprises; and the end result is usually financial downfall [as this article describes]. Since the respective captive black populations are the ones who suffer most from this racism, the only possible solution for them to rise above same is to cease voting along strictly racial lines. The advantages to them of having blacks dominate their schools boards, governmental administrative offices,etc are greatly overshadowed by the financial hurricanes that result from the ineptness and inefficiencies of their elected governmental officials!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GLENNY| 1.5.10 @ 4:09PM
Oldefarte, not only are the financial hurricanes a problem, sometimes the real hurricanes are a problem, too. See Nagin, Ray (Dummy-New Orleans). (I live in Baton Rouge).
Pat| 1.5.10 @ 8:30PM
You are a racist BIGOT.You sit there like Mr. Financial know it all with your stupid racist generalizations waiting for any opening to to put on you clan outfit and make an intellectual ass of yourself.I have worked on Wall Street for 25 years as a white 60 y/o executive.I also grew up in Hoover Alabama.I have forgotten more about economics than you know.Anyone can be fooled by these jerks.So find another situation to bring out your white supremacist attitudes.
Pat| 1.5.10 @ 8:33PM
My last words were directed to the Old Fart talking out of the same region as his name implies!!!!!
Oldefarte| 1.6.10 @ 2:58PM
If your FORMAL EDUCATION matches your inability to properly express your ideas in writing [and your stated city of residence], then you are truly ONE DUMBASS-----S.O.B!!!!
Pat| 1.6.10 @ 3:32PM
You are a racist and you need not try to hide it.You understood what I wrote and it pissed you off.You did not deny my accusation. Come on Oldefart and show your true colors.
Sarattus| 1.5.10 @ 4:02PM
Pardon me for this modest comment in the midst of other more profound remarks but I think Mr. Michaelsen made a mistake when he wrote "He charged more clothes than he could pay at many of the finest stores..." You cannot pay clothes. Perhaps a "pay for" would solve the problem.
Richard Baker| 1.6.10 @ 1:17PM
Pat:
Is it racist to notice that wherever "chocolate" government exists in America, the Robert Mugabe School of Economics is practiced, with a vengeance? I am sorry that this state of affairs exists but one can notice the common denominator, regardless. When I read of this depravity, I find myself wondering if Dr. King and Medgar Evers died for this.
Pat| 1.6.10 @ 2:50PM
Richard,
You start your coments with a put down. That sounds a bit racist to me.I am not making another sweeping generaliztion rather I am refering to this specific situation.Maybe you can prove your point with some scientific data.I live outside of Philadelphia and their black mayor has done a better than average job.The guy before him was OK also.That is the limit of my experience.What do you mean by the "this"?And even that knowledge about Philly is limited because I don't live there.What do you mean by depravity.I think that has to do with morals and ethics.What do you mean??
Oldefarte| 1.6.10 @ 3:18PM
Will your Jed Clampet HICKISMS [how's that for a one word label-bomb, Jethro?] allow you to properly phrase a simple declarative sentence? Also, Philadelphia is a typical impoverished CITY-SLUM, thanks to the incompetence and inefficiency of their historical [mostly black] public officials!!!!
Pat| 1.6.10 @ 3:35PM
Now answer my question.Are you a racist?Do you hate black people?
Pat| 1.6.10 @ 3:47PM
I guess Oldefart and Richard had to go to their Klan meeting.
Richard Baker| 1.6.10 @ 6:47PM
Pat:
Chocolate is Ray Nagin's word. You do live in America, don't you? Sorry the truth offends but with all the corruption and destruction in black run cities, I have one question. Do blacks possess the ability for self-government? Who cares what you think? Racism is a meaningless word which has been used to make white liberals cower in fear. I ask you questions that are being asked in America constantly and you think a meaningless word is going to blunt my asking? The Klan is a joke and so are you whiners. Explain why the Justice Department has been saying for years that the leading cause of death of young, black men 18-25 is another young, black man 18-25. Eventually, you have to answer the questions. Give it a try, if you can.
Richard Baker| 1.6.10 @ 6:50PM
Pat:
No, I don't hate black people but I find their corporate actions abysmal. Go to any large or small town and find the black neighborhoods. Not a pretty sight. As I asked before, is this depravity and degradation what Dr. King and Medgar Evers died for?
Pat| 1.6.10 @ 11:15PM
Yes you do and you can not hide it.Wear the label of BIGOT proudly.You are using all this other BS to justify you superior attitude.I would say that your pride is going before your fall.You and your buddies Margie and Old Fart would not even be responding to this article if you were not racist.You are not fooling anyone.
Richard Baker| 1.7.10 @ 8:42AM
Pat:
You are truly funny. I suppose you live in one of the finer ghettoes in the US. I'm not going to make excuses for the depraved behavior that blacks exhibit to one and all everyday in any city in the country. Again, is this what Dr. King and Medgar Evers died for? Is this what the SCLC struggled mightily to see happen in the US? Is this what Dr. Abernathy worked for? White liberal excuse-making has condemned millions of my fellow Americans to welfare dependency, violence and degradation. Compassionate Liberals? If modern slavery is the net effect of your beliefs then you folks have a strange definition of Compassion. Yassuh, Massa.
Richard Baker| 1.7.10 @ 8:51AM
Pat:
Please tell me that having a 70+% illegitimacy rate is a sign of a healthy community. Wonder what the rate of abortions in this community is. There is a reason Bill Cosby is hated by the Race Hustlers and Liberal communities. He speaks to reality and not some hip-hop fantasy land where the women are Ho's and Bitches. Of course, hip-hop is an authentic representation of the Black Experience, isn't it?
Pat | 1.7.10 @ 5:04PM
I agree with you that welfare has been a terrible disaster.Are those single mothers evil people?Other than sitting back in judgment,what have you done to make changes?If you don't want to help,then what is your purpose in reciting all these facts?When you talk about 70% of births are to single parents my racist tendencies come out.Everyboby has superior attitudes toward all kinds of people.Nearly every thought you have expressed,I have also thought.My question to you is ,what good does it do for you to point the finger with your at these folks or for me to call you a racist. Can say that most black people are evil terrible people? I am sure that the majority of african americans are not evil criminals and all the other sterotypes I have read on this blog. .I do try to fight the racist thoughts in my mind and turn them into actions that make difference.I apologioze to you folks and for calling you names.I am as as self righteous as anyone and my anger and self righteous pride only cuts off constuctive dialogue.I am human being and an american.I was brought up in an affluent suburb of Birmingham by racist parents in aculture of racism.I have been a republican for 35 years.As a young boy I hated jews,blacks,catholics,and most any group that wasn't white.I was a racist for many for many years?I can look at my own tendencies that I have grown to hate or I can look back on my southern culture where racism was a way of life and detect it in other people. Racism is not the worst sin but it is the self exalting pride in all of us that our creator hates.
Richard Baker| 1.7.10 @ 7:22PM
Pat:
You're obviously a wonderful guy. My comments stand as the problems besetting the black community are of their own making. Otherwise, Bill Cosby, John McWhorter, and the late Reginald Lewis would have been hailed as prophets leading them to the Promised Land. That is not the case, however. I am saddened that the culture which sustained them during slavery, Jim Crow, and the worst of the segregationists has been lost in the zeal to demonize Whitey while demanding that Whitey give to ME. Until blacks in America look in the mirror and stop trying to fool the face that looks back, nothing whatsoever will change. My University classmates from Ghana, Cameroon, and Ivory Coast would tell me that they thought American blacks must be crazy. I couldn't tell them why and still couldn't, today.
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