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Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover Mayor-elect Nick Derzis, center, celebrates election victories with Gene Smith and Ashley Lovell at a runoff election-night party at The Back Nine indoor golf simulator in the Greystone community in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover Mayor-elect Nick Derzis, at right, talks with incoming Councilwoman Ashley Lovell, center, and her mother, Kathy Lovell, at a runoff election-night party at The Back Nine indoor golf simulator in the Greystone community in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Gene Smith, who won re-election to the Hoover City Council on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, talks with former Hoover Mayor Frank Skinner at a runoff election-night party at The Back Nine indoor golf simulator in the Greystone community in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Ashley Lovell, who won election to the Hoover City Council on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025 (at right), talks with Kelly Bannister at a runoff election-night party at The Back Nine indoor golf simulator in the Greystone community in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Gene Smith greets his wife, Pam, as she arrives at his runoff election-night party at The Back Nine indoor golf simulator in the Greystone community in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover Mayor-elect Nick Derzis (right) talks with incoming Councilwoman Ashley Lovell (center) and her mother Kathy Lovell at a runoff election-night party at The Back Nine indoor golf simulator in the Greystone community in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Kenneth Cox, a candidate for Hoover City Council Place 2, talks with a voter heading into the Finley Center to vote in the city election runoff in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.
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Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover Mayor-elect Nick Deris, second from left, and incoming Hoover Councilman Robin Schult, right, celebrate election night victories for incoming council members Gene Smith, left, and Ashley Lovell at a runoff election-night party at The Back Nine indoor golf simulator in the Greystone community in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.
Political veteran Gene Smith and newcomer Ashley Lovell came out on top in Hoover City Council election runoffs Tuesday.
Lovell, who lives in Greystone in eastern Hoover, captured a resounding win over Liz Lane, who lives on the western side of town in McGill Crossings. Lovell received 6,351 votes, or 73% of the total votes cast in the runoff for Council Place 3, compared to 2,341 votes, (27%) for Lane.
Meanwhile, Smith had a much closer race against Kenneth Cox for Council Place 2. Smith, who lives in Magnolia Grove and spent 16 years on the City Council from 2004 to 2020, received 4,644 votes (54%), compared to 4,002 votes (46%) for Cox, who lives in Ross Bridge.
Lovell and Smith both were endorsed by Mayor-elect Nick Derzis and had backing from a lot of similar supporters, including the Alabama Republican Party, which sent out a mailer calling them the clear “Republican choices for Hoover City Council.”
The two also had a joint runoff election-night party at The Back Nine indoor golf simulator near Greystone.
Lovell’s victory was being celebrated by many, including herself, as a victory for the eastern side of Hoover, where some people over the years have said they felt ignored by their city government. It has been 10 years since someone from the eastern side of Hoover served on the City Council (Greystone’s Trey Lott).
“It’s very, very meaningful to see my neighborhood, the east side, participate because the election mattered to them and to see their action and to vote,” Lovell said. “I’m very much looking forward to being a tie between all of Hoover because I do have a specialized knowledge of the east side as well as the west side.”
Photo by Jon Anderson
Hoover Mayor-elect Nick Derzis, at right, talks with incoming Councilwoman Ashley Lovell, center, and her mother, Kathy Lovell, at a runoff election-night party at The Back Nine indoor golf simulator in the Greystone community in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.
Lovell, a 36-year-old senior manager for sales and marketing for a company that makes respiratory equipment, said she’s looking forward to working with other council members for the betterment of the city. “I’m very much looking forward to redeveloping, bringing business, just all the wonderful things that happen here working together as a team for the city,” she said.
Lovell said winning election to the City Council is really special to her because she grew up in the city.
“Hoover literally shaped me, molded me, created me, and so to have the ability to come back and represent the people of Hoover … it shows that Hoover is an amazing city that raises leaders,” she said. “I hope this inspires other people to want to do the same.”
Her opponent, Lane, in a written statement congratulated Lovell on getting elected to the council and said she knows Lovell will put her heart into the position.
“I decided to do this because I know more women and moms needed a seat at the table, and she’s both,” Lane said. “I hope she will keep all of our kids front of mind when governing, and I look forward to having her as City Council representative.”
Lane said her own campaign started from an idea at a neighborhood book club. “This was baptism by fire, but that fire remains lit, and I’m dedicated to building community up instead of tearing each other down,” she said. “Thank you so much to everyone that believed in my campaign and my ideas.”
GENE SMITH
Smith, who lost a bid for mayor in 2020, said he really appreciates the opportunity that Hoover residents are giving him to serve on the City Council again.
“I believe like others that we have some issues to put to bed,” Smith said.
A key one is city finances, he said. Even though an acclaimed national auditing firm called Kroll said it identified no fraud, malfeasance or asset misappropriation in a review of Hoover’s finances, that firm indicated it could only see what it was allowed to see, Smith said.
He and several other incoming City Council members have said they want the Alabama Department of Examiners of Public Accounts to do a full audit on Hoover’s books.
Photo by Jon Anderson
Gene Smith greets his wife, Pam, as she arrives at his runoff election-night party at The Back Nine indoor golf simulator in the Greystone community in Hoover, Alabama, on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025.
“My hope is that they find that Kroll was right — that everything is proper,” Smith said. “The main thing that will bring is a clean, level playing field for the new administration and new City Council — for everybody to understand that there are no financial issues and it’s been proven by a state examining board and not somebody hired by the city attorney’s office.”
Smith said Cox ran a hard campaign and knocked on more doors than he did. He normally would have taken off six weeks to run his campaign, but business demands this year didn’t allow him to do that, he said.
He attributes his election victory to a great team of consultants and supporters and appreciates all the people that endorsed him. Among those were Derzis, former Mayor Tony Petelos, Jefferson County Commissioner Jimmie Stephens, former Alabama Secretary of State Beth Chapman, Councilman Steve McClinton, former Place 2 candidate Clint Bircheat, former Hoover Executive Director Allen Pate, former Hoover fire Chief Chuck Wingate and the Hoover Fire Fighters Association. “They’re the ones who moved me over the top,” he said.
In addition to addressing city finances and stormwater issues, Smith said one of the other things he wants to address is funding of Hoover schools.
He believes the front-door fees that homebuilders must pay for each new single-family residential building permit should go to the school system — above and beyond the $5 million the city currently gives the school system each year from the city’s general fund. Now, those front-door fees are lumped into that $5 million.
MAYOR-ELECT NICK DERZIS
Derzis, who was at the election-night party for Smith and Lovell, said the turnout for Tuesday’s runoffs was unbelievable.
The 8,692 voters who showed up for this year’s runoffs is more than three times as many people as the 2,887 who voted in the runoff election in 2020 and almost three times as many as the 3,303 who voted in the 2016 runoff, city records show.
Smith brings a lot of history and talent to the council, and Lovell has been very tenacious since she announced back in January that she was running, Derzis said. He looks forward to working with this new council once they all are sworn into office on Nov. 3. Over the next six or so weeks, they’ll be working on plans together so they can hit the ground running, he said.
“I think we’ve got a great council, and I think they’re all in there to do whatever we can to get Hoover back to where we think it ought to be,” Derzis said.
Economic revitalization is part of the agenda, and the No. 1 priority is redevelopment of the Riverchase Galleria and Patton Creek shopping centers, he said. “If we transform that, we can transform Hoover back to the days that we remember.”
Smith and Lovell join Bluff Park resident Robin Schultz as new members of the Council for the next term, along with incumbents Steve McClinton and Casey Middlebrooks (who were unopposed this year) and incumbents Khristi Driver and Derrick Murphy (who won election on Aug. 26). The new council and Derzis are scheduled to be sworn into office on Nov. 3.
See the runoff election results by polling place on the city of Hoover’s website. Results are complete but unofficial until certified later this week.
Editor's note: This story was updated with comments from candidate Liz Lane at 11:51 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 24.
