By Paul Gattis
(Paul Gattis)
Huntsville’s new city hall, scheduled to open next year, has a name.
It’s not named for a former mayor – as one council member said he wanted – nor is it named for anyone.
The name for the new city hall is “Huntsville City Hall.”
At Thursday’s meeting, the council approved an ordinance sponsored by Councilwoman Jennie Robinson calling for the straightforward name in a 3-2 vote. Robinson, Council President David Little and Devyn Keith voted for the resolution while John Meredith and Bill Kling opposed.
“The community’s seat of government should be named in a manner that is representative of all its citizens and in no way directly or by implication could exclude any groups of people or individuals, thereby acknowledging their collective contributions in funding its construction, maintenance and operations,” the resolution said.
Kling told AL.com last month that he wanted the eight-floor building overlooking the downtown square to be named for Steve Hettinger, who served two terms as mayor from 1988-1996.
“Steve came in and kind of did a lot of modernization things that we have,” Kling said at the time. “He created the the (1990 Capital Improvement Plan that’s still in use). He created a finance director to separate the city clerk and finance into two separate positions so that one person would not basically have the power for signing all documents and signing all checks without any checks and balances.”
The issue of a name for city hall came when the council approved a Kling-sponsored resolution to ask the Alabama attorney general’s office for a legal opinion on how naming a building would apply under the state’s 2017 Alabama Memorial Preservation Act, which sets standards to protect historically significant structures.
Kling acknowledged he was not aware of any city halls that were named for people. None of the city halls in Alabama’s 10 largest cities are named for someone – a detail noted by Robinson during discussion Thursday night.
“Simply because there have been all kinds of questions in the community, I would ask for the council to approve the ordinance to call the city hall what it is, the Huntsville City Hall,” Robinson said.
Kling opposed the ordinance because the council passed a resolution last month seeking the AG’s opinion and the council is still awaiting that opinion. City Attorney Trey Riley said there is usually about a three-month turnaround period on receiving requested opinions.
As for no other large city in Alabama naming its city hall for someone, Kling did not see that as an obstacle.
“As we’ve said before, we’re Huntsville Alabama,” Kling said. “We’re not like everybody else. We do what we think is right, what we think is best. We’re not trying to comply with the other cities around the state. But do what we see is our highest order of being what’s right.”
Kling also said the city has precedent in naming buildings and facilities for past elected leaders. Most recently, the council — at Kling’s behest — named the soccer facility where the state high school championships are played each year for former mayor Loretta Spencer.
Meredith said he wanted to wait until the council received the opinion from the AG’s office before acting on a name for the building.
