SPLC Lanett town hall focuses on state policy, local growth
BY SAM VISE
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
LANETT — Community members gathered on Oct. 15 for the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “Policy is Personal” town hall, an open discussion focused on connecting upcoming state legislative battles to daily life in Chambers County.
The meeting, held at Cal’s Place in Lanett, provided residents a direct channel to SPLC policy staff before the Alabama Legislature convenes its next regular session in February.
Latonya Tinsley, community organizer for SPLC’s East Central Region, opened the evening by laying out the mission of the organization’s state office and introducing leadership, including Alabama State Director Dana Vandiver, Policy Associate Elliot Spillers and Alabama Policy Director Jerome Dees.
“Policy decisions affect our everyday lives, from wages to healthcare to clean water, local school resources and beyond,” Tinsley said.
Dees, who led the presentation, emphasized that public advocacy cannot start and stop on election day.
“Democracy is not just an election day activity,” Dees said. “Democracy is an everyday activity... Even if you don’t do politics, politics does you every day.”
Legislative review: Voting rights and parole reform
Reviewing recent legislative sessions, Dees pointed to two major bipartisan victories SPLC helped guide through Montgomery: streamlining voting rights restoration and reforming parole board procedures.
Dees highlighted a bill sponsored by Sen. Linda Coleman-Madison (D-Birmingham) that went into effect Oct. 1, designed to eliminate confusion surrounding Alabama’s list of “crimes involving moral turpitude” that disenfranchise voters.
Under the new law, beginning in March 2027, formerly incarcerated individuals can look up their Alabama Institutional Serial number directly on the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles website to immediately confirm their eligibility status.
Dees also addressed the state’s steep drop in parole approval rates since 2017 and Alabama’s status as one of only two states that do not permit incarcerated applicants to appear at their hearings. He noted Gov. Kay Ivey recently signed legislation requiring the Board of Pardons and Paroles to provide written explanations when denying an application, while work continues on a separate measure that would allow applicants to participate in hearings virtually.
State budgets and looming federal shifts
Looking ahead, Dees warned that years of state budget surpluses — bolstered by federal pandemic relief funds — are drying up just as federal cost-shifting takes effect.
Dees said the state was forced to absorb an additional $40 million to administer the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program last year, and faces an estimated $210 million in benefit costs this coming year. According to Dees, that could jeopardize programs like summer electronic benefit transfers and school breakfast expansions.
“Where your money is is where your heart is, and I think what we see every year is where the heart of the Alabama legislature is,” Dees said, contrasting cuts to social safety nets with the expansion of the state’s CHOOSE Act education vouchers. “Every study that has come out every single year since the passing of the CHOOSE Act has shown that usually over about 75%, sometimes [more than] 80% of the individuals who are using the CHOOSE Act, either their kids were already in private school or their kids have not started school yet and are enrolling in kindergarten in a private school.”
Local issues: Land use, data centers and zoning
During the open floor question-and-answer period, community discussion shifted quickly to local concerns in Chambers County, including healthcare access, Medicaid expansion, voter roll verifications and industrial zoning.
Attendees raised concerns over recent clear-cutting and large land purchases near residential neighborhoods, voicing worries about the potential arrival of data centers or heavy industry near established communities.
Dees said unlike municipalities with explicit zoning authority, unincorporated county areas often lack the power to restrict hyperscale developments without legislative intervention in Montgomery.
“Part of the problem for a lot of the counties, though, is the counties do not have the same degree of zoning authority that many cities do, so they’ve got to go to Montgomery to the legislature when they are in session and ask for specific zoning capabilities,” Dees said.
He urged residents to organize early with county commissioners and their statewide association ahead of February.
A brief debate also arose regarding downtown development initiatives. An attendee raised concerns about transparency and whether private development interests through LaFayette Main Street programs align with overall community needs. In response, Main Street board member Merilyn Vines spoke up from the audience to defend the grassroots origin of the initiative, describing how local volunteers stepped up five years ago to reverse commercial abandonment.
“Nobody was coming to rescue us,” Vines said. “Not the governor, not the senators, nobody was coming to rescue us. We were going to have to rescue ourselves. Are we doing enough for the extended community? We just got started.”
The town hall concluded with discussions on local lot-size ordinances in West Shawmut that restrict rebuilding on smaller inherited family lots, prompting Lanett officials in attendance to remind residents that the city’s board of adjustment offers variances and pathways for residential construction.
Tinsley closed the evening by urging Lanett and Chambers County residents to stay active locally and statewide.
“Show up and apply pressure,” Tinsley said, reiterating calls to attend local council meetings, check voter registration records well before the Nov. 3 election and visit the new State House in Montgomery when lawmakers return to work.
For more information, visit www.splcenter.org.
