Montgomery mayor holds press conference giving updates on city

Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed held a press conference on Tuesday giving updates on happenings within the city, including crime trends and business development. 

Reed said that he intended to hold such press conferences at least once a month to deliver these updates. He began with public safety, saying that crime was on "a downward trend" with violent crimes and non-fatal shootings. 

"We have fewer homicides this year than we did last year," he said. "Down about 13% in that area, and roughly similar numbers right around 12% in the area of non-fatal shootings." 

However, there's been an uptick in property crimes, Reed stated. Burglaries and thefts are up slightly more than 10%. 

"We are seeing some increased positive trends there but we still want everyone to be on alert, whether they own a business, a home, organization or building, just make sure those areas are secured," he said. 

He expressed confidence in public safety, pointing out that Montgomery was ranked number two among the safest cities on a U.S. News and World Report list, which also has the city ranked 54 in a "best places to live" list." 

Additionally, Montgomery was in a list of most affordable cities to live in, he said. 

"Again, I think those are things that we have to make sure we highlight and we tell our story about what's going right in the city." 

Continuing with being included on lists, Reed mentioned that Montgomery White Water was placed among 50 places to visit worldwide by Time magazine. 

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Recent tourism has given a boost to businesses within the city, particularly small businesses and the lodging industry Reed said. He then briefly moved on to construction and reported on an ongoing project at Fire Station 10 on Court Street. Reed said that construction is "all but complete" with outside work done after a $19 million investment. 

Afterwards, Reed discussed government "accountability". 

"We believe that it's important to be transparent and to be held accountable for the time and money that we've been entrusted with," he said. 

He went on to say that some of the issues found within the city government are poor staffing and planning since he became Mayor, these being highlighted during the COVID pandemic. 

To address these, CPA firms McConnel & Jones and White & Company were hired to look into city operations. 

"It was something that came out of our transition report that so man people that participated in that process thought needed to be done," he said. "And I was surprised that the city had not ever done a performance audit." 

He said that research revealed five areas of improvement: technology, planning, personnel staffing, policies and procedures, and management reporting. 

The audit resulted in 60 recommendations and it was estimated that following them could save as much as $2 million over the next year and $2 million to $3 million each additional year afterwards, Reed said. 

See the full press release here.