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Hoover council members press for plan to address COVID-19 financial impact

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Photo by Jon Anderson

Some Hoover City Council members say they are eager for the city to come up with a plan to address declines in tax revenues associated with the COVID-19 outbreak.

Councilman Mike Shaw on Monday night told the council that Sports Facilities Management, the company that manages the Hoover Metropolitan Complex, already is experiencing financial shortfalls due to events that have been canceled and the shutdown of the complex in an effort to slow down the spread of the new coronavirus.

SFM already has reduced its employee staff from 70 people to 12 as a result of the crisis, Shaw said. He said the council needs to come up with a plan to address this, prompting Council President Gene Smith to call a special meeting for Monday, April 13, at 5 p.m.

City Administrator Allan Rice said city staff members are reviewing the Hoover Metropolitan Complex situation to try to determine exactly what kind of financial fix is needed.

MAYOR: NUMEROUS ACTIONS ALREADY TAKEN

Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato said his financial team has been meeting since March 12 to address the financial impact the new coronavirus could have on the city.

“We were essentially operating business as usual until then, and I don’t think anyone had any idea we would be where we are today,” Brocato said. “Our best glimpse of the widespread impact this virus would have didn’t truly hit until Friday, March 13.”

That’s the day President Trump declared a national emergency and Gov. Kay Ivey closed all schools.

“Once we got that glimpse, we began to take action at breakneck speed and really haven’t stopped,” Brocato said.

The mayor on March 16 issued an executive order that included fiscal belt-tightening measures, including cutting non-essential spending, limiting overtime to “public safety and welfare” needs and requiring that all travel be approved through the mayor’s office, even if it already had been approved previously.

Three days later, the City Council went further and declared a state of emergency, put a freeze on hiring, travel and conferences, and put a hold on all capital projects unless the city was already contractually obligated to pay for the projects.

The week of March 22, the city administration enacted a strict energy savings plan and a Hoover business helpline, and began work to establish a Hoover CARES Volunteer Business Advisors Coalition to guide city leaders in decision making, Brocato said.

This past Friday, the mayor’s financial leadership team met with Smith and the chairman and vice chairman of the council’s Finance Committee, John Lyda and Curt Posey, to present a preliminary plan to deal with the economic impact of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Those meetings will continue in the coming months, Brocato said.

“We all recognize this is a team effort. Nobody can do this alone,” the mayor said. “We are blessed to have the resources and individuals to get us through this major crisis.”

Posey asked if the city will be able to get reimbursed for extra expenses associated with the COVID-19 disease, such as extra stockpiles of personal protective equipment for first responders.

Brocato said City Treasurer Ben Powell is tracking every expense the city makes in connection with the disease and has a good record of getting any eligible reimbursement from federal aid packages in emergency events.

COUNCIL PRESIDENT: NEED REAL NUMBERS, NOT FLUFF

Smith, who is trying to unseat the mayor in this year’s city election, in a video released Monday afternoon said Brocato has not provided the council with any specific numbers or financial models for dealing with the crisis and said there needs to be more urgency.

“We need a plan now to try and help our businesses make it through these challenging times,” Smith said. “We need real numbers and real projections now from the mayor, no more fluff.”

If the mayor doesn’t provide them quickly, Smith said he would ask the council to pass a resolution to force him to provide the information.

City leaders need to take a deeper look into operational expenses to see what they can cut without any layoffs, Smith said.

“We have a challenging road ahead, locally and nationally,” Smith said. “Reports are still saying that the country hasn’t hit the peak of the COVID-19 impact yet. We as a council will move the needle this week.”

Brocato said Saturday he wanted to assure the public the city is putting measures in place to sustain the city through this time.

During Monday night’s council video conference, Smith asked how much money the city has in the bank right now.

Chief Financial and Information Officer Melinda Lopez said the city has about $100 million in cash in the bank, including money reserved for payroll and debt services, almost $33 million in reserves and about $3 million in unallocated capital money.

Through the end of February, the fifth month of fiscal 2020, the city was about $5 million ahead of its budget, but some of that surplus likely will be diminished due to excess expenses in March, Lopez said.

FINANCIAL CRISIS PLAN

Smith asked if the city administration was going to provide other council members the same information that was given to himself, Lyda and Posey. Rice said administration officials would have the same meeting with them.

City staff members are still making edits to the financial crisis plan that were suggested by the first group of councilmen, Rice said.

The Hoover Sun on Monday night through email requested a copy of that financial crisis plan, citing its nature as a public record. Rice, in a return email, said on Monday night that because the plan had not yet been presented to all council members, he was not sure whether it was considered a public record. He said he would have to defer to City Attorney Philip Corley to make that determination.

“I am sure that Mayor Brocato is eager to have the plan released to the public, so I will get a determination from Mr. Corley ASAP,” Rice wrote.

Corley, in an email late Monday night, said he would analyze the issue and provide a response Tuesday.

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled last year that drafts of public documents are just as public as the final product.

In other business Monday night, the Hoover City Council:

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