Mayor’s Minute

I hope everyone has had an enjoyable summer. Needless to say, many of you with school-age children will start gearing up for the school year. With that in mind I hope you took advantage of the sales tax holiday for back-to-school items and that you have or will shop locally.

I would like to tell you about a program that we plan to implement in the near future. We are calling it the Phoenix Program. In Greek mythology, the phoenix was a long-lived bird that cyclically regenerated.  Associated with the sun, a phoenix obtained new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor. Vestavia Hills is committed to assisting individuals that are struggling with addiction, and this intervention program would provide an opportunity for individuals that realize their addiction to seek counseling or recovery assistance through our police and fire departments.  

The program would work as follows:

Any individual could seek assistance 24 hours per day, seven days per week by coming to any Vestavia Hills fire station or to the Vestavia Hills Police Department.  

Vestavia Hills would contact participating recovery resource agencies that would respond and provide the necessary assessment and placement depending on the individual’s needs and financial ability.

The basic premise is the need to immediately provide assistance once an individual has consciously decided to seek help. Statistics indicate that there is a short window of time to help addicted individuals, lest they revert back to their addiction for relief.

We care about all of our citizens, including those with substance abuse disease, and this program will provide an opportunity for addicted individuals to “rise from the ashes” of their past. 

The program does not address emergency medical assistance. These individuals would be transported for emergency care as required.

There are some volunteer opportunities to assist with this program. If interested, please let me know by contacting the city at administration@vhal.org. 

Vestavia Hills is a great place to live for many reasons. One reason for our success that I have frequently mentioned is the number of volunteers who serve in our school organizations, our boards and commissions, our parks and recreation organizations, our Chamber of Commerce, our civic clubs and other city groups. These volunteers are part of the “Vestavia Hills Team.” Our city employees and our elected officials are also part of the team.  We are inextricably linked and dependent on each other to achieve our goals.  

Jonathon Tische has written a book entitled “The Power of We: Succeeding through Partnerships.”  Tische, the chairman and CEO of Loews Hotels, has been described as the “preeminent leader of the $500 billion travel and tourism industry.”  In his book, Tische reminds us that working together yields the best results. This is true for industry as well as municipal government.  

Our Community Spaces and Infrastructure Plan is a current example of how “We” have developed a program with input from all stakeholders, planned accordingly and are now implementing the plan.  

To say, “I did this,” whether it is me or any member of city government saying it, is not accurate. “We did this” is more accurate. We, as leaders, need to be careful about self-promotion rather than doing what is best for the “team” (which in our case is the city and the citizens we represent). Leaders who routinely state “I did this” rather than “we did this” promote themselves instead of recognizing the contributions of the broader team.

I am proud to be part of the Vestavia Hills team.