Hoover City Council passes $144 million budget for 2020

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The Hoover City Council on Thursday night passed a $144 million budget for fiscal 2020 after cutting out $4.5 million from the mayor’s proposed spending plan and adding $2.3 million in spending favored by the council.

The net effect was a $2.2 million reduction in spending from the $146.4 million budget Mayor Frank Brocato originally proposed at the end of August.

Despite the cuts, Brocato said the budget still maintains a focus on the priorities of traffic management, education and public safety.

One of the big expenditures is $1 million toward the purchase of land for a new proposed Interstate 459 interchange just west of South Shades Crest Road. The council three years ago voted to spend $2 million to buy 31.3 acres on the south side of the interstate and now is negotiating to buy land on the north side.

The mayor had proposed to budget $2 million in fiscal 2020 for that land purchase and another $1 million in 2021, but the council wanted to cut the 2020 expense down to $1 million and stretch the payment out over a longer term. City Administrator Allan Rice said city officials now will plan to budget $1 million each of the next three years instead.

The council approved the mayor’s proposal to spend another $1.25 million toward the addition of a second northbound lane on South Shades Crest Road, $175,000 to upgrade the traffic signal at U.S. 31 and Braddock Drive, $110,000 to evaluate traffic signal timing at 104 traffic signals and $110,000 to improve traffic signal vehicle detection at intersections along John Hawkins Parkway and Stadium Trace Parkway.

But the council also added $350,000 for traffic signal modifications on U.S. 31 at the Hoover Commons shopping center and Patton Chapel Road and $100,000 for signal upgrades on Riverchase Parkway East.

Brocato noted the budget continues to include a $5 million contribution to the Hoover school system and increases spending for school resource officers to about $2 million per year, adding an officer at the Riverchase Career Connection Center.

He’s also proud that for the second year, his budget proposal increases the city’s reserve fund by $500,000 instead of the $100,000 increase that was common for many years.

COUNCIL BUDGET CUTS & ADDITIONS

Other budget cuts made by the council included eliminating $1.5 million to upgrade the city’s primary computer software system, $275,000 to outsource payroll operations, $225,000 to replace Fire Department software, $101,000 for tourism and hospitality services, $75,000 to study whether the city can provide its own garbage and recycling pickup, $35,000 for a feasibility study for a fine arts center and $25,000 for a study to find a site for an east Hoover library branch.

The council also cut the mayor’s proposed transit funding from $196,097 to $68,205 and eliminated community service agreements with most nonprofit groups, such as the Birmingham Children’s Theatre, Freshwater Land Trust, Kid One Transport and SafeHouse of Shelby County.

Funding was retained for groups specific to Hoover but cut significantly. For example, funding for the Hoover City Schools Foundation was cut from $50,000 to $10,000, but the parent-teacher group at each of 16 schools will get $1,000. Funding for the Hoover Helps nonprofit that helps feed hungry children was cut from $30,000 to $15,000, and funding for the Hoover Arts Alliance was cut from $4,000 to $2,500.

Expenditures the council added to the budget included $530,000 for a second new pumper truck for the Fire Department (instead of one new truck), $450,000 to purchase land (possibly including all or part of the 33-acre Smith family farm in Bluff Park), $370,000 for roof replacements at fire stations on Patton Chapel Road, Municipal Drive and Inverness Parkway, and $200,000 for restrooms at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex and $140,000 to hire an extra police officer and buy a new police vehicle.

'A GOOD COMPROMISE'

John Lyda, chairman of the council’s Finance Committee, said he believes the council was able to come up with a good compromise from the mayor’s original budget proposal. It’s a budget that no one necessarily loves, but something with which all of them can live, he said.

Council President Gene Smith was the only councilman to vote against the budget, but he said it was not so much that he was against the budget as that he wanted more time to study it before giving his approval.

Lyda said the council’s budget reflected a greater commitment to public safety. He said several council members thought they should invest more in that area, noting that was part of the justification for the tax increases that four council members supported last year.

The $4.6 million in cuts the council made to the mayor’s budget proposal represented less than 1 percent of the total budget.

Brocato, after receiving the council’s proposed changes on Monday, put together a revised budget proposal incorporating many of the council’s recommendations but not all of them. His revised budget would have cut total expenditures down to $143.4 million, and he was asking the council to give more thought to some of the proposed capital projects and set their own priorities at a later date.

The mayor, City Administrator Allan Rice and Chief Financial and Information Officer Melinda Lopez gave explanations for the revisions, but council members decided to go with their own version of the budget instead.

Smith was prepared to continue the 2019 budget to give the council more time to review the mayor’s revised budget, but Brocato expressed a strong desire to get the budget passed before the fiscal year begins Oct. 1. He said the council painted itself in a corner by not having a Finance Committee meeting earlier in the week prior to the Thursday night meeting.

After the council voted to pass its own version of the budget, Smith said he didn’t appreciate the mayor talking to the council as if they were children.

'HEALTHY' DEBATE

Brocato said elected officials had some differences of opinions about certain things but, overall, he was pleased with the end result.

“You saw good government at work,” he said. “You saw a council that was listening, asking a lot of questions, interested in getting to where we are tonight and being able to fund our needs tomorrow and then come back at a later date — not too far down the road — and look at capital projects that may not have been passed tonight.”

There was very healthy, back-and-forth debate about the budget, Brocato said. “I’m very happy with our council in how they handled that,” he said. “It’s a good night for the city of Hoover.”

When asked if there was anything particular he didn’t get in the budget that he really wanted, he said one of the primary things was money to start a business incubator at the Riverchase Galleria. His proposal was for the city to spend $83,500 for that each of the next three years, he said.

The Innovation Depot in Birmingham has been a shining star, but it’s full, and Hoover could strongly benefit from having its own business incubator to help grow new technology companies, he said. The Galleria also could benefit by having an influx of people who might not otherwise go there, he said.

Councilman Mike Shaw, who has been a strong proponent of a business incubator, said it’s still a great idea, but the city doesn’t need to spend money on it until it has a more firm plan in place. He also doesn’t know if the Galleria is the place to put it, he said.

Brocato said he also was disappointed the council chose to remove so much funding for the community service agreements. So many of those organizations provide important services for Hoover residents, he said. He plans to ask the council to reconsider funding for those agencies, he said.

Lyda said he expects the council will indeed do some tweaking to the budget after hearing some of the explanations for various projects by city staff Thursday night, possibly as soon as the Oct. 7 council meeting.

This article was edited at 1:13 p.m. on Sept. 27 to correct the total amount of cuts made by the council due to some incorrect information in a budget amendment passed by the council.