State agencies in St. Clair await news from Legislature’s Special Session

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) approached state residents with frightening news last week, announcing if it faced budget cuts in 2016 it would close all but four driver license examiner offices in Alabama.

As it stands now, it’s only speculation. But the line between that speculation and reality for many state agencies is growing thinner by the day.

Facing a budget deficit projected in the hundreds of millions, lawmakers have less than a month to decide funding levels for agencies. The Alabama Legislature begins its second Special Session of the year on Sept. 8, and by Oct. 1 agencies should finally have an answer.

But if cuts are the conclusion, what could that mean for local residents?

In a brick office in Pell City, employees with the Environmental Division of the St. Clair County Health Department prepare for the day. Their schedule consists of a bevy of tasks that sneak under most everyone’s radar.

The county’s three environmentalists are protectors, working to prevent the spread of disease and contamination. The team is responsible for investigating hotels, restaurants, body art businesses, garbage trucks, sewage tank sites and more. Their work is largely preventative but overly time consuming.

“We’re the set of eyes that see the things you can’t,” Environmental Supervisor Trina Bryan said.

Environmentalists’ efforts impact most residents by way of local kitchens. From August 2014 through July 2015, this team of three inspected 328 restaurants, markets and other food service operations in St. Clair County. Their purpose is to prevent the spread of foodborne illness — food poisoning — that comes from eating food that’s contaminated by bacteria, viruses or parasites.

It’s an especially important job in the area, as people who eat here aren’t always from here.

“Say a diverse population ate contaminated food at a local restaurant,” Bryan said. “With the interstate lines that run through the county, you could have mass infection spreading all directions before we understood what was going on.”

But food service inspections are just the start for the Health Department. According to Environmental Director Lem Burell, who manages these services in 14 Alabama counties, over the last 12 months St. Clair environmentalists received and investigated 183 applications for on-site sewage systems and 66 repairs, a job that requires checking fill lines and collecting soil samples by hand.

“Sometimes we get lucky and there’s a pit,” Bryan said. “But most of the time we have to turn the augur ourselves to get the samples.”

Burell said it can be difficult for the public to measure the value of environmental services because the division’s work is largely focused on prevention and regulation. That means deliverables are uncommon.

“Just look at the services provided,” he said. “It’s a lot of preventive health measures. It’s like an official at a ballgame — when everything’s working right, you don’t even notice he’s there.”

Also in the last 12 months, the team has faced a rise in rabies cases in St. Clair County. Burell said environmentalists looked into 171 animal bites and shipped 82 specimens off for testing. As cases rose, the team went door-to-door in the area to pass out educational flyers on how to protect residents and their pets.

State Sen. Jim McClendon said recently that the Senate’s most recent attempt at a 2016 budget included an across-the-board cut to state agencies by 18.5 percent. In a release from ALEA, state law enforcement cites threats of cuts between 22 and 47 percent.

For the Health Department, cuts that deep to the annual operating budget could mean a reduction in inspections for foodborne contaminants, Burell said.

“What’s the value of being able to inspect an establishment two or three times versus only be able to check once per year at best?” Burell said. “Is the public okay with that?”

Under ALEA’s proposal, 33 Driver License district and field offices would close on Oct. 1, including the office in Ashville, if cuts are applied. Pell City’s office would close on Jan. 1, 2016.

“Currently, ALEA maintains 75 Driver License district and field offices across the state, but budget allocations do not cover costs and we operate with an $8.2 million deficit,” said Secretary of Law Enforcement Spencer Collier in a release.

Other departments that could see changes in operation depending on the Legislature’s actions the session include the Emergency Management Agency, the Commission of Forestry, the Historical Commission, Medicaid and many others.

In a letter titled “Small cut in state budget spells huge loss for Alabama communities,” Jim Byard Jr., director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA), outlines how much funding his department supplied St. Clair County recently.

“In the last couple of years, St. Clair County received $800,000 for projects in Pell City, Moody and Steele,” Byard writes. “Pell City renovated the old armory building on 19th Street to serve as a community center. Another grant enabled the Pell City school system to supply laptop computers and other technology equipment for classrooms.

“Moody made improvements to Kelley Creek Road that enabled Love’s Travel Stop and Country Store, Inc. to build a fueling station plaza adjacent to Interstate 20, employing 70 people. With grant assistance, Steele is building a 1,600-square-foot metal firehouse on the east side of town.”

ALEA and ADECA are advocating for tax increases to continue operating at least at current levels. However, the State Legislature has been unable to reach terms on where those revenue increases should come from.

Cuts seem likely. It leaves the state’s 79,000 employees to carefully watch what happens in Montgomery starting Sept. 8.