Photo courtesy of Robin Schultz
Robin Schultz June 2016
Bluff Park resident Robin Schultz is running for Place 7 on the Hoover City Council.
Longtime Bluff Park resident Robin Schultz today announced he will challenge Councilman John Greene for Place 7 on the Hoover City Council.
Schultz, the 54-year-old owner of PC Medics of Alabama, said school funding is the primary issue of this election and the people of Hoover need council members who will fight for more school funding and more transparency in government.
“The role of the council is to represent the people and to fight for the people, and that’s what is missing right now,” Schultz said.
If a councilman feels a certain way about an issue, that councilman ought to be able to debate his point and possibly convince other council members to vote with him, Schultz said. With the current City Council, there typically are four council members with pre-determined votes and three council members who could go a different way, depending on the issue, he said.
But “we’re not having a healthy debate up there,” Schultz said. There is very little public discussion among council members and not enough input from the public, he said.
Greene is a good guy and has consistently voted against funding for the new $76 million sports complex, saying more money should be going to education, but “I don’t think he’s fighting hard enough,” Schultz said. “A no vote without fighting for it is useless … Sometimes we have to fight for what we believe in.”
Schultz said the city should be providing substantially more for its school system.
“We have a fantastic public safety department. We have a fantastic administration. There’s no question about that, but we’re missing out on providing for the schools,” he said. “I think that is what is causing this election to be what it is.”
Schultz has lived in Hoover for 28 years, including 21 years in Bluff Park. In 2006, he founded a website called bluffparkal.org to share information about and for the Bluff Park community.
He helped lead the push for a police substation and better police presence in Bluff Park and helped organize neighborhood watches with Hoover police. He also was a leader in the effort to reverse the Hoover school board’s decision to eliminate school bus service for most students.
Schultz said he has missed only 10 regular school board meetings since 2007, and he regularly attends City Council meetings. He unsuccessfully sought a seat on the Hoover school board earlier this year. He was a youth baseball umpire at Hoover Sports Park West from 1997 to 2007 and taught youth Sunday school classes at Green Valley Baptist Church.
Schultz also founded an organization called Learning To Be The Light, which refurbishes used computers and gives them to Hoover students from low-income families.
He has Microsoft systems engineer certification from New Horizons and has taken numerous information technology certification courses. He and his wife, Mary Beth, have three children who went through Hoover City Schools and graduated from Hoover High. They now have a grandson at Riverchase Elementary School.
For more information about Schultz, check him out on Facebook at Robin Schultz for Hoover City Council, or on Twitter and Instagram at @robinforhoover.
The election for Hoover mayor and City Council seats is Aug. 23. Qualifying starts July 5 and goes through July 19. See here for a complete list of candidates who have announced their intention to run.
