Year in Preview: 2 join races for council seats; election Aug. 23

Hoover residents return to the polls this summer to elect a mayor and City Council, if the incumbents indeed have opposition.

Four years ago, no one qualified to run against Mayor Gary Ivey and three of the seven council members — Jack Natter, Gene Smith and Jack Wright.

So far, no one has announced publicly to run against Ivey, but at least two people have announced campaigns for Hoover City Council seats.

Bluff Park resident Curt Posey announced he is running for Council Place 1, currently held by Joe Rives, and Ross Bridge resident Casey Middlebrooks said he is running for City Council but did not declare a specific place number.

In Hoover, all seven council seats are elected at-large, which means all registered voters in the city can vote in each council race instead of voting in a particular district. However, candidates do have to declare which seat they want to pursue when they qualify.

Candidates cannot officially qualify until July 5 and they have until July 19 to do so. Municipal elections are scheduled for Aug. 23, and any needed runoffs will be held Oct. 4. The new term for elected officials officially begins Nov. 7.

Candidates could begin raising money for their campaigns on Aug. 23, 2015 – one year before the election. The last day to register to vote in municipal elections is Aug. 10, 2016.

Ivey, a Riverchase resident and president of Crest Cadillac, has been Hoover’s mayor since Sept. 30, 2011, when he was appointed mayor by the City Council to replace Tony Petelos, who took a job as Jefferson County’s first professional county manager.

Ivey first was elected to the Hoover City Council and chosen as its president in 2004. He was re-elected to the council without opposition in 2008, which means he hasn’t faced an opponent since he was first elected in 2004.

In the 2012 city election, councilmen John Greene, Trey Lott and Brian Skelton all won re-election over challengers, and John Lyda unseated Councilwoman Mari Morrison. 

Lott resigned from the council in January 2015 after moving to Alabaster, and the council appointed Rives, who lives on Patton Chapel Road, to fill his seat in February.