Councilor Tate Kicks Off Reelection Campaign, Answers Questions About City Email Use

Birmingham City Councilor LaTonya Tate on Tuesday kicked off her reelection campaign at a north Birmingham events center, saying she still had work to do.

“I just want to thank each and every one of you guys for supporting me because I’m not going to do anything that I’m not asking you all to do,” Tate told the crowd of about 20 people gathered at the Avery’s Event Center on 27th Street North. “One thing I’ve done very well is I’ve stood on the people’s business. So, one of the things I’m very adamant about is public safety, number one, and making sure that I go out and get those resources and drive those resources back into the community.”

Her reelection campaign immediately hit a bit of a bump in the road. One of Tate’s council employees emailed an announcement for the campaign kickoff Tuesday morning, and the message was sent from a city email address. The Alabama Ethics Commission, in its guidelines for public officials, states that figures such as council members shouldn’t “use or cause the use of equipment, facilities, time, materials, human labor, or other public property under your discretion or control for the private benefit or business benefit of you, any other person, or principal campaign committee, which would materially affect your financial interest.”

Asked about the issue Tuesday after her event, Tate said the staff member sent the email in error, and she spoke with her employees to address the issue.

“When I saw that I was like, I know y’all didn’t do that,” she said.

Public Safety Bona Fides

As examples of her work to address public safety, Tate mentioned programs such as the conflict resolution HEAT curriculum launched in 2021 and the Safe Haven program, which started this year and offers extended hours and mentors at city recreation centers to local kids.

Councilor Darrell O’Quinn introduced Tate at the campaign kickoff. He said her passion for violence intervention is needed for the city.

“I may be president of the council, but I’m standing behind councilor Tate when it comes to the public safety issues,” he said.

Uche Bean, the deputy director for Birmingham’s division of social justice and racial equality, also spoke at Tate’s kickoff Tuesday.

“We need volunteers. We need people to donate, and we also need you to share, make noise, make it loud and make it clear that LaTonya Tate is going back to her seat in August 2025,” Bean said to applause from the audience.

Tate, who was elected to her first term as the District 9 councilor in October 2021, served as a probation and parole officer for nearly a decade in Florida before retiring in 2014. In 2018, she founded the Alabama Justice Initiative, a nonprofit social justice organization that works on criminal justice reform and policy initiatives.

Tate chairs the city’s Public Safety Committee and was named to the 2024 Public Safety and Crime Prevention Committee for the National League of Cities.

Tate graduated from the Bevill State Community College LPN program and worked in health care for more than 15 years in Jefferson County. She also holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degrees in criminal justice administration/security from the University of Phoenix, and she has a master’s degree in public administration from Grand Canyon University.

Speaking after the event Tuesday, Tate said she felt great about the kickoff.

“I’m not worried about, you know, whether it’s a hundred, two hundred people here. I do know that I have major support, major energy behind my campaign,” she said.

The post Councilor Tate Kicks Off Reelection Campaign, Answers Questions About City Email Use appeared first on BirminghamWatch.