By William C. Singleton III
Emotional, hot-button local issues toppled two Over the Mountain mayors during the recent municipal elections. A majority of voters in Hoover and Vestavia Hills came out to the polls and selected new mayors to guide their cities for the next four years.
Hoover Mayor Gary Ivey was bounced by challenger Frank Brocato in his reelection bid. Brocato, a retired Hoover fire marshal, received 52 percent of the vote to Ivey’s 35 percent and Steve McClinton’s 13 percent to avoid a runoff in the mayor’s race.
Ivey said he believes his defeat was part of an anti-incumbent attitude.
“Based on what we’re seeing around town, it’s kind of an incumbent issue more than issues because there have been several incumbents around the county lose tonight,” he said after the election.
However, City Council members John Lyda and Gene Smith were reelected to the council. And many residents throughout the city and on the “Hoover Vote” Facebook page made education funding a major priority in this race.
Ivey, as leader of the city, had been criticized for not doing enough for the school system, which is facing financial challenges. Although the school system has $90 million in reserves, it has nearly $175 million debt and needs to find additional funds, school officials have said. Brocato made properly funding city schools a key issue in his campaign, saying he would work to establish a strong relationship with the city board of education and “examine how to help financially without raising taxes.”
In Vestavia Hills, retired FBI agent Ashley Curry received 57 percent of the vote to Mayor Alberto “Butch” Zaragoza’s 43 percent.
The incumbent mayor conceded that the controversy surrounding the school board’s decision to change the Vestavia Hills rebel mascot and concerns about transparency in city government likely contributed to his defeat. The city has been as transparent as it could be, he said, for example putting the full agenda packet on the city’s website. But issues of transparency – real or perceived – are always raised around election, the mayor said.
“There really were several issues that were out there,” Zaragoza said. “Transparency seemed to be one. The rebel man seemed to be another one.”
Based on the recommendation of the city school superintendent, the Vestavia Hills school board in July 2015 voted to ditch the Southern colonel mascot, saying it was racially insensitive and reflected negatively on Vestavia Hills.
Although the City Council didn’t vote on the issue, many residents felt the mayor and council members could have taken a more vocal stand against the board’s decision and its swift removal of those images from the school.
Zaragoza said he has no regrets about his time as mayor.
“I don’t hold my head down,” he said. “I think we’ve looked at all information we had in hand and made our decisions accordingly.”
In Homewood, Mayor Scott McBrayer won his bid for a third term handily, taking nearly 88 percent of the vote in his race against Ward 1 Place 1 Councilman Michael Hallman.
Council Races
Only two council races in Homewood, Hoover, Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills made it to runoffs, but only one of those will be on the ballot. Vestavia Hills Councilman Steve Ammons faced a runoff against Paul Head for the Place 3 seat, but Ammons – who was 215 votes behind Head – has dropped out of the race. Ammons said he doesn’t want to cost the city more money just to hold one council race.
“Voters in Vestavia Hills spoke loudly that a change was desired. While I am proud and will continue to be proud of the work we accomplished moving the city forward the last several years, I will not put myself above service to our city,” Ammons said in a prepared statement.
“I cannot, in good conscience, allow my desire to continue serving Vestavia Hills cost the taxpayers roughly $65,000 to hold one run-off election. That is money the city and state desperately need and could fund one more police officer or school room teacher. This decision is my personal way of putting service above self one more time.”
In the Hoover Place 1 council race, Curt Posey and Trey Lott will face off in the Oct. 4 runoff.
Candidates who won their race Aug. 23 will take office in November.
Here are the winners of the other Homewood, Hoover, Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills council races:
In Homewood, Council President: Bruce Limbaugh (unopposed incumbent); Ward 1 Place 1: Andy Gwaltney; Ward 1 Place 2: Britt Thames (incumbent); Ward 2 Place 1: Mike Higginbotham (unopposed); Ward 2 Place 2: Andrew Wolverton; Ward 3 Place 1: Patrick McClusky (unopposed incumbent); Ward 3 Place 2: Walter Jones (incumbent); Ward 4 Place 1: Barry Smith (incumbent); Ward 5 Place 1: Jennifer Andress; Ward 5 Place 2: Peter Wright (incumbent).
In Hoover, Place 2: Gene Smith (incumbent); Place 3: John Lyda (incumbent); Place 4 Mike Shaw; Place 5: Derrick Murphy; Place 6: Casey Middlebrooks; Place 7: John Greene (incumbent).
In Mountain Brook, Place 2: Phillip Black.
In Vestavia Hills, Place 1: Dennis “Rusty” Weaver; Place 2: Kimberly Cook; Place 4: George Pierce (incumbent).
This story has been corrected to remove a reference to the Vestavia Hills school board’s banning the Confederate flag. The board did vote in the late 1990s to remove the Confederate battle flag from the high school’s logo. Over the years, the board has discouraged unofficial use of the symbol, but those efforts haven’t been completely successful. The issue still comes up periodically, as it did in 2015 during the debate over sidelining the Rebel Man as the school’s mascot.
