Retired counselor, law student seeks to unseat Lyda on Hoover City Council

Michael Jeffries moved to Hoover from Virginia about three years ago, and from his perspective, the city government seems to be stagnant.

The retired substance abuse counselor who is now in his third year of law school has signed up to run for Hoover City Council Place 3 in hopes of bringing new energy to the council.

He faces two-term Hoover Councilman John Lyda in the Aug. 25 election.

Jeffries said some people say Hoover is a progressive city. People have a lot of proposals on ways to improve the city, but he isn’t seeing much action, he said.

Hoover is probably one of the nicer cities in which to live in the Birmingham area and has good schools, but he wants to help the city grow more economically, he said. Vestavia Hills seems to have an economy that is thriving more, he said.

Jeffries said, as a newcomer, he doesn’t want to come in with a lot of aggressive ideas. Now, he has a view of government from the outside, and once he has a better view of government from the inside and listens to ideas from the public, he’ll be in a better position to push for specific change where needed, he said.

TAXES AND DEFUNDING POLICE

Some current council members have talked about wanting to rescind an increase in sales, use and lease taxes and a $2-per-night lodging fee that the council passed on 4-3 votes two years ago, and Jeffries said rescinding the tax increases is something he would favor.

He knows cities depend on taxes to fund city services, but “when you start taxing people, it makes it difficult for people to live,” he said. “It makes it hard for them to raise their families.”

Hoover already is one of the most expensive cities in which to live, and a lot of the jobs in Hoover don’t pay very well, he said.

Some residents have joined a national effort to push for elected leaders to “defund police” or take some money away from Police Departments and reallocate it to other social services, but Jeffries said he doesn’t like that idea.

“Police are an integral part of a city. They are trained to bring law and order to a city,” Jeffries said.

He doesn’t want to decrease any funding for the Hoover Police Department, he said. “I wouldn’t touch it.”

BACKGROUND

Jeffries, 61, was born in North Carolina but spent the past 35 years or so in Virginia. He spent about 27 years as a counselor and retired as a substance abuse counselor for an adult detention center in Fairfax County, Virginia, in 2017. He worked to help inmates get ready to transition back into the community.

He said he has always enjoyed helping people, and that’s one of the reasons he is running for the City Council — to help people on a larger scale.

“I want to effect change in Hoover,” he said. “I think I have a good idea of what this community needs in terms of leadership.”

Once he retired in 2017, Jeffries moved to Hoover so he could attend Miles Law School in Fairfield. While in law school, he worked about seven months for a substance abuse program run by the Alabama Department of Youth Services and about five months as a counselor at a methadone clinic in Bessemer. In December, he started work as a legal assistant for the Serious Injury Law Group, and he is scheduled to graduate from Miles Law School in May 2021.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in human services from George Mason University in 2000 and a master’s degree in counseling and development from the same university in 2002.

He lives in The Park at Hoover apartment complex off Lorna Road. His wife is still in Alexandria, Virginia, working toward retirement and planning to join him in Hoover next year, he said. He has a 24-year-old son who lives in Massachusetts.

Over the years, Jeffries has been involved in church ministries, such as getting food and clothing to people in need, he said. He currently is an elder at the First Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Fairfield.

This is his first run for public office.