Joe Rives seeks election to Hoover City Council Place 1

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Joe Rives was appointed to the Hoover City Council Place 1 in February 2015, and now he’s asking Hoover voters to elect him on Aug. 23 so he can keep serving on the council.

Rives, 74, was chosen to fill the spot vacated by Dr. Trey Lott when Lott moved to Alabaster, and now Lott is trying to gain the seat back. Bluff Park resident Curt Posey is the third candidate in the race for Place 1.

Rives, who has lived off Patton Chapel Road for 46 years, said he has been a faithful member of the council, having attended every council meeting since he was appointed.

He will work to make sure all aspects of city government are run in an outstanding manner and won’t focus on one specific area, such as finding more money for Hoover schools, he said.

“I want to get the schools all the money they need,” Rives said, noting he has met with schools Superintendent Kathy Murphy many times and gone to several Hoover Parent Teacher Council meetings. “I want to understand what their needs are. I want to make sure we have outstanding schools, but that’s not my focus. It’s not just on that.”

Rives said he thinks Hoover schools probably get enough funding from the city, “but I really don’t know.”

Rives said he wants to make sure the city’s keeps its AAA credit rating and make sure the new sports complex being built next to Hoover Metropolitan Stadium is a success.

“People just kind of expect this to happen by magic,” he said, but he wants to make sure the complex gets built right and is operated correctly. He also wants to make sure the city keeps its fire insurance rating of 2 so that residents’ homeowners’ insurance costs stay low. “It takes money to maintain it,” he said.

Rives said he has the experience, motivation and time to serve as a councilman.

He was born in 1941, grew up in Memphis and earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Tennessee in 1964. He worked in Nashville for six years before he was transferred to Birmingham to work for South Central Bell in 1970.

He served as an information technology manager for BellSouth for 34 years, then spent about eight months working for AmSouth Bank and 5 ½ years doing computer consulting work with Comforce before fulling retiring about 11 years ago.

Rives served on the Hoover Board of Zoning Adjustment for nine years and was appointed to the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission in October 2014. He served there for four months before joining the City Council.

He has been active at Shades Valley Presbyterian Church for 26 years and serves weekly with a Habitat for Humanity volunteer group from the church. He is an elder for the church and chairman of its missions committee.

Rives also for the past 11 years has volunteered with the AARP Foundation to help with free tax return preparation, mostly for low-income and moderate-income people, at Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church. He also has worked as a volunteer at the Regions Tradition PGA golf tournament

He and his wife, Bonnie, have three children and nine grandchildren.

Find out more about Joe Rives on hIs Joe Rives for Hoover City Council Facebook page.

See the complete list of candidates for Hoover mayor and City Council.

This article was updated at 8:15 p.m. to correct the year when Rives was transferred from Nashville to Birmingham.