Brocato, Smith join Hoover council candidates in second livestreamed forum

Hoover voters got another chance to hear directly from candidates for mayor and Hoover City Council Tuesday night in a forum livestreamed from the Hyatt Regency Birmingham — The Wynfrey Hotel.

Mayor Frank Brocato and his challenger in the 2020 mayor’s race, Council President Gene Smith, answered questions about topics ranging from shopping center revitalization to traffic congestion, an arts center, sewer system money woes and a need for more amenities in eastern Hoover.

The 16 candidates for the six contested council races also fielded questions on those topics and others, including diversity, COVID-19 financial concerns, school board appointments, workforce development, transparency and protecting neighborhoods from what some people consider undesirable businesses.

GALLERIA AND PATTON CREEK

Brocato keyed in on the need to revitalize the Riverchase Galleria, saying it once was the city’s pride and joy.

A downturn in the nation’s brick-and-mortar retail industry and recent incidents of violence at the mall have hurt the mall’s reputation. City leaders must work with the various property owners at the mall to restore it to its glory days, Brocato said.

“It’s the city center. It’s our downtown. It’s where people from all over the state come to visit Hoover, Alabama,” Brocato said. “We can’t neglect the Galleria. We have got to move it into the future.”

Brocato said building a performing arts center somewhere in the vicinity of the Galleria could be the just the catalyst the facility needs. He would love to be able to have Broadway shows and performances by the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, school choirs and theater departments in Hoover rather than having to go to facilities outside the city, he said.

The Galleria area has wonderful restaurants, shopping opportunities and beautiful surroundings that would complement a performing arts center, he said.

It’s an expensive proposition, but cities all over the world — with populations from 5,000 to 5 million people — have them, he said. “Certainly Hoover, Alabama could figure out how to do it as well.”

Smith said an arts center would be a wonderful project, but it needs to include visual arts and not just performing arts. City leaders need to find an appropriate home for it and figure out how big it needs to be, what all should be included and a way to pay for it, he said.

That place may be the Galleria, and it might be the Patton Creek shopping center next door, Smith said.

Regardless, the city doesn’t need to tackle that big of an expense until it can pay off some of its existing debt, Smith said. “We’ve got to be able to afford the debt that comes along with it,” he said.

Both candidates were asked what they would do to support business growth at the Patton Creek shopping center as well.

Brocato said the city’s economic development team is partnering with the owner of Patton Creek to attract the right types of businesses that would meet the owners’ needs and blend with the city’s comprehensive plan. If a suitable plan is developed, perhaps the city could provide some financial incentives to assist, he said.

Smith the owner of Patton Creek wants to tear some of the existing buildings down and create a live/work environment that includes retail shops on the first floor, offices on the second floor and residential space above that.

TRAFFIC CONGESTION

Regarding traffic congestion, Brocato said much of the city’s traffic problems are in the area of Alabama 150, Interstate 459 and South Shades Crest Road. He believes a new I-459 interchange near South Shades Crest Road and realignment of the interchange at Alabama 150 is the answer to many of the traffic woes in western Hoover.

He said state transportation officials agree and said the city is seeking federal grant money for an interchange justification study now and considering the purchase of additional land to make it happen.

Smith noted that the mayor’s staff in April 2019 presented several options to ease traffic in Trace Crossings by building new roads that would have carried traffic through roads in existing neighborhoods.

Brocato said the four ideas that were presented to the public, the council and school board were the ones that made the most financial sense out of 20 potential routes, but he said he knew early on that those options weren’t going to work, so he nixed them.

“But we still had to show our citizens what the studies had shown and to make sure they saw all the facts out there,” Brocato said.

Instead, city officials shifted and decided to focus on the new I-459 interchange and the realignment of the existing interchange near Trace Crossings.

Smith also noted that traffic around Valleydale Road and Caldwell Mill Road has been a problem for decades. The city is involved in a joint project with the Alabama Department of Transportation and Shelby County and is in the final phases of acquiring rights of way to make that a reality, he said. He hopes to see more movement on that project, which has been in the works for more than 20 years, soon, he said.

SEWER WOES

Both candidates addressed a need for changes with the city’s sewer system, which serves areas around Riverchase, Southlake and Inverness. For the past 12 years, the system has not taken in enough revenues to provide long-term support for the system’s future, and the system needs more than $7 million worth of upgrades.

Options identified more than two years ago included raising sewer rates that haven’t gone up since 2014, selling the system to another public utility or forming a sewer board that could either raise rates or sell to a private sewer company.

Neither Smith nor Brocato said they would support selling Hoover’s sewer system. When Greystone’s sewer system was bought, sewer rates there went incredibly higher, Smith said.

His preference would be for the city to negotiate a responsible rate increase with users of that system, he said. Whatever they decide upon, it certainly would be better than the rates other Hoover residents pay to the Jefferson County sewer system, Smith said.

Brocato said the answer may require that the City Council raise sewer rates, but he would first like to see if the city can make the system more efficient before passing on cost increases to residents.

EASTERN HOOVER

Both mayoral candidates were asked what they have done to help residents of eastern Hoover and what they would do in the future.

Smith said he joined other council members in taking care of long-needed road repairs in an eastern Hoover subdivision this year but said he knows residents in eastern Hoover would like to see a library branch, recreation center and/or youth sports fields.

There is some property outside Greystone that might could accommodate sports fields, but the city could do that only when it becomes affordable, he said. A library is doable, but staffing it is the bigger financial concern, he said.

Brocato once again stressed he thought it was important to erect “welcome to Hoover” signs in eastern Hoover so everyone knows when they are in the city limits in that area.

He also would like for the city to be able to provide a library and ballfields in eastern Hoover and thinks the city might be able to partner with the North Shelby Library and with another city such as Chelsea to find land for joint ballfield use.

Brocato also stressed the work his administration did to recruit McLeod Software, which added hundreds of high-paying jobs in Meadow Brook Office Park that he said should help increase property values in eastern Hoover.

MAKING THEIR CASE

In his opening and closing statements, Brocato said he kept promises he made four years ago to develop a comprehensive plan, increase school funding, diversify the economy and strengthen public safety

In the next four years, he said he will continue the strong partnership with Hoover City Schools, build an economy for the future, invest in neighborhoods, solve traffic congestion, maintain strong public safety, build a diverse and equitable community and address problems facing the Galleria.

Smith spent time criticizing the mayor, saying he doesn’t have a good relationship with council members and maintained an atmosphere at city hall that was driving many department heads away, some just short of full retirement benefits.

Smith also stressed he would keep a tight reign on city finances amid revenue challenges related to COVID-19 revenue challenges.

“We’ve got to be able to pay our bills, and we have to learn to live within our means,” he said. “The next four years is going to be more about how much the city doesn’t spend than how much it does spend.”

Tuesday night’s forum was organized by the Hoover City Schools Foundation, Hoover Sun and Hoover Rotary Club. The council portion lasted from 5:30 p.m. to about 7:30 p.m., and the mayor’s portion went from 8 p.m. to about 9 p.m.

AUDIENCE REACTION

Bluff Park resident Paula Polinski, who watched the forum online, said some of the candidates obviously were better at public speaking than others, but she hopes voters don’t put too much stock in that.

While some candidates may have stumbled in their ability to answer questions in a time-pressured environment, it doesn’t mean they don’t have good ideas or wouldn’t be a good council member, she said. It could just mean they lack experience in public speaking, she said.

Polinski said she was impressed with Council Place 4 candidate Nathan Reed because of his stance toward traffic issues and his experience with the Hoover Planning and Zoning Commission. She’s not necessarily against his opponent, Councilman Mike Shaw, but thinks that sometimes it’s just good to have a change and to give people a chance that might not always get a chance.

She thinks people in Hoover don’t really give most Black candidates a fair shake, she said.

She favors Brocato in the mayor’s race but thinks he needs to work on his communication with other city leaders and thinks he grandstands sometimes.

Green Valley resident Dan Little said the forum showed that Hoover has a lot of good candidates. He’s going to have the toughest time choosing between the five candidates in Place 2 and three candidates in Place 7, he said.

Hoover would be well served by any of the candidates in Place 2, but he gives the edge to Robin Schultz because of the amount of work and community involvement Schultz has shown over the years. “I think he’ll go in knowing what’s going on and be a good asset to the councilmen we already have,” Little said.

As for Place 7, Alli Nations is strong, but he favors Steve McClinton because of all the “blood, sweat and tears” McClinton has put into serving Hoover over the years, he said.

Little said he was “super impressed” with how Councilman Casey Middlebrooks encouraged his opponent, James “J.D.” Deer, after Deer fumbled through an answer to one of his questions and said he would pass on it. Middlebrooks told Deer not to worry about it and said it’s easy to get nervous when you’re up in front of the lights and camera. Little said that was a testament to Middlebrooks’ character.

In the mayor’s race, Little said either man would be fine, but Brocato has walked with integrity, supported schools, been a good leader and done everything he set out to do four years ago. Plus, “I felt like he’s had a strong and steady hand in handling the demonstrations,” Little said.

Ed Cater of Bluff Park said he thinks Smith would make a better mayor. He liked that Smith wants to rescind the sales tax increase passed two years ago once city revenues recover from COVID-19 and thinks Smith cares more about lower-income people.

Smith might not be the most polished speaker, but he has Hoover’s best interests at heart, Cater said. “I think Gene has a finger on the pulse of the city more so than Frank.”

See the complete forum here:

This story was updated at 1:59 p.m. on Aug. 20 with reactions to the forum from Hoover residents.