‘This needs to stop’
Alabama town driven to the brink by fights, vendettas among leaders
Lawsuits from the mayor, police chief and city manager continue to pile up. Insults, scuffles, explicit language, and the talk of violence divide the town and impair operations.
Tarrant finds itself a city at a crossroads. There is no clear path forward. Just this week there are new allegations in court accusing the mayor of pursuing a “vendetta” against the police chief.
Meanwhile, longtime residents of the city just northeast of Birmingham say they are embarrassed and fear the constant drama will damage their city.
“You’ve got an elderly woman going to jail. You’ve got the mayor and a councilman going back and forth. You’ve got the mayor talking about how he wants to do something sexual to the councilman’s wife,” said Jarvis Escott.” You’re really dealing with people who don’t know how to get along.”
Escott is a lifelong resident and a 20-year member of the city’s industrial development board. He said he fears the negative attention will repel businesses. His greatest fear is that Tarrant will face a similar fate as Fairfield, a town on the western side of Jefferson County that languishes after bankruptcy and a steady exit of stable businesses.
He noted one year where the Easter egg hunt was canceled in Tarrant because the mayor and council could not agree on details.
“When you’ve got a council that can’t even agree with an Easter egg hunt, how is that even normal?” he said.
“A CONSTANT TIT-FOR-TAT:”
Council meetings often begin with tension and end after raised voices and insults from both city leaders and residents in the audience. The official public comment period is reserved for the end of the meeting, but protocol usually dissolves long before then as residents ask questions, deliver commentary and shout from their seats.
Escott said city leaders would be better served by focusing on resident priorities rather than the political fights and lawsuits. For example, Escott recently complained about stray or feral dogs he’s seen roaming city streets. Those citizen issues should take priority over political turf battles, he said.
“There are just dogs roaming around in downtown Tarrant and the Brummitt Heights neighborhood,” Escott told Al.com showing a phone video of a pack as evidence.
Not even previous rulings from Jefferson County Judge Patrick Ballard were enough to settle disputes stemming from the council’s hiring of a city manager, Mayor Wayman Newton’s multiple suspensions of police chief Wendell Major, and the legal tug of war to keep him in or force him out.
Each legal victory generates an amended complaint or an appeal.
“It has been a constant titfor-tat between the council and mayor. I don’t know who drew the first line or made the first blow,” Escott, a lifelong Tarrant resident, told Al.com. “I can guarantee you there’s less money now because they’ve been fighting with one another.”
The judge initially ruled in favor of Major, allowing him to return to work as chief after his third suspension by Newton. He was again suspended by Mayor Newton last week — this time for an additional 102 days without pay.
And Newton continues to fight the chief’s employment in court.
Another ruling in January gave the mayor a victory by tossing out the council’s hiring of a city manager who would have taken over most of the mayor’s duties. That case is now heading to the state Supreme Court, with the city council recently agreeing to pay the bond to proceed with the case.
Judge Ballard said the council could hire a city manager, but they could not change the city’s form of government or hand over the elected mayor’s duties to an unelected employee.
That ruling left the manager, John C. Brown, out of a job. Brown had been collecting on a $100,000 annual salary since June 2023 but had not worked due to the legal challenge.
Councilman Tommy Bryant defended the Supreme Court appeal, saying the council has no other choice but to take action against a mayor he derided as a dictator.
“The council is doing this because the council hired a city manager because of the deplorable,
disgusting, degenerate things that the mayor has done,” Bryant said during the last council meeting.
Newton shot back, saying it is the council that is tossing public money at a case that it has already lost.
“What’s deplorable is you’re spending $3,000 on something that a judge has already told you that you can’t do,” Newton said.
Not so fast, said councilwoman Veronica Freeman, who said the council is within its rights to press the issue to the state’s high court.
“The fat lady hasn’t sung yet, so it ain’t over,” she said.
Just this week, lawyers for the council filed a motion to toss Newton’s lawsuit against the police chief.
The filing makes explosive claims that the mayor, who is also a lawyer, should be disqualified from representing himself in the case and alleges several violations of ethical conduct. Council attorneys Charlie Waldrep and Wayne Morse Jr. want the judge to toss out Newton’s case or at least disqualify him for serving as the lawyer in the case.
“Newton has violated the Rules of Professional Conduct by making this lawsuit a personal vendetta against Chief Major…” lawyers wrote in their filing Sunday.
Council attorneys list multiple allegations against Newton, including accusations that he aided and abetted a Tarrant employee in improperly practicing law by allowing a police officer to write legal pleadings on his behalf against Newton.
They also said that Newton has weaponized the legal system in a personal feud against Major who testified in two cases involving Newton. The last case involved the altercation between Newton and Bryant.
“This lawsuit is Newton’s personal vendetta,” they wrote.
The filing includes several text messages between Newton and Tarrant police Sgt. Derrick Williamson where the two discuss strategies to embarrass the police chief in their court writings. Another officer, Lt. Jimmy Hill, is serving as interim chief while the legal fight over chief Major continues.
Several text messages are quoted as evidence of a vendetta and collusion with the mayor and his favored police officer.
Ƈ Newton: “You need to provide juicy details about the sexual harassment and the gender and race discrimination.”
Ƈ Newton: “Throw the book at him.”
Ƈ Newton: “This is where we gonna get him.”
Ƈ Newton: “Keep in mind this is going to hit the news so we need to control the headlines.”
Newton laughed at the accusations against him and said the council is attempting to deflect his allegations against Major.
“Nowhere in that response did they actually say flat out that the stuff that has been said about the chief is not true,” Newton told Al.com. “And they can’t say that, because it is true. They know that not only is the investigator that the city is paying for is looking into this but there are other agencies looking into it.”
Newton said the only relief to fighting at city hall would come with the removal of Major as chief and then with voters replacing the council.
The political strife has left residents angry and embarrassed.
“We’re going to picket city hall. We’re going to put some boots on the ground,” one resident, Will Smith, told the council. “This needs to stop.”
Council members push back against criticism, saying that they have reinstated the chief. It is the mayor who is holding up the process, they said.
“It’s about the time the citizens of Tarrant realize what’s going on and stand up,” said Councilman Bryant.