Posted on 06/07/2011 8:37:34 AM PDT by blam
Jefferson County To Lay Off One-Third Of It's Workforce To Avoid Largest-Ever Municipal Bankruptcy
Grace Wyler
Jun. 7, 2011, 10:36 AM
Alabama's troubled Jefferson County may be forced to lay off nearly 700 employees - one-third of its workforce - as it struggles to avoid what would be the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.
County officials will meet today to discuss the layoffs, which are part of a plan to reduce the county budget by $12.3 million, The Birmingham News reports.
The cuts are needed to make up for a $70 million loss in occupational tax revenue this year. The state Supreme Court ruled in March that the tax was unconstitutional.
The revenue loss has compounded years of fiscal difficulties in Jefferson County, home to Birmingham, Alabama's largest city and a key economic driver for the state. The county has teetered on the verge of bankruptcy since 2008, due to a $3.2 billion sewer debt.
To make matters worse, Jefferson County is also recovering from a devastating tornado that killed 21 people and destroyed more than 5,000 homes in late April.
County officials said Monday that the impending layoffs - which will affect all municipal departments - could have a huge impact on relief efforts in areas affected by the tornado.
"These steps are the beginning of a new era ... a reduced level of services for the citizens of Jefferson County," County Commissioner Jimmie Stephens told the Birmingham News. "We cannot generate any revenue. All we can do is balance the budget within the constraints of the revenue that we have. With less revenue we have no choice."
Officials hope some relief might come from the Alabama state legislature
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Isn’t this the county that had the sewage treatment plant boondoggle with Goldman Sachs and other investment firms?
"I hate it to the high heavens for him and his family. It's just devastating," Rep. John Rogers, D-Birmingham, said. "He's a good man. He's got flaws. We've all got flaws. Sometimes when you've got flaws people prey on your weakness. I think it sends a lesson to all public officials to be very, very careful," Rogers said.
''Larry is really a good-hearted man,'' Robinson said. ''I've always had a great deal of respect for him. He's just a genuinely nice individual. I really feel sad for his family, his wife and all of his family.''
NO, HE IS A CROOK!
Inner city Birmingham run by ......... Democratic Party. Most of the Conservatives live outside the city limits.
Langford was convicted on these counts:
Count 1 Bribery Langford received $69,000 in cash from lobbyist Al LaPierre and Bill Blount of Blount Parrish & Co. that went into Langford’s personal bank account.
Count 3 Money laundering Langford paid Likis Audio $12,000 for audio equipment with a check drawn from his personal Compass bank account into which money from a bribe had been deposited.
Count 4 Money laundering Langford paid Shaia’s $12,000 for clothing with a cashier’s check purchased at a Compass Bank using funds paid to him as a bribe.
Count 5 Money laundering Langford deposited $40,589 paid to him as a bribe into his personal account at Compass Bank.
Count 6 Conspiracy Langford, investment banker Bill Blount and lobbyist Al LaPierre willfully conspired on multiple occasions to defraud Jefferson County of Langford’s honest services when Blount and LaPierre gave Langford money, clothes and jewelry to influence him as a public official.
Count 7 Bribery Langford solicited and received $30,000 from Blount funneled through LaPierre.
Count 9 Money laundering Langford used $29,241 of the $30,000 to pay his personal taxes.
Count 10 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted a $1,110 cashmere cardigan purchased at Turnbull & Asser.
Count 11 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $3,290 in clothes purchased at Ermenegildo Zegna
Count 12 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $2,133 in clothes purchased at Remon’s
Count 13 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $2,707.56 in clothes purchased at Remon’s
Count 14 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted a $2,796 in clothes purchased at Salvatore Ferragamo
Count 15 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted a $1,854.96 in clothes purchased at Century 21
Count 16 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $3,450 in clothes purchased at Remon’s
Count 17 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $4,050 in clothes purchased at Remon’s
Count 18 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $4,250 in clothes purchased at Remon’s
Count 19 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $895 in clothes purchased at Salvatore Ferragamo
Count 20 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted a $12,015 watch purchased at Tourneau
Count 21 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $1,662.60 in clothes purchased at Remon’s
Count 22 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $11,750.40 in jewelry purchased at Bromberg’s
Count 23 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $2,239.97 in clothes purchased at Remon’s
Count 24 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $2,800 in clothes purchased at Remon’s
Count 25 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $3,547 in clothes purchased at Remon’s
Count 26 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $2,000 in clothes purchased at Remon’s
Count 27 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $5,000 in clothes purchased at Remon’s
Count 28 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $2,500 in clothes purchased at Remon’s
Count 29 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $2,300 in clothes purchased at Remon’s
Count 30 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $1,800 in clothes purchased at Remon’s
Count 31 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $1,876 in clothes purchased at Remon’s
Count 32 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $1,000 in clothes purchased at Remon’s
Count 33 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $1,047.96 in clothes purchased at Remon’s
Count 34 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $1,500 in clothes purchased at Remon’s
Count 35 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $1,000 in clothes purchased at Remon’s
Count 36 Bribery Langford corruptly accepted $7,536 in clothes purchased at Remon’s
Count 64 Mail fraud Langford corruptly caused a package from Turnbull & Asser to be shipped to Langford’s County Commission office.
Count 65 Mail fraud Langford corruptly caused a package from Ermengildo Zegna to be shipped to Langford’s County Commission office.
Count 66 Mail fraud Langford corruptly caused a package from Salvatore Ferragamo to be shipped to Langford’s County Commission office.
Count 67 Mail fraud Langford corruptly caused a package from Century 21 to be shipped to Langford’s County Commission office.
Count 68 Mail fraud Langford corruptly caused a package from Tourneau to be shipped to Langford’s County Commission office.
Count 69 Wire fraud Langford corruptly accepted $2,133 in goods from Remon’s paid for with Blount’s credit card.
Count 70 Wire fraud Langford corruptly accepted $4,050 in goods from Remon’s paid for with Blount’s credit card.
Count 71 Wire fraud Langford corruptly accepted $11.750.40 in goods from Bromberg’s paid for with Blount’s credit card.
Count 72 Wire fraud Langford corruptly accepted $3,547 in goods from Remon’s paid for with Blount’s credit card.
Count 73 Wire fraud Langford corruptly accepted $2,000 in goods from Remon’s paid for with Blount’s credit card.
Count 74 Wire fraud Langford corruptly accepted $2,500 in goods from Remon’s paid for with Blount’s credit card.
Count 75 Wire fraud Langford corruptly accepted $2,300 in goods from Remon’s paid for with Blount’s credit card.
Count 76 Wire fraud Langford corruptly accepted $1,876 in goods from Remon’s paid for with Blount’s credit card.
Count 77 Wire fraud Langford corruptly accepted $1,000 in goods from Remon’s paid for with Blount’s credit card.
Count 78 Wire fraud Langford corruptly accepted $1,047.96 in goods from Remon’s paid for with Blount’s credit card.
Count 79 Wire fraud Langford corruptly accepted $1,500 in goods from Remon’s paid for with Blount’s credit card.
Count 80 Wire fraud Langford corruptly accepted $7,536 in goods from Remon’s paid for with Blount’s credit card.
Count 81 Wire fraud Langford corruptly accepted $2,707.56 in goods from Remon’s paid for with LaPierre’s credit card.
Count 82 Wire fraud Langford corruptly accepted $4,250 in goods from Remon’s paid for with LaPierre’s credit card.
Count 83 Wire fraud Langford corruptly accepted $1,662.60 in goods from Remon’s paid for with LaPierre’s credit card.
Count 85 Wire fraud Langford corruptly accepted $5,000 in goods from Remon’s paid for with LaPierre’s credit card
Count 86 Wire fraud Langford corruptly accepted $1,000 in goods from Remon’s paid for with LaPierre’s credit card
Count 87 Filing a false tax return Langford failed to report as 2003 income $125, 356.73 he received from Blount and LaPierre.
Count 88 Filing a false tax return Langford failed to report as 2004 income $81,419. 52 he received from Blount and LaPierre.
Count 89 Filing a false tax return Langford filed to report as 2005 income $22,186.97 he received from Blount and LaPierre.
Count 99 Forfeiture Any of the property or proceeds from the crimes and any additional gains made from the proceeds are subject to forfeiture. The amount of the property subject to forfeiture includes, but is not necessarily limited to, $7.6 million and any interest and proceeds agains or earned on that amount.
Yeah, but he’s a nice, friendly, smiling crook.
Mike
Larry Langford, puffing on a Salem cigarette, looked around his backyard and then up toward the sky.
Sitting in a screened-in gazebo, Langford knew he would only have a few more opportunities like that at the ranch-style home he has lived in since 1982.
Until October, Langford was the mayor of Birmingham, a flamboyant former television reporter who had become one of the state’s most powerful politicians.
Today, stripped of his office, he will enter a prison about 125 miles east of Lexington, Ky. A federal inmate, he’ll be identified by little more than a number: 27349-001.
It was numbers that destroyed Langford’s career and will, unless his appeal is successful, keep him behind bars for the next 15 years.
In December 2008, a grand jury indicted him on 60 counts, including bribery, money laundering, and conspiracy. The charges stemmed from allegations Langford took $236,000 in bribes from Bill Blount and Al LaPierre to maneuver a bond contract to Blount’s investment company while Langford served as president of the Jefferson County Commission.
snip
Langford, who said the session was both his last interview and exclusive to The Crimson White, was not accompanied by his attorney.
‘I still can’t believe this has happened’
More than five months after the verdict, Langford said he remains in shock. “I still can’t believe this has happened,” he said.
He said he doesn’t understand how a jury convicted him or why Judge Scott Coogler, who presided over the trial, didn’t dismiss the case outright.
“LaPierre and Blount both said ‘We never talked to this man about anything,’” Langford said. “If I never forget anything else in my life, I will never forget these guys truthfully saying from the stand, ‘We never talked to Langford about this, and there was no quid pro quo.’
“I don’t think it ever should have gone to a jury to begin with. I just knew that the judge was going to throw the case out. Boy, was I wrong,” he added.
However, the testimony of Blount and LaPierre was the centerpiece of the prosecution. “I bribed Larry Langford,” Blount was reported to have said during the trial.
Jim Phillips, the acting U.S. attorney for the Langford case, said, “We and the jury obviously disagree with Mr. Langford’s interpretation of the evidence.”
snip
Langford said he did not testify in his own defense because he was confident of a forthcoming acquittal. “I didn’t take the stand because the two main witnesses said they didn’t talk to the guy. Otherwise, I would have taken the stand,” he said. “It couldn’t have been any clearer.”
‘The victim of my own government’
For months, Langford has argued that his prosecution was motivated by race and partisan politics.
snip
To the end, though, Langford remained defiant about his legal problems. “I have unfairly lost my freedom,” he said.
http://cw.ua.edu/2010/04/06/larry-langford-one-last-time/
One mistake is one thing, but 99? Geez, he´s a good guy rings hallow. But this is politics as usual, just some are better at not getting caught. Until we elect people who truly are wanting to help serve this country and not just bloat their own bank accounts, this will continue to be the norm.
Langford himself doesn’t “get” or maybe accept that what he did was wrong. He thinks it was ok to take money because it didn’t influence him, so it wasn’t a bribe.
The guy is delusional. Public people can’t take gifts from people they send business to - it is a bribe.
Jefferson County, the state’s most populous county, is on the edge of bankruptcy mostly because of what became a $3 billion sewer project. Fixed-rate debt for the project was refinanced into floating-rate bonds hedged with interest-rate swaps, derivative contracts intended to lower borrowing costs.
The county paid JPMorgan Chase & Co. and a group of banks $120.2 million for the swaps, Bloomberg News reported in 2005. JPMorgan, Bank of America Corp., Bear Stearns Cos. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. charged Jefferson County about $50 million more than prevailing prices for 11 interest-rate swaps the county bought from 2001 to 2004. None of the fees was disclosed to commissioners, records show.
Blount Parrish, based in Montgomery, Alabama, garnered about $7.1 million in business through Langford, including about $3 million from New York-based JPMorgan, prosecutors say.
Langford was mayor of Fairfield, Alabama, from 1988 to 2000. He was on the Jefferson County Commission starting in 2002 and served as president until he became mayor of Birmingham in 2007.
“looked around his backyard...”
Ha! The crook. Was that a backyard IN Birmingham or at his actual residence?
November 18, 2009
JPMorgan & Ex-Mayor Langford Sued for Sewer Bond Fraud in Alabama
The 23-page lawsuit asserts the financing deals — a series of bond refinancings and interest-rate swap deals — increased the county’s sewer bond debt by millions and exposed the county “to an unconscionable degree” of financial risk. “The financial and reputational damages incurred by the county from the defendants’ conduct are in the billions of dollars,” says the lawsuit.
In order to settle the SEC suit targeting illegal activity in sewer financing deals, JP Morgan agreed last week to pay $75 million in penalties — including a $50 million cash payment to the county — and forfeit $647 million in swap-termination fees from the county.
County officials claim that it wasn’t until the SEC lawsuit and Langford’s criminal trial in October that they realized the extent of the “bribes, kickbacks and payoffs” in the bond and swap deals between JPMorgan and the county, as they said in the suit.
IRS investigates Jefferson County sewer bonds’ tax-exempt status
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Jefferson County said the Internal Revenue Service is investigating the tax-free status of sewer bonds that have landed the state’s largest county on the brink of bankruptcy.
The county has informed the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board that the IRS has requested detailed information on the sewer bond sales of 2003. Those bonds raised money that was used to pay off previous bond investors who lent part of the $3.2 billion borrowed to fix the county’s sewer system.
They were sold as tax-free bonds, meaning investors who bought them would not be required to pay taxes on the income generated from periodic interest payments from the county.
Now, the IRS is questioning the tax-free status of the bonds known as the 2003 fixed rate warrants, auction rate warrants and variable demand warrants. The county warned that bond interest payments to investors might “be declared taxable and a tax liability could be assessed against the holders.”
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