Hoover Council President Gene Smith to run for mayor in 2020

Hoover City Council President Gene Smith today announced he is running for mayor in 2020.

Smith, who has been on the City Council for 15 years, including the past four as council president, released a video with remarks critical of current Mayor Frank Brocato.

Smith said things are not as they seem in Hoover.

“Our city debt is about to rise. Our children need more resources, and the current administration does not communicate or work well with the City Council or the leadership of our school district,” Smith said in the video. “When many of us try to ask questions, he calls it grandstanding. Stories are created — a web of lies filled with inconsistencies, absurdities and reasonable doubt. Mr. Brocato must prove his case to us beyond a reasonable doubt that he isn’t hurting our city.”

In an interview this afternoon, Smith said that, to the average person, things in Hoover seem to be going wonderful, “but that’s just a facade.”

Over the next nine months, he will explain how the city is really being run and how it can be run better, he said. A lot of it deals with relationships, he said.

Brocato has gone out of his way to evade relationships with the council, Smith said. Some council members were close to him early in his term, but even some of those have drifted away from him, Smith said.

“We’re tired of being kept in the dark. There are eight elected officials, but he’s acting like there is only one,” Smith said. “He only comes to us when he needs a vote on something. It’s very unfortunate.”

Smith acknowledged he has weekly meetings with the city administrator and city attorney but said City Administrator Allan Rice usually runs those meetings and the mayor is not always there.

“He convinced the city he could do the job. Then he turned around and delegated to someone who is not responsible to the citizens,” Smith said.

Brocato, in a written statement responding to Smith's video, said he looks forward to meeting Smith on the campaign trail to compare their records so the voters can make the best choice for Hoover in the Aug. 25 city election.

"Hoover has a world-class education system, nationally recognized safety record, significant job growth and great quality of life," Brocato said. "As mayor, I work every day to continue to improve what we already have and prepare our city for the future."

Brocato said he plans to seek a second term as mayor.

Hoover schools Superintendent Kathy Murphy said she and Brocato are in constant communication, getting together to discuss issues, if not every week, every other week or at least once a month.

“I’ve been very excited and very pleased with the responsiveness of Mayor Brocato and our City Council,” Murphy said. “I’m pleased with the level of engagement and level of interest shown by Mayor Brocato.”

School board President Craig Kelley said he was not aware of any issues regarding communication with city leaders.

“We get along extremely well with our city government,” Kelley said. “Our communication and relationship with the City Council and the current administration has always been pleasant, and I don’t look for that to change.”

On another issue, Smith said that when a 21-year-old Hueytown man was shot and killed by a Hoover police officer in the Riverchase Galleria on Thanksgiving night 2018, Brocato forced a press conference immediately after the shooting, against the advice of police.

Misstatements were made during that press conference, wrongly identifying the slain man as the person who shot an 18-year-old Birmingham man just moments before. This caused more pain for all the parties involved, Smith said.

Both Brocato and Hoover police Chief Nick Derzis said the mayor did not force any press conference. "I'm not going to be pressured into any press conference," Derzis said. "We would have done a press conference regardless if the mayor was in town or not."

Police decided to hold a press conference because there was a major incident at the mall on Thanksgiving night, he said.

Brocato said his comments at the press conference followed those of Capt. Gregg Rector and Derzis and focused on reassuring the community, commending police officers and firefighters who responded to the scene and showing remorse for the loss of life and the injured.

Brocato said he was very proud of how the city handled the overall situation and particularly proud of Derzis, his commanders and other police officers.

Smith also said the mayor used fear and consultants to induce the City Council to pass increases in sales taxes, personal property taxes and a $2 nightly room fee for lodging facilities in July of last year “to cover a budget shortfall that never happened.”

Smith was one of four council members who voted in favor of all those tax increases.

Smith said he and some other council members never believed the budget shortfall would actually happen, “but we had to do something just in case.”

The council negotiated and passed a half-cent sales tax increase instead of a full penny on every dollar as a compromise, he said.

The fatal shooting at the Galleria and resulting protests had a negative impact on tax revenues, but Smith said once the city gets a “good, clean 12 months of receipts,” the council may choose to rescind that half-cent increase in the sales tax.

Smith said Brocato intentionally submitted a 2020 budget proposal with deficit spending, “not caring that his spending is more than the revenue the city is projected to receive.”

Brocato’s original 2020 budget proposal included expected general fund revenues of $132.7 million and projected expenditures of $132.2 million, which would allow the city to increase its general fund balance by $500,000 by the end of the fiscal year. 

However, the mayor proposed total spending from government funds, including the capital projects and special revenue funds, of $146.4 million while taking in only $140.1 million in revenue for those funds. The mayor also proposed to spend $22.1 million from proprietary funds (such as the sewer and health insurance funds) while taking in only $17.6 million in revenue for those funds.

Melinda Lopez, Hoover’s chief financial officer, said it’s important to maintain a “structurally balanced budget” with the general fund, but expenditures sometimes will exceed revenues in the other funds in certain years as the city uses money saved to take on projects that are more one-time in nature. It’s much like someone saving money to pay cash for a car and having a big expenditure in one year, she said.

The council in late September passed a budget with $2.2 million less in expenditures than the mayor recommended. Smith was the only City Council member to vote against the budget and said then it was not so much that he was against the budget as that he wanted more time to study it before giving his approval.

Smith, 62, originally is from Georgia and moved to what is now Hoover when he was in the first grade. He graduated from Berry High School in 1975, completed his paramedic studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and served 18 years as a Hoover firefighter.

Since retiring from the city in 1993, he has made his living in the installment loan business, offering loans of less than $1,500 for 90 days to 18 months. He owns finance companies with 19 locations in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee.

Smith also owns a 40 percent stake in Hoover Tactical Firearms and is in partnership with former Hoover school board President Earl Cooper and Hoover City Schools Foundation President Steve McClinton in a business consulting company called Maven Advisory Group. McClinton ran for mayor in 2016.

Before joining the Hoover City Council, Smith served five years on the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission and about four years on the UAB 310 Mental Health Board. He and his wife, Pam, live in the Magnolia Grove subdivision and have three children and five grandchildren.

Smith said he will make his case for mayor more completely in the months ahead. He said he decided to announce his candidacy now so he can begin raising money for the campaign.

This article was updated on Dec. 3 with comments from Mayor Frank Brocato and police Chief Nick Derzis regarding a press conference held at the Riverchase Galleria on Thanksgiving 2018.

See the complete list of candidates for Hoover mayor and Hoover City Council.