Council approves $5,000 advertising payment for Birmingham Bowl and $3,865 barricade payment for City Fest amid questions about sponsorship and a "sole source" 

The Birmingham City Council approved multiple event-related expenditures, including a $5,000 advertising payment to promote Birmingham Bowl activities and a $3,865 payment to Outdoor Event Specialties LLC for barricades used at City Fest, while councilors raised questions about sponsorship and procurement language.

Councilors asked why the $5,000 payment to Cumulus was before the council given that the amount is under the $10,000 threshold in the city ordinance. A mayor's office representative explained the payment came from non-departmental marketing funds and said professional-service procurements can be used when targeted outreach is intended. "We had to come forward at this time to get that," the staff member said, citing ordinance 3-1-7 and cumulative spending rules.

On the $3,865 barricade payment (item 37), Councilor Scales questioned why the council would pay for barricades for City Fest when she said the council had not approved $100,000 in sponsorship funding for the event and the event was not in the adopted budget. The mayor's office representative said the mayor's office supported the event and offered to verify the budget record. A staff member who reviewed the resolution said the "sole source" label in the paperwork was an error and should be removed: "That should not have been in there. That that should not have been in there," the staff member said.

Both items were approved by council vote. The clerk announced item 36 passed with a single recorded 'no' vote; item 37 passed with one 'no' vote and one abstention.

Votes at a glance

- Item 36: $5,000 advertising payment to Cumulus to promote Birmingham Bowl — approved (recorded: 1 no vote).
- Item 37: Resolution approving payment of $3,865 to Jeremy Kemp (Outdoor Event Specialties LLC) for barricades — approved (recorded: 1 no vote, 1 abstention).
- Items 40, 46 and 49: travel and expense reimbursements and event-related resolutions (listed in the agenda) — approved on consent.
- Item 48: emergency purchase notice for engineering support services acknowledged.

What changed: councilors secured an explicit acknowledgment from staff that the "sole source" wording in the barricade payment paperwork was erroneous and asked staff to verify whether the City Fest expense was absorbed by the mayor's office budget after the council withdrew the larger sponsorship request.

Next steps: staff committed to verifying budget records for City Fest and to correcting the procurement paperwork so it no longer lists the barricade contract as a sole-source purchase.