20 Great Years: Longest-serving councilman reflects on service

Brian Plant’s first job was in the 1980s frying fish at the Captain D’s on U.S. 11 in Trussville.

The city’s restaurants could be counted on one hand, the same for traffic lights. Even then, before Plant knew he’d be a big part of it, the pieces were in place for Trussville to boom.

Plant has served on the Trussville City Council since 2000, the longest tenure the council has seen. In this year’s municipal election, however, Plant was defeated for the Place 4 spot on the council by Ben Short. The new City Council takes office Nov. 2.

“It’s been 20 great years,” Plant said. “I’ve enjoyed every bit of it. Serving the community has been an absolute pleasure. The people of Trussville are easy people to work for. They expect good government. They expect a government that works, that gets things done. In successive administrations, that’s what we’ve tried to give them.”

Plant has served during Trussville’s most expansive commercial growth. Retail businesses and restaurants have popped up all over the city. The Trussville Public Library has undergone a massive expansion. Trussville Fire and Rescue has transitioned from a volunteer department to a full-time, paid department. The Trussville Police Department has grown. Zoning laws have been updated to bring them into the modern age. The Cahaba River has been protected. Sales tax dollars have allowed various city departments to flourish. Plant has been a part of it all.

“I think Councilman Plant has done an outstanding job,” new Trussville City Councilwoman Jaime Melton Anderson said. “People who have not served on council have no idea about the hours that it takes away from your family and from your job, and the behind-the-scenes sacrifices that you make on behalf of the city. And there is no way to sum up 20 years of those sacrifices, so I won’t even try. There are no words that are adequate to cover the meetings, all the phone calls, all the riding around Trussville, all the amazing things that folks enjoy today.”

The biggest accomplishment of Plant’s 20 years on the City Council is no doubt the formation of Trussville City Schools in 2005. Plant was in on the studies of forming the system in 2000, when he came onto the council. He was a part of the legal negotiations and the break from Jefferson County Schools.

“Other than the formation of the city in 1947, taking over the school system and running it through our own school board, I think those are the two most significant events in the history of Trussville,” Plant said.

Councilman Alan Taylor, who has served with Plant since 2012, said he displayed a passion for moving Trussville forward and brought a great legal mind to the city’s business.

“There’s probably nobody who’s served in the time that I’ve been serving who cares more about Trussville and loves Trussville more than Brian Plant,” Taylor said. “He really put his all into this. He loved it.”

Councilman Perry Cook served eight years with Plant and said he was detailed and thorough in every decision the council made.

“To me, he could probably teach a class on being a council person,” Cook said. “He was a good one, and he is going to be missed. He was very, very thorough, and he taught me a lot.”

Short, who is replacing Plant on the council, said his 20 years of service are to be admired and appreciated.

“I’m going to continue to tell people when you see Brian, thank him for his service,” Short said. “Trussville would not be the Trussville of today without all of the things him and the councils he served on [did]. Trussville has a lot to thank him for.”

Plant said the outgoing council and previous councils have laid a foundation for the new council to succeed, and he believes it will. Plant said it’s been an honor to serve his hometown for two decades, from the seemingly small decisions all the way up to the city-defining ones.

“It’s something I’ve never taken for granted,” Plant said. “It’s a privilege. To a senior citizen who’s having a problem getting her garbage can down to the road, we have something in place for that to help them, all the way up to one of the best school systems in the state of Alabama. All of those things are important.”