Hanceville Mayor Jimmy Sawyer, center speaks with councilmembers, Kim Brown, left, and Kenneth Cornelius after the Thursday, Feb. 27, council meeting. Amanda Shavers | The Cullman Times

HANCEVILLE — Hanceville city councilmember Kim Brown is walking back statements made by members of the council that the city would be liquidating its fleet of unused police vehicles.

During the Thursday, May 22, city council meeting, councilmember John Stam relayed a message from the city’s liability insurance provider that a municipal police department would not be eligible for coverage until at least July 2026 and said the city would be liquidating all of the department’s assets until it could reestablished and insured.

“In lieu of that we will be liquidating the police department assets,” Stam said. “There’s no use in keeping police vehicles if they are not being used. So we’re going to be liquidating those and then looking at all the other assets.”

Robert Powell — who has qualified as a candidate for Place 2 on the Hanceville City Council — asked in May why the council couldn’t table the decision until the next administration takes office in November. Brown responded that the insurance carrier had instructed the city to have “no resemblance of a police department whatsoever.”

During the Thursday, June 12 council meeting, former Hanceville City Police Chief Bob Long — who has announced his candidacy for Hanceville mayor, but has not qualified as of Friday, June 13 — presented a similar request to the council, asking that a decision on the department’s assets be left to the incoming administration.

“If you get rid of them [police vehicles] it will be detrimental to the new council,” Long said. “So just take your time and let the new council decide how to proceed.”

Brown’s response seemed to contradict statements made by councilmembers at the May 22 meeting.

“It’s out there in the public [that we are liquidating the police vehicles], but it has not been talked about at this table in an open meeting. It would be on record. It’s not been on an agenda. It has not been anywhere,” Brown said.

According to the May 22, regular council meeting minutes obtained by The Times, one line item reads “Councilor Stam gave an update on police department insurance,” it goes on to describe how a hiring committee was still searching for a Public Safety Director and states “will be liquidating police department assets.”

During a follow up phone call with The Times on Friday, May 13, Brown said she was referring to the fact that a formal motion to surplus any items from the police department with specific vehicle identification numbers had not been presented to the council.

“The statement that we would be liquidating the police department assets made on May 22 was not exactly accurate, has not been voted on by the council or been on a council agenda,” Brown said.

Brown told The Times that, in hindsight, she felt as though she should have provided more clarity on the situation during last month’s council meeting and had encouraged Mayor Jimmy Sawyer to correct the narrative.

“That night I should have spoken up, but I though Jimmy might say something,” Brown said.

Messages left for Sawyer by The Times have not been responded to.

Brown added that she was personally opposed to the liquidation of police department assets as the city attempts to revise its policies and restore the department.

“It would be foolish of us to liquidate those vehicles and then try to buy them all back,” Brown said.