Photo by Jon Anderson
200519_Frank_Melinda_Lopez
Frank and Melinda Lopez are resigning their positions with the city of Hoover, Alabama. Frank is retiring after more than 24 years as Hoover's chief revenue officer, while Melinda has been with the city for 23 years, including the past 3 1/2 as chief financial and information officer.
Over the next couple of months, the city of Hoover will lose nearly 50 years of experience with the city government with the departure of its chief financial officer and chief revenue officer.
Chief Financial and Information Officer Melinda Lopez and Chief Revenue Officer Frank Lopez, who are married, both turned in their resignation letters last week.
For Frank, who is 66, this means retirement after 24 years as Hoover’s revenue director and almost 20 years with the city of Birmingham. Melinda, 49, said she just felt God nudging her to make a change as well after 23 years of full-time service with Hoover, including 3½ years in her current role.
Melinda, who is known for working long hours at City Hall, said she plans to sleep as much as she wants for two weeks and then spend this summer figuring out what her next steps will be.
She has a long list of things she would like to do and achieve from a personal, professional and church ministry standpoint and will continue to let God guide the decisions about her future, she said.
She still has a couple of years left to work to be eligible for retirement, and she said she would be surprised if her next steps were not with a public agency, “but that’s for God to decide and not me.”
She has already had some people approach her about job possibilities, she said.
“I’ve always known I wanted to work in public service in some way,” Melinda said. “I like working for the government. I like public service.”
Melinda earned two bachelor’s degrees from Auburn University in criminal justice/law enforcement administration and political science and government in the mid-1990s and went on to get a master’s degree in public administration in 1997.
She interned with Birmingham’s legal department and Prattville’s planning department before taking an internship with Hoover’s Development Office in 1996 and 1997.
She was hired full-time with Hoover’s Development Office as a development and administrative analyst and worked there for three years. In 2000, she moved into the finance office and became a management and budget analyst and then budget and financial manager.
In 2013, after earning a doctorate degree in public administration, she was promoted to director of information management and reporting, and in 2016, new Mayor Frank Brocato made her the city’s chief financial and information officer.
Melinda said the good thing about working for Hoover is that if you wanted to learn something new, the city would let you. It has been a great place for her to develop and grow her skills, and she appreciates the opportunities she has been given, she said.
“I am hopeful that whatever the city has given me, I have given back even more so to the citizens,” she said.
The best part about the job has been the relationships with co-workers, she said. “Truly, Hoover is like a family,” she said. “It’s just something I’ll always look back on favorably. It’s been such as critical part of my life.”
She provided three weeks notice, and her last day will be May 29, unless the city needs her to stick around another week or so, she said.
As for Frank, he’ll continue to work in the office until July 6, and his retirement will officially take effect Sept. 1.
He said he had been thinking about retirement for a long time and he finally just felt that it was time. But he will miss the people with whom he has been able to work, he said.
“The people have been just phenomenal,” Frank said. “I’ve been very blessed. … I’ve never walked out of the office during my whole career and had to tell somebody what to do. That’s phenomenal.”
Frank earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He worked almost 20 years for the city of Birmingham, starting as an auditor, then a tax and license administrator and then deputy finance director. While working for Birmingham, he obtained a law degree from the Birmingham School of Law.
Then former Hoover Mayor Frank Skinner hired him to be the revenue director for Hoover, and he has held that position for more than 24 years.
Frank said he has always viewed the job as a public service and, while he always had to work within the law, he tried to make the Revenue Department something that helped people.
“We work for the city of Hoover. The city of Hoover doesn’t work for us,” he said.
There have been challenges along the way, but “the challenges were the parts that were the fun part,” he said. “There’s always a solution.”
Brocato said the Lopezes are two very smart and dedicated employees, and he wishes them the best.
While they will missed, they have both developed a transition plan to leave the city in good shape after they leave, Brocato said. Some current staff likely will fill those roles on an interim basis, but the city likely will not fill those positions on a permanent basis immediately, he said.