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By Matthew Korade
Star Capitol Correspondent
10-24-2001

BIRMINGHAM — Hundreds turned out for an Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform conference Tuesday at the Richard W. Scrushy Center, and if their conviction alone were the currency of change, Alabama would have a new constitution tomorrow.

   By the roster of those who attended, it appeared the movement won’t have much longer to struggle. The nearly 500 participants represented a wide spectrum of Alabama, from Gov. Don Siegelman, Secretary of State Jim Bennett, State Superintendent of Education Dr. Ed Richardson, and University of Alabama Chancellor Tom Meredith, to legislators, department heads, business and civic leaders, teachers and college students.

   But, the panelists said, as political pressure holds sway over common sense more often than not in Montgomery, the grassroots reform movement must take the next step in building support for their cause - translating the groundswell into action.

   Several groups seem ripe for targeting the reform message, panelists said. Among them are religious congregations, students, workers’ unions, women’s organizations and local municipal leaders.

   Sarah Savage, director of Leadership Huntsville, said the activists need to hold local events and town hall meetings to explain to the public “what’s in it for you, how is this going to affect your life.”

   Siegelman and others spoke of the shortcomings of the current constitution.

   “This year - 100 years after the document was first written - if a community wants to invest more in their local schools ... they have to come to Montgomery and jump through hoops and play the special interest game,” Siegelman told the panel in the opening speech. “It doesn’t make sense. It didn’t make sense in 1901, and it certainly doesn’t make sense today.”

   The constitution bases the lion’s share of public education money - the majority of the state’s revenue pool - on economically volatile sales and income taxes, and then wholly earmarks those revenues, making them inaccessible for critical needs that arise.

  It prevents counties from passing local laws, prohibits improvements to infrastructure, and is so inflexible that it has been amended 706 times in the last hundred years, making it the longest constitution in the world, scholars have said.

   “Is the constitution the reason Alabama’s at the bottom?” asked Howard Hawk, a federal district judge for Marshall County and former chairman of the House ways and means education committee, who was the keynote speaker. “Oh yes. Without any doubt about it, and it’s going to get worse. And the reason it’s going to get worse is technology is changing faster and faster...

   “Is that the only reason?” Hawk continued. “No. Let’s be honest. Let’s do a little ‘truthing.’ With a few rare exceptions, we’ve elected political leaders who are a little (deprived) of political honesty and political courage ... In a democracy you get no better government than the people who participate in it.”

   Despite the seeming strength of the overall pro-reform argument, the main panelists of the day had some difficulty providing one questioner with specific, concrete examples of especially problematic constitutional provisions.

   Asked where within the document audience members should look for bad amendments, the panel responded, after several seconds of silence, with the admission that they all needed to study the issues as closely as possible.

   “ACCR is very much you,” said Bill Smith, the director of development for Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform. “The level of our effectiveness is the level of your effectiveness.”

   As if to help prepare the group for the difficult political road ahead, Mike Warren, the chief executive officer of Energen and a member of the state’s largest business lobby, brought up some questions.

   “Are we engaging in that popular sport in Alabama: demonizing the special interests?” Warren asked the crowd. “My experience has been politicians not only let those special interests have special interests, they encourage them.”

   The typical reaction of political and business leaders in dealing with Alabama’s systemic problems is playing “the blame game,” Warren said. It goes something like this: First leaders oversimplify the issues; then they focus on personalities, and finally, serve the public “pabulum and platitudes.”

   Although special interests should not vote on a new constitution, he said, “don’t fool yourselves into thinking they will not be involved.” For their part, his business lobby, the Business Council of Alabama, would try to focus on the issues, not personalities, he said.

   Another questioner asked how Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform would overcome petty niggling over narrow local issues.

   Smith his group would work to keep the broad issues in peoples’ minds. One of the biggest issues is that the constitution does not value public education, Smith said.

  “As long as ACCR keeps pressure on politicians and newspapers keep focus on them - and newspapers have been focusing like a laser on this issue - we will have a new constitution.”

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