Photos by Jon Anderson
Smith and Brocato 8-12-20
Hoover City Council President Gene Smith, at left, and Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato speak during a mayoral candidate forum at the Hoover Senior Center in Hoover, Alabama, on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020.
Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato and City Council President Gene Smith both presented their case to be the city’s mayor for the next four years during a forum at the Hoover Senior Center Wednesday night.
The two men answered questions about taxes, funding for Hoover City Schools, protecting neighborhoods, making the Riverchase Galleria safer, militarization of the police, serving eastern Hoover, controlling COVID-19, serving the disabled, and building relationships with the City Council.
Both men were asked, as the city struggles with the financial impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, whether the city should lower or raise taxes.
Brocato two years ago proposed that the council should raise the city’s portion of sales and lease taxes from 3% to 4%, and the city’s lodging tax from 3% to 6%. He said then he has always been a fiscal conservative and had worked hard to cut expenses but said the city needed more revenue to provide the services and amenities residents expect.
Instead, the council on a 4-3 vote raised sales and lease taxes from 3% to 3.5% and implemented a $2-per-night fee for lodging facilities. Smith voted with the majority for those tax increases, saying then he didn’t enjoy those votes but felt it was the best thing to do given revenue projections from the finance staff and a consultant and public safety needs.
Wednesday night, Brocato said the mayor has nothing to do with raising or lowering taxes.
“That strictly comes from the City Council,” he said. “I play with the deck of cards once they deal ’em to me. It’s my job to stay within the confines of that budget, and we’ve done a lot of great things to do that.”
Brocato said Wednesday night he sees no point in the city raising taxes any further and he would not support a further tax increase.
Smith on Wednesday night reiterated that the tax increases for which he voted were a compromise to the larger increase that had been proposed by the mayor and said the council’s intent had been to rescind the .5-percentage point increase once the council could verify there was not really a financial crisis as presented.
However, fatal shootings at the Galleria and the COVID-19 crisis have more recently brought tough financial times on the city and prevented the council from rescinding those tax increases, Smith has said.
He is committed to review whether those tax increases should be rescinded in the future, he said. Brocato said he, too, could review it but said there is nothing he could do about it because rescinding those taxes would be a council function.
FUNDING FOR SCHOOLS
Brocato and Smith both were asked whether they had ever taken action to reduce funding for Hoover City Schools.
Right after Smith was first elected to the council in 2004, the council voted to cut funding to Hoover schools from $8.3 million in fiscal 2004 to $2 million in fiscal 2005 at the recommendation of former Mayor Tony Petelos.
After a public outcry, that amount was increased to $7.1 million in 2006 and $7.5 million in 2007 and 2008. But when the recession hit hard and city revenues declined for the first time in the city’s history, the council again cut funding for Hoover schools to $2 million per year for fiscal 2009, and that allocation remained the same until fiscal 2016, when it increased to $2.5 million.
From fiscal 2004 to fiscal 2016, those funding cuts cost the school system more than $80 million. That was about the same amount that the Hoover school system received in 2007 from a Jefferson County bond issue, pumping the school system’s overall fund balance to $150 million.
Those cuts to the school system were “very necessary to be able to keep the city operational,” Smith said Wednesday night. “The schools, they fared still very well.”
Brocato and numerous City Council members who were elected in 2016 campaigned on increasing funding for Hoover schools. Brocato recommended increasing funding for Hoover schools to $5 million for fiscal 2017, and the council, including Smith, voted to do so.
PROTECTING NEIGHBORHOODS
Someone in the Monte D’Oro neighborhood submitted a question for both candidates about what they would do to balance the need to be pro-business with a need to protect older neighborhoods from businesses deemed not to be “family-friendly” and businesses that don’t maintain their properties well enough.
Smith said he plans to create an Office of Civic and Community Engagement at City Hall that will include a Council of Neighborhoods so the city can have better communication with neighborhoods and better understand their needs.
He also said he worked with the city attorney to draft the city’s commercial property maintenance ordinance. City staff should be able to address problems as they arise if there is good communication, he said.
Brocato said when he was elected four years ago, he promised to develop a comprehensive plan for the city. With input from neighborhoods all over the city, such a plan was approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission in July of last year.
That plan provides a roadmap for future land use and an opportunity to update city regulations as needed to address the vision identified in the plan, the mayor said. His administration also proposed and got the council to approve the hiring of a full-time city planner who can look at those kinds of issues, he said.
Brocato also said his administration has been very aggressive about addressing blight without being heavy-handed toward property owners, and he worked with the City Council to come up with an ordinance to allow for the removal of abandoned vehicles.
Additionally, he regularly goes to neighborhood association meetings to maintain good communication with residents, he said.
MAKING THE GALLERIA SAFER
Christian Gentile of the Lake Cyrus community asked the candidates what they will do to make the Riverchase Galleria safer.
Smith said he doesn’t think there is really a safety issue at the Galleria. “I think we have a perceived problem,” he said. But “in many cases, perception is reality.”
If the city can spend a little money to ensure that people feel safe, it will be worth it because the Galleria brings in 10 to 12 percent of the city’s sales and use tax revenues, Smith said.
He proposes to create a new police beat at the Galleria with five to six additional officers who will be on campus an hour before the mall opens until an hour after it closes. He also wants to develop a better relationship with the mall owners and to work with them to install technology that can detect weapons from 50 to 80 feet away.
Brocato agreed the mall is suffering from a perception problem but said the Police Department recently has taken aggressive steps to address it. Police have stepped up patrols in the Galleria parking deck, and a group of officers now reports to work there, which increases the police presence, he said.
The Galleria already has upgraded its security cameras, which helps better deal with issues when they do occur, Brocato said.
The mayor said his administration has been in serious discussions with the various property owners at the mall about transforming the mall into more of a city center, perhaps including a fine arts center. He and Councilman Mike Shaw also were instrumental in helping establish a technology business incubator at the office tower connected to the shopping center, and it is designed to bring in and nurture innovative startup companies, he said.
“I’m very excited about the Galleria and the future of it,” Brocato said. “I don’t want it to go away. … We’re going to do everything we can and are doing everything we can to improve the perception and revitalize the Galleria.”
EASTERN HOOVER
Regarding residents’ desires for more amenities in eastern Hoover, the mayor said the city is in a little bit of a bind because there’s no land in that part of Hoover where the city can build more ballfields.
However, there may be opportunities for partnerships with Chelsea or Shelby County to do something jointly, he said. City leaders also explored the idea of a partnership with the North Shelby Library, but that idea was distasteful with the north Shelby folks, Brocato said. “We’ve got to learn to be better at regional cooperation,” he said.
Smith said he is aware of a 37 acres along Alabama 119 that are available, but the city doesn’t have the money right now because of the financial impact of COVID-19 on city revenues.
He believes all elected officials are aware of the needs in eastern Hoover and want to address them, and as soon as the economy rights itself, he believes those needs will get quick attention as soon as possible.
AUDIENCE REACTION
Bluff Park resident JohnMark Edwards watched Wednesday night’s debate on Facebook and said he didn’t see a lot of difference between Brocato and Smith in their answers to most of the questions.
Both of them seemed to be on the same page when it came to making the Galleria safer, supporting police officers and making sure police are equipped with military-style gear, he said.
Everybody values security, but he himself values freedom and diversity more, he said. He would rather see some of that money spent on other services in the community, but he realizes the majority of people in Hoover probably place a higher value on “law and order,” he said.
Edwards said he plans to vote for Brocato, whom he said looked more polished, articulate and confident at the forum.
Edwards said Brocato probably is more conservative than himself, but he seems like someone who would be more willing to make practical decisions that may fall somewhat outside his personal ideology. “He comes off as a good listener, as someone who’s going to collaborate,” Edwards said.
Debbie Rockwell, a resident of the Green Valley community who watched the forum, said she still hasn’t made up her mind which mayoral candidate she will support. “I respect both of them,” she said.
She thinks the way Brocato communicates would be good for the city, but she has known Smith for a long time and knows what a good man at heart he is, she said. She likes the way Brocato got the Leadership Hoover organization started, but she also likes Smith’s plan for an Office of Civic and Community Engagement and Council of Neighborhoods.
She thinks her decision probably will come down to which one has the best plan for revitalizing the Galleria, she said. Right now, Brocato probably has the edge on that, she said.
FORUM INFORMATION
Wednesday night’s mayoral forum was organized by leaders and residents from several Hoover neighborhoods, including Blackridge, Bluff Park, Green Valley, Monte D’Oro and Riverchase. The forum can be viewed in its entirety on the Hoover Candidates 2020 Forum page on Facebook.
The same group put on a forum for City Council candidates Tuesday night. Read about Tuesday night’s City Council forum here.
The Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce and Shelby County Chamber of Commerce have prerecorded a mayoral forum as well and plan to make that video available online this week.
Additionally, the Hoover Sun, Hoover City Schools Foundation and Hoover Rotary Club are holding a virtual forum for mayoral and council candidates on Tuesday, Aug. 18, at the Hyatt Regency Birmingham — The Wynfrey Hotel. More details about that forum will be released soon.
See profiles of each candidate running for Hoover mayor and Hoover City Council here and a more detailed discussion of the mayor’s race and short bios on mayoral and council candidates here.
