Hoover council candidates speak on defunding police, revitalizing shopping centers in 1st forum

Hoover voters got a chance to hear from candidates running for Hoover City Council on Tuesday night in the first of at least two forums taking place before the Aug. 25 election.

Fifteen of the 16 candidates in six contested council races were present at the forum, which was held at the Hoover Senior Center without a live audience but livestreamed on Facebook.

Carin Mayo, one of three candidates for Hoover Council Place 7, could not make it due a family emergency, said Heather Skaggs, one of the forum organizers.

All the rest were there and answered seven questions posed to each candidate. Topics included leadership style, defunding police, affiliation with or support for protesters, revitalizing the Riverchase Galleria and Patton Creek shopping centers, supporting eastern Hoover, inclusion for people with disabilities, and engaging in discussions with someone who changed their mind about an issue affecting Hoover.

All of the candidates said they would not defund the Hoover Police Department, and most, if not all, said they were not affiliated with protesters but supported people’s First Amendment right to peacefully protest. Most candidates said they strongly support Hoover police and think they do a great job.

Ron Brown, one of four Black candidates running for City Council and one of five candidates for Place 2, said he has been asked about that issue probably more than most candidates because of his race. He absolutely would not defund the Police Department, he said.

“If you know anything about me, I grew up on the west side of Chicago,” Brown said. “We called the police. They didn’t come, so I would like police to have as much money as necessary to do their job. The reason we moved to Hoover was because of the safety.”

Some protests for Black people to get the rights they have today haven’t always been civil, but that type of protest is not needed in Hoover, Brown said. The better way, if someone wants change in Hoover, is to seek it from the inside, he said.

Alli Nations, one of three candidates for Place 7, said that while she supports people’s right to peacefully protest, it’s unfortunate that most of the behavior seen at Hoover protests has been unacceptable.

“As a mother, I would absolutely have a fit if I saw my children behaving that way,” Nations said.

Nathan Reed, a candidate for Place 4, said he doesn’t want to defund police but believes the city can provide more services to assist police. He is not affiliated with the protesters but does understand their cause.

“How we get the cause done is what we need to work on,” Reed said. “How do we create equality? How do we create opportunity?”

He does not support the violence or destruction of property that has happened with some of the protests, he said.

Leah Siefka, a candidate for Place 1, said she has not attended any protests and is not a member of any protest group, but she does have a soft spot for the revolutionary spirit of teenagers.

Discussion and dialogue is the better course of action, and it’s imperative for city leadership to guide that process, Siefka said.

“I think that’s where we could step up as a city,” she said. While she doesn’t want to defund police, “we need to have conversations that help all of Hoover feel safe in all different ways.”

AUDIENCE REACTION

Jonathan Hornsby, a resident of the Woodmeadow community, said he and his wife watched the entire forum, and he got a lot out of it. He has never had a chance to go to an election forum before, and it was especially nice to be able to watch it online given COVID-19 social distancing requirements, he said.

He liked all the questions, although he felt a lot of the candidates focused too much on kids and playgrounds when asked about inclusion for people with disabilities. There needs to be more discussion about other ways that children and adults with special needs can experience Hoover, he said.

He has a daughter who uses a wheelchair, and they would like to be able to go to stores in the Riverchase Promenade shopping center that is right next to their neighborhood without getting in a vehicle, he said. They can’t because there is no sidewalk, and it’s not safe, he said. “It wasn’t designed for us.”

Regarding revitalization of the Riverchase Galleria and Patton Creek shopping centers, Hornsby said too many candidates seemed to think the city needs to offer tax incentives to more retail stores to fill vacancies.

“That kind of just drove me a little bonkers,” Hornsby said.

He hears a lot of complaints about Hoover needing a performing or fine arts center, and it would be nice to see some vacant retail space converted into an arts center, he said. He also liked Brown’s suggestion to build some kind of multilevel residential space on the Galleria property.

Susan Clowdus, a Bluff Park resident who watched the forum, said she was familiar with a lot of the incumbents’ positions on issues because she followed the election closely four years ago.

However, she said she was particularly impressed with how Place 1 Councilman Curt Posey had a tremendous amount of data to back up his answers and support his positions, such as when asked about redevelopment options for the Galleria.

She also said she was pleasantly surprised how Nations seemed to have given a lot of thought about how to move Hoover forward.

“You could tell that so many of the candidates were so passionate about what they were talking about,” whether it was Place 2 candidate Mitzi Eaker talking about representation for eastern Hoover or Councilman Casey Middlebrooks talking about inclusion for families with a disabled family member, she said.

Clowdus said she already had a good idea for whom she plans to vote Aug. 25. Tuesday night’s debate confirmed most of those choices but might have changed her mind for one or two council races, she said.

She thinks the forum likely was very beneficial for someone who was unfamiliar with the candidates.

“The more information we have, the better decisions we can make,” she said. “I think we’ve got a good candidate pool. I just wish we didn’t have so many in Place 2.”

FORUM INFORMATION

Tuesday night’s City Council forum was organized by leaders and residents from several Hoover neighborhoods, including Blackridge, Bluff Park, Green Valley, Monte D’Oro and Riverchase.

The same group is putting on a second forum on Wednesday, Aug. 12 for the two mayoral candidates: current Mayor Frank Brocato and City Council President Gene Smith. That forum is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and is expected to last one to two hours and will be livestreamed at the Hoover Candidates 2020 Forum page on Facebook.

People can still view Tuesday night’s forum in its entirety at the same Facebook page.

The Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce and Shelby County Chamber of Commerce have prerecorded a mayoral forum as well and plan to make that video available online later this week.

Additionally, the Hoover Sun, Hoover City Schools Foundation and Hoover Rotary Club are holding a forum for mayoral and council candidates on Tuesday, Aug. 18, at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham — The Wynfrey Hotel. More details about that forum will be released soon.

See profiles of each candidate running for Hoover mayor and Hoover City Council here and a more detailed discussion of the mayor's race and short bios on mayoral and council candidates here.