From our state house studio in Montgomery.

I'm Todd Stacy, welcome to Capitol Journal.

A quick heads up about what we have coming up later in the show.

I'll be talking with Doug Otto, CEO of the Alabama Port Authority, about their recent rebranding effort and improvements to the shipping channel.

And after that, Curt Lindsle and Patti Smith join me to talk about Alabama Recovery Advocacy Day here in the capital city.

Some developments in committe today here in the state House.

Despite hundreds of bills being filed in the Alabama Legislature every year, only two are required under the Constitution should the state general Fund budget and the Education Trust Fund budget.

The education budget was the focus of discussion this morning in the Senat Education, Finance and Taxation Committee, chaired by Stat Senator Arthur Orr of Decatur, or told committee members tha the House version of the budget, led by House Budget Chairman, State Representative Danny Garrett of Trussville, should reach the Senate for review as early as next week, or said the fast pace of thi year's session means lawmakers will need to coordinate closely and move quickly once the budget arrives in the Senate.

So I would see us have it taken up, the budget most likely the week we come back in April, the first week in April, because there's just not a lot of time.

The House version, Chairman Garrett, while we have our, divides, I won't call them disagreements, but we do.

We're divided in certain areas.

He has the football now and has the final say, but we've worked very well at your request.

Many, I'd say mos all the request of the Senate.

We've discussed and gone over and he has been accommodating however, he could be, as he could be.

My ask is, get the hous version, review it, look at it.

And not just the budget the supplemental appropriation, the anti appropriation.

Look at all of it.

And then, if you want to come see me, let's most talk.

But don't, don't hang out till the week of passage up here in the Senate when we have it scheduled to, hit the committee and hit the floor.

That's a little too late to start making decisions.

A bill aimed at expanding access to health care in rural areas using artificial intelligence was debated today in the Senate Health Committee.

Senate Bill 97 from State Senator Gerald Allen of Tuscaloosa, would establish standards for the use of AI driven medical technology while also putting guardrails in place to ensure it does not replace the role of physicians.

Lawmakers adopted several amendments during the committee meeting, including changes offered by committee chairman.

State Senator Tim Melson of Florence to clarify how the technology could interact with patients and doctors.

The build requires the Alabama Healt Command to establish standards.

And, and then, as well.

The bill will als exempt rural hospitals and other rural health care provider and state health institutions.

If it does recommend a drug, it does not have prescribing.

The second thing it does is, even though they may establish a physician, patient relationship until the physician.

Well, in this part actually, the second part, make sure that it doesn't direct them to a physician without giving other physicians equal opportunity to have the patient refer to them.

So and then the third one is that, until the patient, if it is sent to a physician, still, until the physician actually lays hands on the patient, is not considered a patient physician relationship.

As I mentioned, the committee approved several of those amendments and added them to the bill.

But the bill itself was ultimately carried ove at the request of Senator Allen.

So it will have to wait to come back up.

The House Judiciary Committee today took up legislation aimed at supporting victims of crime.

House Bill 41 from State Representative Chris England of Tuscaloosa, would prioritize restitution payments to victims over other court costs, fines and other fees associated with those cases.

England says victims deserve to be made whole ahead of the government.

Over the course of the last, say, 10 to 15 years.

Without the victims in court, cases and restitution have become less and less of a priority.

To the point now, before a victim gets any restitution and the court costs and everything else are generally paid first.

So what this bill would do would put the victim in the front of that line.

So when the defendant makes payments to the court, court costs tha money goes to restitution first.

And that's essentially what the bill does.

I'm wondering about the case like that.

I had where I represented a client who was owed restitution, a theft had occurred, and we're talking 50 to $100,000.

That was the theft.

And ther it was going to be a long, long, long road before that defendant was ever going to be able to pay that off.

And so my my issue is with what what I see in this bill is we're not going you're not going to be collecting court cost.

That bil ultimately passed the committee.

And now we'll head to the full House.

And we'll be right back with tonight's guests.

Tuscaloosa native Juli Tutwiler was an educator, prison reformer, writer, and outspoken proponent of education for women.

She was closely involved with the founding of institutions that became the University of West Alabama and the University of Montevallo, and with innovations in education for women and African Americans.

During the Jim Crow era, several public buildings in the state bear her name, and her home, Alabama, is immortalized as the official state song.

Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Joining me next is Doug Otto, CEO of the Alabama Port Authority.

Doug thanks for coming on the show.

I appreciate it.

Well, y'all are in tow this week sharing some big news.

You all have gone through this rebranding.

You got a new logo, some new initiatives going on at the port.

Walk me through what's happening.

So, we had a bil in the legislature to change our our name.

We had Alabama State Port Authority in Alabama Port Authority.

And so we'd like to drop the state which which is passed now.

And just clarifying our brand.

And so, we've also come up with a new logo.

So before we had a logo, there was an M, you know, for mobile and we've changed it to an A for Alabama.

And that really signifies that this port is for the entire state of Alabama.

We touch all 67 counties.

And, you know, just a huge economic engine.

For the state.

Absolutely.

And I remember when it was the infrastructure bill, it was back during the gas tax debate that the state was reminde the folks in this building were reminded of just how vital the port is, not just for mobile.

I mean, people associate it with mobile because it's the port city.

They're all over the state in terms of the products that go in and out of the port.

It affects, like you said, all 67 counties.

Yeah, that's absolutely true.

It's a huge economic, driver for economic engine for the state.

Over $100 billion worth of impact, direct, indirec and induced with in the state.

I'm particularly proud that 1 in 7 jobs in the state can be tied to the port, in some fashion.

Now I know that the shipping channel is finally finished, this huge undertaking.

I was sharing with you earlier, you know, go back to when the appropriation was first.

And I think that was 2019 because it was toward the end of Senator Shelby's term kind of one of his, you know, final big, you know, big ticket items.

As he was getting ready to finish his chairmanship.

So that it's been a long tim coming and a very long project.

It finally got finished.

So I wanted to ask you, what are the practical implications, like how is the port operating differently now with a deeper channel and a wider channel?

Right.

So yeah, there was five years of, engineering and environmental work than there was five years of construction.

And just in October, we we've deepened the channel to 50ft and we've, have have a passing lane now.

So the practical, implications are mobile.

The port of mobile is now the deepest container port in the Gulf.

Okay.

And so we're deeper than Houston or deeper than Tampa, and so is vessels, transit through the Panama Canal into the Gulf.

If they're at 50ft, the only port thing come to is mobile.

So we expect so one of the one of the implications are that mobile will now become first port of call for, container vessels coming from Asia.

And so that's a huge economic, advantage for us in the fact that boxes that land her mobile can get to market first.

They can get, you know, to the factory floor quicker than than they could before.

The port also.

And this is an interesting story.

I mean, the port moves a lot of Alabama metallurgical coal through the port and the those vessels before could have, loaded to 50ft, but they weren't because we had 45ft.

So the day, I mean, the day we finished the channel, we loaded the coal bus.

We were loading a coal vessel at the time.

The captain said, just keep loading it.

So we loaded an additional 5ft to 50ft in sail.

And so every vessel now, virtually every coal vessel is going out at 50ft, which is a huge savings for our customers because less ships, they need more cargo ship.

And so it's a it's a huge good economic impact for the customer.

So without getting too deep into the math there you say five feet.

But that's that's just the that's just the ship.

How much more capacity?

Just like in terms of tonnage.

Might that be like a percentage ballpark.

Well, that may let may be able to load another 8 million tons of coal on a, on a vessel that you couldn't before.

And these are going like steel mills and things like so, so the, the, the coal that we move through the, poor automobile is all Alabama coal.

And it's a, it's a very high grade metallurgical coal used to make steel.

And so it's going all over the world, from Alabama, all over the world to make steel.

Also a part o the, the dredging, conversation.

There was legislation in this building this year having to do with dredge material.

They call it mud dumping.

Right.

Having to do with what the proper use of that material is and setting, limits on what it can be used for beneficial use.

I think they called it.

Right.

Were y'all involved in those conversations?

And are y'all going to be able to work with this new law we were involved in?

And, we're able to support it.

We there were some changes made that allowed us to support the bill.

I just say this so, you know, my background.

Before I came to the port, I did work for the Corps of Engineers, for many years.

And so, the corps.

Well, let me just say that.

So the Corps of Engineer is responsible for the channel navigation channel from the Gulf of Mexico up to the port.

The Port authority is responsible for dredging its berths.

And so, we have shared responsibilities for keeping the port open.

And so, the corps has, has a, national goal of 70% beneficial, you said is, you know, these sediments are coming into the harbor, are naturally occurring and you need, like to keep them in the system, if you will, you know, to make more to, to, you know, provide habitat.

And so, the Corps of Engineers has been actively, looking for beneficial use opportunities for years.

We did quite a bit of that when we deepened the channel.

Quite a bit of beneficial use.

I will say, the, the Port Authority, we have, a, we're getting ready to build a, project called Upper Mobile Bay Beneficial Use Area.

We're going to create 1200 acres of mars with our berth dredge material.

And so this is habitat in mobile Bay.

For fish, shrimp, you know, fishermen, it's it' going to be incredible habitat.

And at the same time, we're beneficially using 20 year of our dredge material in this.

And so instead of instead of, you know, putting this dredge material, upland and hauling it off with a dump truck, we're going to be abl to create habitat with it.

Yeah.

It's it's such a balance.

The, you know, the industry, but the also the environment and the it is the, essential estuary that mobile Bay is and and the delta and all that.

Right.

Have to protect that because once it's gone, it's gone.

We do I mean, we're we are, very supportive of mobile Bay and protecting it.

And in doing everything we can beneficially to to enhance that, let' get out of mobile and go north, because I know you've got your intermodal facility coming onlin pretty soon here in Montgomery.

We're excited about that.

And I know that y'all have plans maybe for other more inland, ports, if you will talk about that, talk about how these are going to work and how it kind of, draws the whole state in to what the port's doing.

Yeah.

So, I mean, the Port Authority, it's it's not just about mobile.

We've talked about that in, in so, you have the port automobile in with the port is connected to the state through, five railroads.

So we have five class one railroads that come in to the port.

We have an interstate highway system.

We have the inland.

One of the greatest inland waterway systems in the country here in Alabama.

But so the intermodal facility we're building in Montgomery, the idea is, you know, you build these intermodal rail facilities, off port.

And so is a is a box comes in from Asia.

Let's say it's going to go to Hyunda in Montgomery, within 18 hours.

It's on rail.

And then the next day it's, it's sitting there in Montgomery at our facility by rail.

So this is going to take 400 just for Hyundai alone, 400 trucks off the highway every week.

Wow.

Okay.

And so those boxes are then five minute from the Hyundai factory floor.

And so what we're what we're seeing at the intermodal facility in Montgomery, there's billions of dollars worth of investment going on around that facility is importers and exporters, you know, want to be able to connect to the automobile in international markets.

And so it's just, it's, force multiplier, if you will, for economic development to have these intermoda facilities and so we are looking at, another one in North Alabama to serve, north Alabama as well.

Probably helps with your capacity as well, when when you're talking about the channel, you know, more business, more containers, you're going to need more space.

We need more space.

I mean, space on the waterfront is a premium.

And so, and, and that' one of the, real strengths of, the port of mobile is we can we can move these containers from ship to rail in less than a day.

Okay.

I've talked a lot about Alabama, but the Midwest is also a big customer.

Two days.

We can have a box in Chicago.

Okay.

If you go to a West Coast port, it might sit on the dock for a week before it even gets to rail.

And so that's one of our the strengths of, Alabama and the port here is our ability to get cargo where it needs to go quickly.

Absolutely.

And it's good.

Good to remind, those of us in Montgomery and all around the state of just how, the port serves everybody.

Well, we're out of time.

Again thanks for coming on the show.

We hope to talk to you soon Yeah.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

We'll be right back.

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Welcome back to Capitol Journal.

Today was Alabama Recovery Advocacy Day.

And joining me to talk about it are Kirk Lindsley and Patti Smith.

Thank you all for making time.

Thanks for having me be here.

Well, tell me about Recovery Advocacy Day.

I know you had advocates for all over the state gather here in Montgomery, over there at Cramton Bowl but also here in the statehouse.

What all is going on today?

So this was the third annual Alabama Recovery Advocacy Day that we've held.

We had, 31 exhibitors from al across Alabama that came here.

We had, several, legislators and state agency leaders that were part of our programing, got the opportunity to hear from several people that are persons in long term recovery that have been able to experience recovery and are now giving back, an they got to share their stories.

It was really a day, celebrating a lot of the good work that's happening in our state related to recovery.

There's a lot of organizations that are on the frontlines of helping people that we highlighted tha with a number of presentations, recovery stories and it was really kind of a day to celebrate a lot of the wor that's happening in our state.

Patty, you are a certified recovery specialist with the Alabama Department of Mental Health.

Talk about the importance of that gathering.

Right.

Folks from all around the state maybe sharing some best practices, sharing stories.

You know everybody's different programs are different.

And I'm sure that there are common threads that talk about the value of folks getting together like that.

Of course, I think it's so important because what my life experience is, is different than the other advocates.

And we can talk on the phone or we can talk through email all day long, but actually having a face to face experience is really helpfu because we can share our highs, we can share our lows, we can share what worked for us in the year.

We can share what didn't work.

And it's just really helpful to have that support because, you know, we're all in recovery and part of recover is really finding your family.

And so when we have these days, I'm able to see my family again and we can be from all over Alabama.

And so it's just really nic to be able to support each other and to be there for each other and to network.

And, you know, what have you learned?

What resources do you hav all those things been helpful?

When you say there's highs and lows, yeah, that makes me think of family because you want to share your highs because, you know, it's important to mark those.

But when you're having thos lows, those moments of struggle, you really need folks to, to lean on.

Talk about how important that is.

Not only to those in recovery but for the programs themselves about connecting people with that network, that support group that's that can be there for them when they're in times of struggle.

Absolutely.

I think a lot of people in recovery, as I am, we may have burned bridges with our actual family, our blood family.

And so we're always looking for more connections.

And especially, like I said earlier, life experiences when I can talk to someone who has experienced similar things like being in addiction and what that meant, and the loss of self, having someone to connec with who understands that, that I don't have to go throug and explain that all over again.

It's just helpful that you don't have to talk about all that stuff we already know.

What have we learned?

I'm just thinking about th timeline here because you know I think back 20, 25, 30 years ago I'm not sure we'd be having this conversation as publicly as we are.

So maybe we've gotten a little bit better in terms of stigma and everything.

But what have we learned.

And in the recovery field if you will, those facilities, those programs and how do we an how do we get better, even so.

Well great question.

Well, one thing that you referenced is, there has been a lot of stigma associated with substance use disorder that's been around for a long time.

And historically for a lot of the population have looked at this being a moral failing, instead of it being a chronic diseas that affects millions of people.

And so, and a lot of times, I feel like people have had the perspective that, okay, if they're struggling with alcohol or drugs, they're always going to be like that.

Recovery is not a real thing that they're going to be able to accomplish.

And so a lot of times society looks down on people to have those struggles.

You're a drunk.

You're a junkie.

Right.

Right.

So there's been a lot more knowledge in education about, addiction.

There's a lot more science that's come out the last several years that explain that for somebod that is dealing with substance use disorder.

It's not like you can go to treatment for 28 days.

And the and magically you're turning on a switch and now you're healed from it.

Your brain takes a long time to recalibrate as a result of that.

And so it's really vita to have support systems in place that can help that person be able to, you know, work through their life issues, kind of get their life right.

And that's a lot of what th organization I work with does.

It helps to provide a foundation for people to find long term recovery, kind of a path to it.

And I'm sure you all were sharing some of these stories with lawmakers today, as you were throughout the state House.

And talk about that, because I know that there are state grants that come through and there's funding involved.

Is is hearing those personal stories and understandin how those programs work helpful in making sure that those those funding mechanisms remain in place?

It's a very importan part of the process, definitely.

So we we're ver I mean, really the reason for us starting this da was to have a day that we could, hav for the whole recovery community to come together to connect with our state leaders, to talk about recovery and, and to advocate for recovery services.

So, I think having those relationships is really important.

We, in addition to legislators, we work very closely with the Alabama Department of Mental Health.

We our organization, receives funding from them.

And we also work very closely with the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Parole and the Department o Corrections to try to address, for individuals that are justice involved, to help them find housing once they are released.

So for individuals that have substance use disorder, because for a lot of people to go back to the environment they lived in previously might be a very bad idea.

And so having a safe place where they can work through outstanding legal issues, they can find a good job.

They can work on a recovery plan that can help set people up for really improving their success for long term recovery.

And so that's a big focal point of a couple.

The committees that I'm on in the state, they're addressing tha for justice involved population.

It's been interesting to see those agencie you mentioned working together.

A lot of times in state government or any government, you can have kind of silos.

Right?

And it's been interesting over the last several years to see those agencies really working together on exactly what you're talking about.

I think we've come a long, long way.

We've only got a little bit of time.

But I wanted to ask you both, what would your advice be?

Let's say if somebody up there dealing themselves with substance use disorder or they have a family member, where do you start?

Where where's that?

What's the first, how would your advice b for someone in that situation?

Maybe they want to hel the family member or themselves.

What's that first step?

Patty I'll start with you seeking help.

Don't be afraid.

Don't hide it.

Don't act like it doesn't exist.

Just ask around.

You don't have to be verbal in public about it, but you can just ask your friends.

Because I guarantee you, if I ask everyone.

I mean, do you know someone in recovery or do you know someone who's struggling with addiction and their answer is going to be yes.

So those resources are there.

Just ask, ask trusted people, where can I go for help?

And I guarantee you're going to run into someone who says, well, this is what I did, or this is what who I used, and it's just word of mouth, you know, that's the easiest thing.

And we always have the internet, you know, go to the internet as I'm struggling One other thing that's a newer developmen within the last couple of years is the Connect Alabama app.

So this is a free app somebody can download on their phone, and it has a lis of all of the certified programs in the state of Alabama.

So all of the certified treatment programs, the certified deto programs, the Certified Recovery residence programs are all there at somebody's fingertips.

Well, thank you for sharing that.

And thank you both for what you do.

Congratulations o another successful Advocacy Day.

I hope you all will come back next year and share again.

Thank you.

Thanks for having us.

Yeah, that's our show for tonight.

We'll be back tomorrow night with more from the Alabama Legislature right here on ABC for our Capital Journal team.

I'm Todd Stacey.

We'll see you next time.