Hoover mayor proposes $150 million budget for fiscal 2022

Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato on Tuesday proposed that the city spend $150 million from its primary accounts in fiscal 2022, representing a 12% increase from the original 2021 budget but only a 6% increase from expenditures in 2020.

City leaders cut back on spending the past two years due to uncertainties associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and now are ready to start restoring some of the things previously cut out, such as travel, training and professional development, Brocato said.

The mayor’s proposed 2022 budget also includes money to hire four new police officers for a new police beat at the Riverchase Galleria, three new parks and recreation maintenance workers, a human resources specialist, $6.6 million for road projects, $2.2 million for sidewalks and $2 million for public safety capital needs.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and associated business shutdowns that took place in 2020, revenues are coming in strong, the mayor said.

Revenues for fiscal 2021, which ends Sept. 30, are expected to end up at about $160 million — about $15 million more than in fiscal 2020, Chief Financial Officer Tina Bolt said.

City officials want to be conservative with revenue estimates for 2022 and are projecting only about $149 million. That includes about $100 million in sales and use tax revenues and about $13.1 million in real and personal property tax revenues, records show.

With revenues looking strong, city officials plan to restore about $2 million of $10 million in spending that previously was cut, Bolt said.

The city’s general fund is expected to bring in $141 million in revenue. The mayor proposes to spend only about $126 million of that from the general fund, transfer $5.1 million to the special revenue fund and spend $4.1 million on things such as tax rebates, Bolt said. That would leave about $6 million left over to spend on capital projects in fiscal 2023, she said.

Brocato proposes to spend about 47% of the city’s proposed 2022 budget — or $80.7 million — on salaries and benefits. That’s a $1.3 million increase from fiscal 2021’s amended budget — or 1.6% greater than 2021’s budget. His 2022 budget proposal also includes 5% step raises for employees and a 1.5% cost-of-living adjustment.

The eight new city employee positions to be created would end up costing the city only about $130,000 because the city expects to save $175,000 in overtime by creating the four new police officer positions, delete a park maintenance supervisor position and delete grass mowing contracts with outside providers, records show.

Fourteen other city employees’ jobs are recommended for upgrades due to expanded duties, costing about $112,000, records show.

The $6.6 million in proposed road projects includes:

• $3.7 million for road paving
• $1.1 million to complete the purchase of 22 acres for a new connector road between Interstate 459 and Ross Bridge Parkway
• $350,000 for engineering and construction plans for a new Interstate 459 interchange near South Shades Crest Road
• $262,500 to install a traffic signal on John Hawkins Parkway at ATI Parkway (with $125,000 coming from an outside source)
• $260,000 for traffic signal upgrades on U.S. 31 at the entrance to Hoover Commons and the Hendrick Hoover Auto Mall
• $257,500 to install a traffic signal on Stadium Trace Parkway at the entrance to the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium parking lot (with $128,750 coming from Signature Homes)
• $252,000 for a right-turn lane extension from Valleydale Road onto Jaguar Drive at the entrance to Veterans Park and Spain Park High School
• $182,000 to install a new traffic signal on Chapel Road at Gwin Elementary and Simmons Middle School
• $80,000 for traffic calming devices
• $75,000 for road striping
• $60,000 for bridge maintenance
• $50,000 for traffic signal communication fiber upgrades on Alabama 150 from Grove Boulevard to Ross Bridge Parkway
• $30,000 for guardrails in various places

The $2.2 million proposed for sidewalk projects includes:

• $600,000 for phase one of sidewalks in Russet Woods with traffic calming from South Shades Crest Road to Guyton Road
• $320,000 for a sidewalk on Sulphur Springs Road from Preserve Parkway to Al Seier Road
• $265,000 for sidewalks on Al Seier Road east of Sulphur Springs Road to Shades Mountain Park
• $265,000 for a sidewalk on Oriole Drive between Star Lake Drive and Deo Dara Drive
• $265,000 for sidewalk segments on Inverness Center Drive between Valleydale Road and U.S. 280
• $265,000 for a sidewalk on Old Columbiana Road from Patton Chapel Road to Green Valley Elementary School
• $265,000 for a sidewalk extension and drainage improvements on Maiden Lane from Savoy Street to Cloudland Drive
• $100,000 for miscellaneous sidewalk materials and maintenance

The $2 million in proposed public safety capital projects includes:

• $430,000 for new telephone hardware in the emergency communications dispatch center at the Hoover Public Safety Center
• $527,000 for lease payments on various vehicles
• $394,263 for a lease/purchase payment on a new Fire Department vehicle
• $235,000 for 80 mobile data terminals for police vehicles (76 replacements and four new ones)
• $150,000 to replace police body-worn cameras
• $85,000 to replace a Police Department bomb suit and other related equipment
• $62,000 for a Fire Department mutual aid radio project
• $55,500 for new technology in a Police Department surveillance vehicle
• $45,000 for new cardiac monitors for the Fire Department

Other capital project money in the mayor’s proposed budget includes:

• $642,000 for technology upgrades that will reduce operating costs by $315,000 over the next three years
• $600,000 for new pickleball courts at Veterans Park (with $300,000 coming from Shelby County)
• $500,000 in savings for turf replacement at the Hoover Metropolitan Complex
• $500,000 for the first phase of resurfacing the parking lot at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium and the Finley Center
• $430,000 for renovation of the court referral offices at Hoover Municipal Court
• $250,000 to acquire land for economic development
• $185,000 for various engineering improvements
• $177,000 for a roof replacement and other improvements at the Hoover-Randle Home and Gardens
• $147,500 for improvements at Hoover Sports Park East
• $130,000 for improvements at Aldridge Gardens
• $100,000 to replace flooring at the Hoover Public Library

The city also operates several proprietary funds, including the sewer fund and risk management funds, and Brocato proposes to spend $20.8 million in fiscal 2022 out of those funds, including $1.3 million in capital projects for the sewer system. Revenues for the proprietary funds are projected to be $17.9 million in 2022, including about $3 million in the sewer fund.

The sewer system actually needs about $10 million in capital projects, but the mayor proposes to do those projects over a number of years as revenues increase with gradually higher sewer rates passed by the City Council in June.

Curt Posey, chairman of the Hoover City Council’s Finance Committee, said the council will study the mayor’s proposed budget, and he hopes the council will vote on it (with any recommended changes) on Sept. 20.

Editor's note: This story was updated with several corrections at 10:30 a.m. on Sept. 8 regarding expected revenues for fiscal 2021, restored funding cuts and the proposed budget for proprietary funds.