Wyatt delivers State of City Address at January Chamber luncheon

Homewood saw a lot of changes in 2024, and Mayor Alex Wyatt says there’s still more progress to be made in 2025.

Wyatt delivered a State of the City Address speech at the Homewood Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Jan. 21, reflecting on the events of 2024 and previewing what residents can expect this year.

“Last year was unlike any other, both for good and some not-so-good reasons,” Wyatt said.

Former finance director Robert Burgett was arrested in April for stealing $950,000 from the city. More than half of the funds have been recovered, and the city expects to recover the majority, if not all, of the money.

Lester Smith, who previously worked for the city of Birmingham and Southern Research Institute, was hired as finance director in October. He has since implemented safeguards to strengthen the city’s finance department.

“We went out and got a finance director that has the expertise and the training and experience to do what we have tasked him to do,” Wyatt said. “Which is to build a better finance department and to get us to a place where people can feel good about the finance department and secure about the finance department.”

The city also hired a new IT director, Brandon Sims, who Wyatt said has significantly improved the city’s technology, making it more functional and secure.

Wyatt also highlighted the city manager referendum, addressing the efforts leading up to the vote and the changes that will occur this year.

“The council obviously spent a good amount of time and effort researching the city manager issue and educating the public on it, and spearheading that through to fruition,” Wyatt said. “With the passage of that, that puts the city government in a much better place than it has ever been before.”

The new government structure will take effect in November, when the new mayor and four-person council take office.

“That’s what’s going to make 2025 perhaps the most consequential year Homewood has ever had, certainly in my lifetime,” Wyatt said. “By changing the structure of the former government and voting in a new city council that will just be a five-person council, by adding a city manager, we will be stepping into the future, and we will be giving Homewood the advantages that our sister cities have in terms of structure that will allow us to reach our fullest potential.”

Wyatt also noted upcoming stormwater and parking improvement projects during his address.

The luncheon concluded with the recognition of Employee of the Year recipients Melanie Jennings, Cami Salter, and Kellie Lee, all of whom work in the finance department.

“They did a tremendous amount of work, both in working with government officials so that embezzlement could be uncovered and could be handled by the appropriate authorities quickly,” Wyatt said. “They are three individuals who, quite frankly, did a lot to keep the finance department on the tracks while we were searching for a new finance director. What they have done for the city this past year can’t be measured.”

Trent Ricketts and Cody Dickison were named Policeman and Firefighter of the Year, respectively. Both men were honored for their work as first responders. Ricketts has an extensive record for drug and human trafficking arrests while Dickison was also recognized as the Jefferson County Paramedic of the Year and for saving the life of a beachgoer who had a heart attack while on vacation last year.