Louise Alexander beat longtime incumbent Kenneth Gulley in Bessemer's Sept. 22 mayoral runoff, ending his 16-year hold on the office, and now she says she's entitled to take the oath weeks earlier than the city has planned. Alexander and her team argue Bessemer has been using the wrong swearing-in date for 16 years, a claim that has thrown the transition into open dispute with the sitting city council.
According to WVTM 13, Alabama law requires newly elected officials in Bessemer to assume office on the first Monday in October, which this year falls on Oct. 5 — not the first Tuesday in November, the date Bessemer mayors have traditionally used. If that October date holds, Gulley, who sought a fifth term, would see his tenure end a month early. The Birmingham Times, however, had previously reported that Alexander and the newly elected council members would take office on Nov. 3, underscoring just how unsettled the timeline remains.
Where the October Date Came From
Alexander says the confusion traces back to 2010, when Bessemer began using November as its swearing-in date after that year's mayoral runoff was delayed. She contends the city should have reverted to the first Monday in October once that one-time delay passed, and that Alabama Code Section 11-43D-2 has specified the October date for newly elected city leaders all along. Her attorney, U.W. Clemon, a former federal judge, notified the city of the statutory requirement, and city attorney Aaron Killings relayed the law to the Bessemer City Council at Tuesday's meeting.
Clemon sent a letter to Killings notifying the city that Alexander intends to arrive at Bessemer City Hall Monday morning to take the oath of office, and he has said he expects Gulley to vacate the office and clear his belongings by 10 a.m. local time that day. Clemon has said the new administration should assume governance immediately once Alexander is sworn in.
Council Declines to Act
The city council did not resolve the dispute at Tuesday's meeting. District 7 Councilor Cleo King moved for the council to acknowledge Oct. 5 as the official start date for the new terms, but, as WBRC reported, the motion died when no other council member offered a second. Some members said new leaders should instead wait nearly a month and take office in early November as originally planned, and several said they had only learned of the changed date shortly before the meeting.
“Like everyone else who got elected, I was expecting November,” one council member told the station. Councilor Teco Stephens said he would not make a hasty decision and preferred to leave matters at the status quo for now. The outlet's report notes that the schedule for when Bessemer's newly elected leaders will actually take office remains unresolved, since the council took no formal vote either way.
Alexander, for her part, has said a council vote isn't necessary for the city to follow the law. “Her administration will abide by the law in every aspect moving forward in Bessemer,” she has said, according to the same reporting. A former state legislator who served in the Alabama House of Representatives from 2014 to 2022 and on the Bessemer City Council from 1998 to 2010, Alexander is no stranger to the inner workings of city government — experience she's now leaning on as she presses her case for an earlier start.
Project Marvel and an Audit Await
Beyond the swearing-in fight, Alexander has outlined early priorities for her administration. She has said her first order of business will be an audit of Bessemer's finances, and as reported by Birmingham Times, she plans to review every contract tied to the proposed Project Marvel data center alongside council members and residents once she is in office. Alexander has said concerns about a lack of transparency surrounding that project helped drive voters to the polls this cycle.
Three new city councilors were also elected alongside Alexander, meaning Bessemer's leadership shake-up extends well beyond the mayor's office. Whether that new council, and Alexander herself, begin governing this coming Monday or wait until November remains an open question the council left unanswered this week.
