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Photo by Jon Anderson.
Frank Brocato is sworn in as Hoover mayor Nov. 7, 2016.
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Photos by Jon Anderson.
Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato serves lunch to a Deer Valley Elementary School student Oct. 11 during National School Lunch Week.
Campaigning to get elected to public office is one thing, but governing is another.
So says Frank Brocato, who on Nov. 7 hits the one-year anniversary of being sworn in as Hoover’s 10th mayor.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” the 64-year-old Brocato said of his first year in office. “It’s been an incredibly gratifying year. I just realize every day how I blessed I am to have this job.”
There’s definitely a difference between running for mayor and the reality of the job, Brocato said. When you’re running for office, you can say a lot of things, but once in office, you begin to see the bigger picture and may do things a little differently than you thought you would, he said.
Plus, the weight of responsibility can certainly be felt when you better realize how the decisions you make affect the lives of residents and that the decision sometimes rests solely on your shoulders, Brocato said. “The buck stops here. The decision is yours.”
His 42 years with the Hoover Fire Department taught him not to overreact to difficult situations, but to stop and think about things carefully before making a move, he said.
He also has learned better how change sometimes takes longer than people expect. “Things don’t just happen overnight,” he said.
Brocato and many council members who were sworn in a year ago campaigned heavily on the need to provide more support to the Hoover school system and to develop a comprehensive master plan for the city.
Brocato said he believes they have lived up to that commitment and accomplished a lot.
The council in March approved a $133 million 2017 budget, recommended by Brocato, that doubled the amount the city is giving the Hoover Board of Education from $2.5 million to $5 million.
Brocato said he meets with Hoover schools Superintendent Kathy Murphy every month and the two entities continue to look for ways they can work together to save money.
The city has reached the maximum amount it can contribute to the school system, given current revenues, Brocato said. Murphy has done a good job of trimming costs out of the school system’s budget, and operationally the system seems to be doing well, he said.
However, the school system’s debt payments are about to rise, and there could be a need for a third high school, Brocato said. Adding a third high school would be a significant financial commitment, and if a third school is indeed needed, “we want to get ahead of it,” he said.
Property taxes are generally the way schools are funded, Brocato said. But Hoover legally can only raise its property tax by 2.4 mills because of a state law commonly referred to as the “lid bill” that caps the amount of property taxes that can be levied in most parts of the state.
An additional 2.4 mills of property tax would equal an extra $36 a year for Hoover property owners with a $150,000 home. It might not be enough to take care of the school system’s need, Brocato said.
But “before we got out and start adding a tax, we want to make sure that both of our organizations are operating at peak efficiency, that there’s no waste out there,” Brocato said.
Crafting a master plan
Regarding planning, the city in April hired an in-house city planner and in August hired KPS Group to assist the city in developing a comprehensive master plan. New city planner Mac Martin said it should take the city another seven months to complete a comprehensive plan.
Brocato said anytime developers come to him with a plan, he encourages them to look for ways to make their developments include more green space and connections to nearby properties via sidewalks or walking trails. For example, city officials insisted on those elements with the Stadium Trace Village commercial development planned along John Hawkins Parkway between Stadium Trace Parkway and Interstate 459, he said.
They also are working closely with EBSCO about its plans for the Tattersall Park development near Greystone, he said.
Brocato also launched a Future Hoover initiative in October that involves town hall meetings in which residents are asked to share their vision for the city. Part of that includes discussion about developing a city center or “downtown Hoover” area.
“It’s a real priority,” Brocato said.
The mayor also would like to build a performing arts center. “We’re talking to someone right now about a location,” he said. “I hope it works out.”
Another initiative by the mayor was the creation of a Leadership Hoover group. That group had its kickoff retreat at the end of September and is charged with taking existing and developing leaders in the city and working to find solutions to issues the city is facing.
Brocato said he also has been true to his commitment to have an open and transparent administration and to address transportation needs. He reinstated the city’s quest to obtain funding for a new interstate interchange at South Shades Crest Road and has started planning for road projects on South Shades Crest Road, Galleria Boulevard, Braddock Drive and Alford Avenue, he said.
His staff also is making a significant effort to build up the city’s inventory of sidewalks, he said.
Teamwork
Brocato noted he is working with three veteran council members and four newcomers and said he and they together probably merit a B+ grade in terms of how well they are collaborating.
“We have all been working through ways to make sure we communicate issues and make sure we all stay in our designated lanes, so to speak,” he said. “It’s a process. We’re learning to work together. … We’re all new. We’re trying to learn each other’s personalities and desires and goals.”
It’s all about communication, he said. “I still stumble every once in a while, and I’m working on that.”
Council President Gene Smith gave both the mayor and the council an A- for their first year.
Brocato came into office without much experience in the political process and has done very well, Smith said. Brocato has the personality and ability to sell people on issues and to talk to people and listen to what they have to say, Smith said.
He also is good at taking an irritating subject down to the basics for discussion, Smith said.
The city has been somewhat dormant the last couple of years, so the mayor has had a lot of issues thrown at him and had to navigate through a lot of opposition, Smith said.
The toughest issues were amendments to the Trace Crossings zoning plan, negotiating deals for two new commercial developments in Trace Crossings and getting the Hoover Metropolitan Complex up and running, Smith said. More recently, the city and school board have had difficult negotiations regarding the Artists on the Bluff facility in Bluff Park.
Smith said perhaps the mayor’s biggest fault is that he needs to participate in council meetings more and be more vocal about his positions. He relies on the city administrator to speak for him too much, Smith said.
Smith said this city council has seven good, free-thinking people.
“No one is worried about expressing their concerns and opinions in pretty much any format, whether it be electronic, in person or in meetings,” Smith said.
This group of council members also throws themselves into issues to make sure they fully understand them, Smith said. They do their own research into issues and explore the legal ramifications of decisions before they act, he said.
“One thing is very apparent — this council is and is going to remain very active,” he said.
“The best part about it, when we agree to disagree, nobody gets mad. Nobody gets angry. Nobody finds themselves disgusted,” Smith said. “Everyone, I think, has done an exceptional job, even with the amount of youth. It has been a very pleasant first year, and I think everybody, including myself, has learned a lot.”
Smith said he has a lot of respect for his fellow council members. “I think the citizens got it right,” he said of the last election.
Councilman Mike Shaw said it’s easy for people to get along when there is plenty of money, but this council had to deal with the surprise of revenues coming in lower than expected for 2017. Passing the 2018 budget was challenging, he said. There was a lot of pushing and pulling, but at the end of the day, the budget passed unanimously, and “we’re still talking,” he said.
Even when council members have disagreed on issues, there have been no voting blocs formed, he said.
“I think everybody looks at every issue with the thought process of what’s best for the city,” he said. “Obviously, we’ll disagree, but that’s why you have a council. That’s why you have seven different people up there. What I’ve learned this year is that I have confidence in the process.”
Proactive leaders
Mary Sue Ludwig, a longtime board member of the Greystone Homeowners Association sometimes referred to as the “mayor of Greystone,” said she thinks Brocato has done a pretty good job as mayor.
“He certainly is proactive, and he seeks out people, and he seems to listen to them,” Ludwig said. “If you call him, you usually can get an audience with him.”
As for the council, when they were first elected, she was a bit worried they would have a singular focus on education, but they seem to have learned that city officials also must make sure there are enough funds to pay for other city services, she said.
“They’ve done pretty well with that,” Ludwig said. “They’re finding their way.”
For the most part, they’ve done what they said they would do, she said.
Nancy Carr, one of the leaders of a group of Trace Crossings residents who fought changes to the community’s zoning plan this past year, said she has mixed emotions about Hoover’s current elected officials.
She thinks they are trying hard and doing the best they can with the hand they have been dealt, she said. Most of them seem to have the best intentions, but some of their campaign promises haven’t materialized yet, she said.
She and other residents in Trace Crossings will forever be grateful to Councilmen Curt Posey and John Greene, who voted against the Trace Crossings zoning amendment.
“I think they listened to the citizens of Hoover and the residents of Trace Crossings,” Carr said. “That, to me, is what it’s all about.”
She is disappointed in the others, particularly Shaw, whom she said seemed adamant during the campaign that he did not favor commercial development in the heart of Trace Crossings. However, when the issue came to a vote, Shaw seemed most vocal in support of the changes, Carr said.
“We were told the community was more important than U.S. Steel, but when push came to shove, U.S. Steel got their way,” Carr said.
Shaw said he was consistent in his position on commercial development in Trace Crossings from the start. First, the land that was most disputed already was zoned for industrial use. Changes made to the zoning plan over months of negotiations put many more restrictions on that land, and he believes most Trace Crossings residents found the changes acceptable, he said.
“It was the best plan we could put together at the time, and I think it was pretty good,” Shaw said. The end result also included 100 acres of parkland along the Cahaba River, he said.
He wishes the city could have found a plan that pleased everyone, but “unfortunately that just didn’t happen,” he said. “However, that does not mean I broke a campaign promise. I did exactly what I said I would do, and I’ll continue to be a proponent of the planning process.”
Shaw said Carr’s involvement in the process made the Trace Crossings zoning plan better.
Jerome Morgan, president of the Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce, praised the mayor and council’s first year, even with the learning curves of all the freshmen politicians.
“They’re still rolling together and are on the same page as far as the progression of the city,” Morgan said. “I think that they are on the right track.”
He likes that the city has hired an in-house city planner and is hiring an economic developer to bring in high-tech businesses. “I think that’s going to be awesome. It’s going to bring jobs,” Morgan said.
That will translate into higher wages for residents, which in turn will produce more sales taxes for the benefit of Hoover’s city government, he said.
Whoever is hired to replace the chamber’s retiring executive director, Bill Powell, will partner with the city’s economic developer to make sure the chamber is doing all it can to drive economic growth, Morgan said.
“It’s going to be a locomotive that’s going to positively impact the community financially,” he said.
