Alli Nations is running for Hoover City Council Place 7 in the Aug. 25, 2020, city election.
Alli Nations hopes to fill the shoes of her father on the Hoover City Council as he steps off after 12 years of service, but the 37-year-old mother of five boys said she has the passion and purpose needed to forge her own path on the city’s next leadership team.
First, Nations must beat out Steve McClinton and Carin Mayo in the Aug. 25 election to secure Hoover City Council Place 7.
Nations said she is deeply invested in Hoover. Her grandparents moved to Hoover in 1968, and her parents, John and Melody Greene, bought their first home in Hoover right before she was born. She went through Hoover schools and graduated from Hoover High School in 2001.
She has lived in Hoover her entire life, except for four years spent earning a bachelor’s degree in history from Auburn University. Now, she and her husband, Korey, live in Bluff Park with four boys ages 11,10, 8 and 6 and a fifth boy in the womb.
While Nations is proud of her father’s service, she is ready to bring her own thoughts and ideas to the table and a fresh take on the problems and potential opportunities that Hoover faces, she said.
She believes she is a dedicated, hard-working servant leader, a good negotiator and a problem solver, she said. She wants to help Hoover navigate the challenges ahead and hopes her boys will see her as someone willing to work to achieve something worthwhile, she said.
FISCAL CONSERVATIVE
Nations said one of the most important goals she has is to be a fiscal conservative. With the COVID-19 outbreak negatively impacting city revenues, she’s concerned some people may perceive the city needs another tax increase, but increasing taxes should not be the default answer to any economic crisis, she said.
Rather, when in a crisis, the city should analyze what reserves are available, evaluate dependable revenue sources, review and prioritize expenditures, and adjust the budget accordingly, she said.
She doesn’t believe in raising taxes without a compelling need and a specific plan for use of the money, she said. Also, Hoover residents should vote on any significant tax increase, she said.
Some current council members have indicated a desire to rescind the sales, use and lease tax increases that the council passed in 2018. Nations said she likes that idea but would first want to take a hard look at how rescinding the increases would affect the city’s finances, especially given the current revenue decline.
Nations said she also would push to continue attracting more businesses to Hoover to increase revenues.
A second top priority would be to make sure that Hoover’s public safety workers are fully funded, staffed and equipped, Nations said.
“A society is only able to grow and thrive when basic needs such as safety are met,” she said. “For the safety of all of our citizens and for those who visit our city, I believe that providing the very best qualified personnel, most up-to-date training and highest-caliber equipment is one of the first and most significant responsibilities of Hoover’s leadership team.”
DIVERSITY, LIBRARY NEEDS
Nations said she also wants to make sure Hoover continues to address issues of equity and diversity and has proper representation of all ethnicities, genders and classes in city government. She would like to see the council appoint a committee to look into such matters.
She supports diversity and equity training for all city departments, including public safety departments, she said.
Another key goal for her is, when funds are available, to establish a Hoover Public Library branch in eastern Hoover to provide more convenient service to residents on that side of town. Other cities of similar size, such as Tuscaloosa and Dothan, have branches, she said.
She’s an avid reader, but the library provides so much more than just books, she said. The library often helps bridge the economic divide, providing internet access, homework help and enrichment opportunities for all ages, she said.
Other goals include revitalizing older neighborhoods and empty retail sites; addressing garbage, recycling and litter challenges; keeping schools well-funded; and addressing quality-of-life issues such as parks, sidewalks, youth sports, recreation and the arts.
Nations for the past 12 years has been a stay-at-home mom but also serves as a general manager for her husband’s contracting business, Natco Building Co. Before having children, she worked as an instructional aide at Pelham High School for two years and taught English to non-native speakers online on a part-time basis.
She served as an officer on the Bluff Park Elementary School PTO board for six years, including two years as the hospitality officer, two years as vice president and the past two years as president. She also has been a writer for the Birmingham Moms blog.
For more information about Nations, go to Alli Nations for Hoover City Council Place 7 on Facebook.
