City Council - Regular Meeting

Council President Middlebrooks.

Here.

Council Pro Tem Driver. Here. Council Member Schultz.

Here.

Council Member Smith.

Present.

Council Member Lovell. Present. Council Member Murphy. Council Member McClinton.

Here.

All right, with six present, we have quorum. If everyone would please stand for the invocation and the pledge led by Council Member Schultz.

The leaders and the care and the concern that they have for this city. And we thank you for the protection of all our public safety guys and girls. And we just thank you for just looking after them and just protecting them in each and every endeavor that they have. In the name of your son, Jesus Christ.

Mr. Murphy was here, but got a call that his wife was having some car issues, so he had to step out, and hopefully he will return at some point. Family first, though. Guest recognitions, Mayor, you have some guests in the audience?

Council, I'm proud to ask Scott Lewis and Malone Morgan to come forward. On behalf of the city of Hoover, we're proud to recognize and congratulate Scott Lewis and Malone Morgan for earning gold medals at the National Unified Partners Special Olympics Bowling Tournament held March 11th, 2026 in Reno, Nevada. Scott Malone competed as members of Strike Zone alongside Unified Peer Partners, Patrick Lewis, Scott's brother, and Janice Wojtkowski. Are they here too?

Come on down, please.

Scott and Malone have shared more than 20 years of friendship and have competed together on numerous sports teams. They've also participated in the Shelby County Special Olympic Bowling Program for over 16 years. Malone has been bowling for 15 years and has traveled to Reno, Las Vegas, New Jersey, and other destinations to compete. He has participated in the Hoover Rec Therapeutics Program for 20 years and continues to do so twice a week. Scott began bowling at an early age through team activities for special kids in St. Louis, Missouri. He continues to display his Hoover pride whenever he competes, using a bowling ball featuring Hoover High School's colors, gold, bucks, in recognition of the wonderful years he spent. The city of Hoover also extends such appreciation to Patrick and Janice, who are also Hoover residents, for their volunteer service. So we commend you guys and appreciate you all being here. We'd like to get you to stand up front with the council. We'll take a picture.

Next, I'd like to invite Ms. Nan Baldwin up to give a report from the Hoover Chamber of Commerce.

Well, good afternoon, everyone. I have with me Ms. April Harry, who is the president and CEO of Warren Averin, and she's also one of our board of directors, and she serves as our vice chair of finance. We are delighted to be here with you all this evening. I want to also acknowledge my other board of directors that are present here tonight. Will you all please stand? We have our chairman, Jonathan Carter, and we have other distinguished board members with us this evening. I also have my staff with me. Would you all please stand?

Thank you.

So I want to first thank you again for this opportunity to speak to you all, our esteemed city council, other city officials, business leaders, and concerned citizens. I'm delighted to share with you an overview of all the activities and programming we have done since the beginning of the year in support of our business community, primarily our small and medium-sized businesses in the Hoover area. Now before I get started, let me just set the stage. Hoover is the sixth largest city in this state. We're only behind Huntsville, Mobile, Birmingham, Montgomery, and Tuscaloosa. Hoover was founded just recently in 1967. It's only 59 years old and already is one of the top 10 cities in this state. Now, what do we have in common with those other five cities? They all have thriving Chamber of Commerce that support their business community. So Hoover has the same in ours. They're a little different. Their chambers are a little larger, have a larger staff, do a lot of other things, but we are very proud of what we do at our chamber. Now moving on to slide two, here are the five and now six focus areas that we provide value for our members. We have networking and connection. And most of you know about that through our coffee and contacts, our business after hours, our chamber luncheons. And as a matter of fact, this Thursday, we are having our business after hours at Hoover Steaks and Wines located in Knox Square across from the Met. Now, these networking events give our members an opportunity to connect with each other and to collaborate with other business owners to grow their businesses. But we do so much more than just networking. And I think that gets lost in translation a lot of times. We also provide education, awareness, and business resources for our small and medium businesses. We provide learning opportunities through Lunch and Learns. And they also, these education awareness opportunities provide businesses with the knowledge, support, and resources needed to enhance their businesses. We provide advocacy and representation. Government relations is an important aspect of any chamber. We have increased activities and programming to help advocate for our businesses such as traveling to Montgomery and meeting with our state elected officials to be the voice for businesses. On the promotional marketing support end, we host ribbon cuttings. We have one coming up this Thursday, and we've had 25 so far this year, and you'll see that in some future slides. And we do that for not only new, but also expanding businesses. We do social media posts, and we provide visibility and access to our members through our online directory and our various magazine publications. In the community engagement area, a city is only as strong as its business community. We all grew up, many of us grew up in this area, and we know about other cities that have gone by the wayside. And when you think about what happened to those cities 20, 30 years ago, they were thriving. And if you connect the dots, you realize it's because their business community left. And when the business community leaves, the residents leave, the schools decline, and so do the neighborhoods. Keeping a business community involved and engaged in your community helps the community grow. And successful businesses understand the importance of being actively engaged in the community, and the Chamber provides these opportunities. Now this year we've added a sixth component, and that is workforce development. Thriving communities have a vibrant workforce and talent attraction programs in place and this also grows and sustains our community. So the next slide I wanna share with you a program that we are launching this year and I'm so excited about this. We are having the first ever, the inaugural Hoover Workforce Career Fair and that is going to be held on October 1st at the Park Crest Event Center. As you see on the slide, Having a strong workforce component builds a stronger workforce for our community. And we're doing that by connecting employers with college students and career seekers. So this is open to the public. We have over 30 companies that we're targeting. About 10 have already committed. including Blue Cross Blue Shield, the Piedmont Group, AIDT, Gooch Family Dental, other businesses. I think I heard on the phone, from some phone calls today, that there are two other companies that said they wanna get involved and have a table. We have 12 colleges. and universities from around this area and outside this area. We have colleges as far away as Auburn, Alabama A&M, Talladega College that are bringing their juniors and seniors right here to Park Crest Event Center on October 1 so that their juniors and seniors have an opportunity to meet businesses here in Hoover with hopes of getting a job. And what happens after that? They move here. What happens after that? They raise their families here. What happens after that? They become taxpaying citizens of Hoover. So this grows our community. So we're excited, and you'll be seeing some more promotions about that, not only on social media, but we met with Cumulus Media today, and you'll start hearing commercials where we are promoting our career fair. The next event that we have coming up is the Hoover Business Excellence Awards. When you think about it, you have several organizations that tout and recognize their businesses. We don't have that in our chamber, and as of October 15th, we will, where we will be recognizing and celebrating businesses in the Hoover area, five categories. Emerging business, those are businesses that are startups, one to five years in business. Established business, six to 15 years. Mature businesses, 16 to 25 years. Legacy business, 26 plus years. And we have a few businesses that have been around 67 plus years in our area. And we are going to award one business each year with a special recognition as being the Hoover Heritage Award. So you'll want to be at this luncheon on October 15th. It's going to be at the Hoover Country Club. where we'll be celebrating these businesses. And we have an application online where a business can nominate themselves or someone else can nominate those businesses in one of those five categories. So we're excited to be able to recognize our businesses in our community. The next slide just gives you a snapshot, a snapshot of all the things that we do and the impact that we're making in this community. I won't read everything on this slide. You can see the numbers. That's our dashboard. We have 670 members. This year alone, we have accumulated 80 new members. We have 21 ambassadors. We have a very small staff. You saw the four people stand up. And we make it look like we have a large staff through our ambassadors. We've had a total of 65 networking events. You see the numbers up there. I'll go all the way to, if you add up the attendance at all of our events and the events that we associate with, that's 1,800 plus touches that we've had in this community. On the next slide shows our social media or our promotional impact. Like I said before, we've had 25 ribbon cuttings. We're in the 35th week of this year. And to think about it, that means we're averaging almost one ribbon cutting a week. These are new businesses that want to be promoted, want to be showcased in our area. You look at Facebook, we have 6,182 followers. And whenever someone touches on our Facebook page and views one of our posts, we have 118,000 views on Instagram. We have a little over 2,300 followers, 189 posts. And overall, when you add up all those impressions from Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, that's 48,960 impressions. What does that mean? That means people are looking to see what's going on in Hoover. They are wanting to be a part of the Hoover business community and be a part of what's going on. We also have a newsletter. And even though we only have 670 members, anyone can sign up for our newsletter. So we have 4,369 subscribers. And every week, we send out a newsletter every Monday morning. And thus far this year, we've had 31,779 newsletters that have been sent. So that just gives you a snapshot of all the things that we're doing at a chamber. So if anyone has the idea that a chamber is not needed in this community, I want you to think about the information I just shared with you and think about how important it is to engage your business community as a part of your overall community. So I know it's not about just the things that we do. It's also a numbers game. And so I'd like to bring up Ms. Harry now to share with you a little bit about our financial performance. Thank you.

Thank you, Nan. Thank you for this opportunity. So I wanted to just start out by telling a little bit about my organization. So I'm the CEO of Warren Averitt. Warren Averitt is one of the southeast largest CPA and advisory firms. We have about 300 people here in Birmingham, but we employ about 900 people throughout the Southeast. And I'm really new to the Chamber, so Nan approached me back in probably November and said that she'd really like for Warren Avert to become a member of the Chamber. And when she gave me these things that the Chamber was doing, and I saw the impact that it had on our clients, we have a lot of clients in Hoover, we have a lot of people that live in Hoover, it was just a no-brainer for Warren Avert to become involved in the Chamber. And then she asked me to participate on the board and I said yes, so that's why I'm here today. I've been a member of the Chamber Board since February, but I come to you from Shelby County Chamber, and I've been on that for seven or eight years and was the chair there a couple years ago, and that's a great organization as well. So I did just want to, if you could advance the slide, I just wanted to give you some financial updates one more time. There we go. So I wanted to tell you some things that have happened really since Nan took over as the leader. So she's been the leader of the chamber since 2024. In 2025, we made some significant cuts that had took us from being in the red as a chamber to operating with a small profit. And that was monumental. So there were about $275,000 worth of expenses that were eliminated. Some of those related to the Elevate Hoover campaign, some of those expenses, but also things like redoing benefits for the employees of the chamber and going with a PEO. Also getting rid of some marketing and other consulting fees. We were paying a lot of consultants to come in. So that was just a big financial influence and a big thing that she and that the chamber board have done to really move the chamber along from a financial perspective. In 2026, revenue is up. Nan just told you that membership is up. Our revenue consists of funding, not just from government entities, but also from grants. And she's gotten grants, so like the workforce initiative program that she's launching, the initiative that we have coming up, That was funded through grants that Nan and her team have gone out and sought after. Revenue is also a component of that as membership dues from businesses in the community, as well as things like the luncheon. So revenue is up in 2026. We're continuing to pay down on loans that we inherited and that we've had from the past, those are being paid down. And in 2027, we're starting now to plan a fundraising initiative in 2027 to go out and seek other businesses just like Warren Averitt to come and join the chamber and increase those, not only those membership dues, but also just the interaction with the business community. So I know that you all are entering your budget season and you know being an accountant I'm very familiar with that. I just want to ask that as you go through this budgeting season that you consider to not only continue to financially support your chamber but individually support your chamber. Meaning that if you have things that you feel like the city needs from your chamber we're always open to feedback and we would love to hear those things. We'd love to have direction to continue to align the city and what you would like with our business community. So I do want to leave you today with a short video that just gives you some highlights of some things that have gone on in the chamber this year.

Thank you, it always says that a picture's worth a thousand words, so we wanted to leave you with a few pictures of some of the activities we've done. Do you have any questions?

Thank you, Ms. Harry and Ms. Baldwin. Any comments or questions for Ms. Baldwin? Appreciate your continued partnership.

Thank you, thank you.

All right, members have received a copy of tonight's agenda. Do I have a motion for adoption?

Mr. President, I make a motion to approve the consent agenda.

Not the consent agenda. I'm sorry. The agenda is presented.

The agenda is presented. Excuse me. Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye. That was opposed. The ayes have it. We'll move on now to public comments. These are comments on items that are not on the agenda. Everyone will have an opportunity to comment on agenda items if they so wish. So first up, we have Ms. Cheryl Hill. And when you come up, if you will, you'll have four minutes of speaking time. And if you'll just start off with your name and general area that you live at.

Hi, my name is Cheryl Hill. I've been a resident of Hoover for about 27 years. Hey, Jean, how are you? I'm here today because in the last 10 years, I've moved to an area off of Highway 150 between Shades Crest and Ross Bridge Parkway. And our area goes... Nobody takes care of it, the highway from 150 Shades Crest down to right where Ross Bridge Parkway starts. We have overgrown trees, overgrown grass. When I first moved there about 10 years ago, we had beautiful trees that came in and they did some restructuring on the highway. We fought to get our turning lane back, which we got our turning lane back about three years ago. And that area, nobody mows it unless I call. And I just ride around Hoover sometime and I look at all the other nice, beautiful areas in Hoover and wonder why is our area being so neglected. And that's what I wanted to bring to the council today.

Thank you, Ms. Hill. I'm unsure with that being a state highway who has jurisdiction of the mowing on that. But if I could connect you with some city staff, they could better answer those questions for you and maybe provide some guidance and help.

And I have called city, you know, you guys here in Hoover, and I've called the state highway. They say it's a state highway. They do get some people from Hoover to mow it, but they don't mow it on a constant basis. It's just every time we call. And I just feel like we shouldn't have to do that, you know, paying taxes in Hoover and being also residents of the city.

Mr. Miller, Mr. Perlmer, can y'all raise your hands from those two gentlemen back there? If you connect with one of those two gentlemen, I'm sure they can provide some assistance for you.

Okay, thank you so much.

Thank you. Next up is Gary Rubin.

Mr. Rubin, present?

All right, we will move on to Mr. Sam Wasco. Forgive me if I mispronounce that.

Mayor, City Council.

Thanks for having me. That's my wife, by the way. So this is mostly good. Retired military guy. I've been in Hoover for about 17 years. I live in South Lake, love it. I'm basically an ambassador for South Lake and for Hoover. Love the area. Got taken out of retirement from Florida because my wife went to UAB, but that's okay.

Anyway. Sir, if you would, state your name for us.

Oh, Sam Wasco. Wasco, thank you. Sorry, I thought I did that.

All good.

My bad. All right, anyway, so live on the lake, and the lake, Indian Valley Lake, is in South Lake, and it's basically a catch basin for the Cabra River. So what's happening is we're getting a lot of stormwater runoff and a lot of sediment. And our lake, it's shrinking in size and it's shrinking in depth. What we wanna do is fix stuff that has happened from previous administrations. And I was the lake president the last two years. So I'm the most recent past president. Anyway, that's one of the bass in the lake. If we can go to the next slide. I just wanna show you a little bit about the lake. That's part of my family, my dog. Everybody's loving it. Next slide. Obviously loving it. That's some of the shad that we stock for the bass. We take care of everything. We test for E. coli. That's a party that we're having, boat up. Everybody gets together. Kids go swimming in the lake. Next one. People swim, paddleboard, kayak, fish, all that stuff. One more. All right, here we go. So with one of the bad, so we're trying to get the storm water fixed and we're trying to get the sediment that's coming in to stop. And one of the direct quotes from the Hoover City engineers when we were doing this is they said the solution to pollution is dilution. So let it run into the lake, let it dissipate, run into the Cahaba and eventually it'll disappear. That's not good enough, and it shouldn't be. We swim in the lake, we fish in it, we eat the fish. Anyway, we'll go on to the next slide. I'm running out of time, so I'll go quick. History, real quick. Belton 73, it was 110 acres. We're losing, we've lost about 10 acres with the sediment that's come in. It's the largest lake in Hoover, and it does flow into the Kaaba, so it's a catch basin. There's serious storm water that comes in from different areas and you'll see it on the next picture. And what used to happen up on the far right, there was a dam up by Spain Park that had broken. All the sediment has run down into it and all those storm water areas are also going into it. Silting, turbidity. Next picture. So I hope you guys caught that. Dilution is not a solution to the pollution. It's not a good way to do it. Next slide. That's just one of the storm runoffs between people's homes that comes from the street and the development, South Lake, runs down and takes all that sediment into the lake. Next one. This is the extreme silting due to the failure of the retention pond up by Spain Park. And there used to be a catch basin, can we go back one real quick? There used to be a catch basin on the other side of the road of Indian Valley Drive, and that is now completely wooded. That used to stop some of the sediment before it got into the lake as well. All right, next one. That is one example of one of the storm runoffs that comes down into the lake, which is, I think, ridiculous. But you can see it. Next slide. That's the same kind of runoff that we're getting. And I'm running out of time, so we'll go to the last slide. And what I'm hoping is I can still be your ambassador if we can take care of the issues that's been left behind by the previous administrations.

Thank you, Mr. Wasco. I think you have a couple of neighbors that are going to speak on the same subject. Possibly.

Mr. President, could I ask a question?

Yeah, I would love that. Gene, before you ask a question, there is some legalese I have to say, unfortunately. So the city of Hoover is aware of pending litigation involving the property owners' claims about sediment conditions on Indian Valley Lake. Because this matter is currently in litigation, the city is not able to discuss the specifics of the claims or its defense on the advice of legal counsel. The city takes its stewardship of public waterways and stormwater infrastructure seriously and will address the matter through the appropriate legal process. Once litigation concludes, the city will be in a better position to provide additional information. Right now, our hands are a little bit tied with the litigation that's ongoing. Okay. I would like to provide more answers to you tonight.

If there is a question that I can tiptoe around it.

We're going to refer you to Mr. Waldrop over there, the city attorney. Okay. And he should be able to provide some answers for you.

I'll be around after the meeting if you'd like to talk with me. I don't know how much I can disclose to you or discuss. but I'll be glad to help.

It's okay. I'll contact you another time. Okay. Great. Anyway, Gene, did you?

No, sir. Thank you, Mr. President. Okay. I'm sorry.

That's okay. Thank you very much, and hopefully we can get it all worked out. Appreciate your time.

Thank you, Mr. Wasco. Next, we have Mr. Bob Hardy.

My name's Bob Hardy. I live on the Indian Valley Lake. And I've been a past president for four years prior to Sam taking over as the president. And so I'm now currently serving as secretary. Next slide, please. So the dates may conflict with what was reported earlier, but this is the historical data. So it was established in 1972. The lake was finished in 1974. With a 110 acre lake, we're down to about 100 acres now. $729,000 was the cost. I wish we could do that again. So the first neighborhood that came in there was Indian Valley Estates. Second neighborhood was Vial de Wood. And then the third neighborhood was Southlake Estates. Next slide, please. So the concerns we have are the silt water runoff. We understand we've addressed this before in a previous council meeting, under a previous administration, and we understand the litigation limitations on being able to discuss this freely. But we definitely have some concerns, and then this will give you some ideas of what it's developed over the years. And we understand, new administration, you weren't here back in 1987 when all this was really kicking down the stream to build up what we have now. We'll go ahead and go to the next slide. So this is kind of hard to tell because the resolution of satellite imagery was not really great, but that area that Sam showed earlier that had, Silt buildup this is the same area you see how it's wide open and it's reflective off the water There's kind of difficult to see but we'll go to the next slide Okay, that's a little bit better view a few years later in 2012 next slide That's what it looks like now And actually it's worse So that used to be open water. It used to be about 14 feet deep. And you see we have mature trees growing out in there. And this is all from that mainly the biggest contributor to that was when the dam fell above. And overnight, the people on the other side on Acton Creek, they literally could walk across the lake on their creek that used to be 12 feet deep, 10 feet, 12 feet deep. So this issue's been ongoing for a long time. Stormwater management, we understand, is in... turmoil, so to speak, and it's being developed. Continue on with the next slide, please. Okay, there's some questions about buildup, and I should have zoomed in on this, but there's a little spit of land between some houses on the left-hand side about 2 3rds of the way down. Next slide, please. Now you can see it's building up and it's coming out and it's preventing those folks from being able to get their boats in the water. I know, boo-hoo, it's a tough life. But anyway, that is a lot of silt coming in from the neighborhoods and the surrounding neighborhoods and it's taking our lake level, which you don't see, what used to be 33 feet deep is now about 10 and eight feet over on this side of the lake. And it's starting to come to the other side of the lake. But anyway, it's definitely impacting us and we understand. There's limitations that we can talk about, but we would certainly appreciate any assistance we can get. And we'll see if there's anything else in another slide. I think that ought to be it. So that's the request. Provide remediation for silt buildup. Design catch basin to minimize silt infiltration and provide periodic dredging maintenance in the valley as it utilizes a storm runoff basin. So if that's in the realm of possibility, we'd appreciate it. But thank you so much for your time, and hopefully everything will work out and we can talk. Thank you, Mr. Hardy.

Let's see. Next up I have Mr. E.J. Munderland.

Good evening, Council. E.J. Munderland, 547 Turtle Creek Drive. I was here, I think, a month ago. You gave me 30 days to do a pavement issue. I'm going to ask for another two weeks if I can. I know it's not on the agenda for today, but I just want to give you an update. We are halfway completed with it.

Mr. Munderland, I understand you've made significant progress on this issue. Mr. Waldrop, can you speak on Now, we've already passed the nuisance, but we're withholding the court.

Yeah, if you want to extend it, you could.

Do we need to vote on that? Yes, sir. That's the council vote. Okay. I guess during the regular agenda, if someone wants to make an adoption to the agenda and make that motion, can we do that now?

Does this need to be moved to the regular agenda?

I think you could suspend the rules and do it now.

Suspend the rules.

Suspend the rules.

Yes, sir.

I would move to suspend the rules to take up this subject.

Okay. The roll call vote. Roll call vote. Second.

Second.

I have a motion and a second to suspend the rules to take up this motion. Ms. Dickerson, if you'll call the roll, please.

Council Pro Tem Driver? Aye. Council Member Schultz?

Aye.

Council Member Smith?

Aye.

Council Member Lovell? Aye. Council Member Murphy? Oh, sorry. Council Member McClinton?

Yes.

Council President Middlebrooks?

Aye. With six ayes, we will now take a motion to give Mr. Munderland another two weeks or longer to work on this issue.

Mr. President, could we pass it to the next regularly scheduled meeting? So we don't have to deal with this again if that's not a problem. The question before the body is, he needs more time. And he said two weeks. But in two weeks, the body's not going to be in session, I don't think.

No, sir. The next session is September 14th. Correct. Mr. Smith, would you like to make that motion?

Mr. President, I'd like to make a motion that we give him two meetings out for a total of 30 days to complete. I've spoken to some that have been of assistance in trying to help with this. And I believe Mr. Mundling can get it done in two weeks. But just in case he runs over a little bit, I'd like to give him a little leeway.

That would be September 28th.

All of y'all know about my history with Mr. Munderland and how exceptional a paramedic he was for the Hoover Fire Department the years that he was here. And I'd be greatly appreciative if I could find a second and enough votes to be able to put this off 30 days.

Mr. Smith, instead of 30 days, do you want to make your motion for September 28th?

Yes, sir. September 28th. Move that this be placed on the September 28th agenda.

I have a motion. Do I hear a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. Any comments or other questions from counsel?

Mr. President, I do just have a brief comment. While I do understand and appreciate the level of respect and compassion that we have here, we also have neighbors who have been going for extended periods of time having to deal with the situation. While I am in favor of doing a one-time 30-day extension, I do think that it's critically important that this issue get resolved by that date and that we don't continue to have extensions as we go forward because we do have to respect that other people are being impacted by this as well.

Noted, Ms. Driver. I can tell you, if not for the update that I've received so far on the work you've already put in, I would be hesitant to give you an extension, but I understand you've done a lot of work. And as Ms. Driver states, you know, I think this should give you sufficient time. It would be a hard sell to come back for another extension.

I understand, sir.

But we have a motion and a second to extend this until September the 28th, which is a council meeting. Any other comments or questions from council? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? The ayes have it.

Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you. Good luck, Jerome.

Thank you. Next up, we have First Lady, Ms. Stephanie Derzis.

Thank y'all, I'm Stephanie Derzis from River Chase. So we are putting together the first annual Mayor's Ball, which will take place on October 17th, and all the money raised will go to the Arts Foundation. When Nick ran, he ran on getting the arts back to Hoover, and this is one way, we may not have a performing arts center anytime soon, but we can go toward raising money to help with the arts. So I want everybody to put that on your schedule, October 17th. Right now we are selling tables to businesses, and then we'll open up for single ticket sales September 2nd. Also, I want to keep everyone updated on Claire, I mean, Greer, excuse me, Greer Feldman. She is our Miss Hoover teen from last year. As y'all are well aware, she won Miss Alabama teen. So we will be leaving Monday for her to compete in Miss America. So next, well... Next Saturday, a week from this Saturday, y'all turn on your YouTube TV and cheer her on because we're hoping that she'll win Miss America team. So thank you.

Awesome. Thank you, Ms. Terzis. At this time, I have no one else scheduled for public comments. Is there anyone in the audience that wishes to speak? Hearing none, we will move on to the consent agenda. Thursday we met and went over all these items. If there's an item on the consent agenda that anyone wishes to pull off, now we will not discuss any of these items on the consent agenda, so if there's an item that you wish to discuss, we'll be happy to pull off to go to the regular agenda. Is there any member of council that wishes to remove an item on the consent agenda? Any member of the public? Okay. Hearing none, Mr. Waldrop, if you'll read the consent agenda.

Item one is the review and payment of bills. Item two is the adoption of the minutes of two preceding meetings. Item three is the resolution approving an alcohol license for a business that's doing business as Whiskey Foxtrot. Item four is a resolution authorizing the mayor to enter into an agreement for a quarter for all officer contract. Item five is a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute a deductive change order, which will be less for the construction of an improvement project. Number six is a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement with the state Department of Transportation for a pavement that's being done in the city. Number seven is a resolution that accepting a flood mitigation assistance grant and authorizing the mayor to execute the documents necessary for that. Item eight is a resolution accepting a change order for a public project by the mayor. Number nine is a resolution authorizing the mayor or the fire chief to execute a memorandum of understanding between the city and the school system. Item 10 is a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute a community grant agreement with Jefferson County Commission for the police department. Item 11 is a resolution authorizing the acting director of human resources to execute an amendment to the enrollment agreement for Blue Cross Blue Shield for city employees Item 12 is a resolution authorizing the Acting Director of Human Resources or the Mayor to execute an agreement with Lloyd Self-Insured Medical Stop Loss Insurance. Item 13 is a resolution authorizing the Mayor to execute an addendum to a sales contract extending the closing date for the sale of property located at 3021 Lorna Road. Item 14 is a resolution authorizing the Mayor to execute a fourth amendment to a lease agreement with RMC Investments. And number 15 is a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement with Next Level Studio for a dedicated 911 website for Hoover Emergency Communications. That concludes the consent agenda.

Motion to approve the consent agenda. Second.

I have a motion and a second. All in favor say aye. Aye.

Aye.

The ayes have it. And we will welcome Councilman Murphy back among us. Moving on to the regular agenda, resolution number 892826, Mr. Waldrop.

This is a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement with Meals on Wheels to provide meals and other services for elderly residents of the city of Hoover.

Motion to approve resolution number 8928-26. Second. Second.

We have a motion and a second. I understand Michael's going to introduce a special guest with us tonight from Meals on Wheels.

Good evening. Council work session the other night, a couple of questions came up about our Meals on Wheels agreement. The first was regarding how many people that they expect to serve in 2027. And the second question was, how does one sign up for the Meals on Wheels program? So not being the smartest person in the room, I went and found somebody who does know the answers to the questions. And this is Ms. Liz Wilson. She's the Vice President of Community Initiatives with the United Way of Central Alabama. So hopefully she can answer your questions.

Welcome, Ms. Wilson.

Thank you. Thank you, Michael. And thank you for having me here tonight. And thank you to Hoover for being such a caring community to your seniors. A little known fact is that only 1% of charitable giving nationally is designated specifically to senior causes. So it is critically important to support the needs of our seniors and it takes a broad base of community support to operate Meals on Wheels. I would like to especially thank the 64 senior, I mean 64 Hoover residents who choose to volunteer for Meals on Wheels. They are the heart and soul of the program because they not only deliver life-sustaining nutrition, but they combat loneliness and isolation. And providing those social supports relieves the healthcare system, but just improves the quality of life of Hoover seniors. So special thank you to them. We also really appreciate our partnership with the Hoover Senior Center and the Parks and Recreation Department to operate our congregate meals program too.

So a bit about the numbers.

Meals on Wheels serves approximately Approximately 1,200 seniors per year throughout the entirety of Jefferson County. And approximately 100 of those are Hoover residents. We serve about another 140 Hoover residents through the congregate meals program at the senior center. We anticipate an FY27 serving a total of about 250 residents of Hoover and approximately 100 through the homebound delivery program. Any senior interested in Meals on Wheels can call 1-800-AGELINE, and that will start a screening and an intake process to get them enrolled. And so I'm happy to answer any questions about the program in general, the program in Hoover, any questions you may have.

Comments or questions for Ms. Wilson?

Mr. President, how many days a week do you provide these meals?

Five days a week. There are a few closing days, so it amounts to 241 days annually.

Thank you. Any other comments or questions?

Mr. President, what was that phone number again? 1-800-AGELINE.

Okay, thanks. All right. Ms. Wilson, y'all do provide a wonderful service to our residents and those beyond our city, so I want to thank you for that.

Thanks for your partnership.

Any comments or questions from the audience? Come on up. I'm afraid so.

I'm Sheree, I live in Bluff Park. The only thing that I wanted to say is thank you for Meals on Wheels. In 2005, my mother died and my dad was still alive and we called Meals on Wheels and they kept him alive for another year. So thank you very much for doing this.

Thank you, Ms. Beavers. All right. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed? The ayes have it. Thank you. Moving on to Resolution 893026.

Mr. Waldron. This is a resolution adopting the annual transportation plan for fiscal year 2027.

Second. I have a motion and a second. Ms. Ginn.

Good evening. I just wanted to follow up with you all. There is a maintenance agreement for one of the streets that we were discussing on Thursday night that is a Jefferson County right-of-way. However, there's a maintenance agreement for it for the city of Hoover. to do that maintenance. And so that's why this segment is on the annual transportation plan. And I believe Ms. Dickerson was able to email you guys a copy of that agreement. So Mr. Smith, you were right. Not that I had any doubt.

I've just been around a long time. Mr. President, could I ask how many streets are similar to Shades Crest when it comes to maintenance agreements?

I do not have a number off the top of my head, but I'm more than happy to get that to you. But there are several where we have the MOUs in a similar situation.

Will this be something that we'll be considering during budget time?

This one, no, sir.

Not tonight, but... future road maintenance, if there are any others that we have agreements with the county or the state.

It is possible that in a future resurfacing program, one of those streets could be on the list, but there's not anything that I know of specifically in the 27 budget.

Thank you, ma'am.

Thank you.

Any other comments or questions? What about from the public? All right, nay. All in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? The ayes have it. Moving on to resolution number 894826, Mr. Waldrop.

This is a resolution recognizing and commending the Hoover Fire Department for achieving CFAI accreditation.

Motion to approve resolution number 8948-26. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Chief Bentley?

Thank you, Mr. President, council, and mayor. I have some good news tonight. I know that most of you are already aware, but last week we were reaccredited for the second time. A team went to Chicago and presented to the commission, and we were reaccredited. And I just want to start by saying how much we appreciate the council and the council's support. for these projects that we do and for the mayor's office. I know this is very important to the mayor that we become reaccredited for the second time. And also to our citizens. Many people in this room were a part of our strategic planning and our standards of cover update. And so as we have evolved through this process over the years, we've learned that including the public and the citizens that we serve is extremely important to get their feedback into how the department would grow and expand and so we certainly appreciate all of the support. The accreditation process is super important to us and sometimes I feel like a broken record but The accreditation process looks at everything that we do, 250 different criteria, 11 categories. Not only does it look at what the fire department does, but it looks how the city is managed through financing and governance and all of those type things. And so it's just, it's important to us that we completed this the second time. Captain Rob Smith, Captain Smith, would you stand up for us? He has been our accreditation manager for the past three years and has done most of the hard work on this and to the writing. This accreditation process is a self-assessment system where we write to all of these things and then a peer assessment group. Typically four members from around the country comes and evaluates departments. We had four members evaluate our department over a week period. and some of you guys got to meet the peer assessors. And we had a chief from Gastonia, North Carolina, a chief from Delray Beach, Florida, Owensboro, Kentucky, and Fort Collins, Colorado. And so the mayor and I and a couple were stuck with a team leader and he was unique. And he was somewhat difficult to deal with. But as the week went on, we developed a relationship. And on Thursday when they left, they made the comment, he made the comment that he had been doing this since 1997 and he had been all around the world and that Hoover was top of the list. And so I kind of took that as a good compliment coming from somebody that didn't have the best personality. Let me just say that, say it like that. So I can't say how proud I am of our organization and all the members who had something to do with this. Every member had something to do with it, whether they realize it or not. And so I'm very proud of that. Also, we get a lot of comments about ISO, and ISO is extremely important to us. We were ISO class one in 2017. We went back through that process again in 2018. in 23 and so we're an ISO class one. We actually gained some points and ISO is extremely important to us and we'll continue that and we could not do that without your support financially. However, ISO looks at only how we handle structural fires, first alarm structural fires, which in most fire departments are far and few between. I'll give you for instance, Houston was the department ahead of us for accreditation this past week And they ran 640,000 calls for service. And 83 to 84% of their calls were EMS. So the percentages are there. And so ISO is important to us. Across the country, there are 504 agencies that are ISO class ones out of 30,000 fire departments. And there are 301 agencies across the United States that are accredited. but there's only 127 departments that hold both certifications. And so I say all that to say how proud I am of the team, but I don't say that in a boastful way. I hope that I say that in a way that you see the level of commitment that our members have for the community. We are not perfect. We make mistakes, but we try not to make the same mistake twice. And so I just wanted to to commend you as a council and the mayor's office and the citizens for supporting us, and I also wanted to commend our members for all their hard work. I can take questions if you have any, and if not, I would ask the team to come down as Mr. Walter reads the resolution.

We'll take a vote and then ask the members to come down. Okay. Any comments or questions for Chief Bentley first?

Yes, Mr. President. More of just a commendation for your leadership in foresight and seeing the importance of this to our community. Being in the top half percent in the nation of fire departments is really something to be proud of. You mentioned the ISO rating. That, as I understand it, impacts all of our individual homes in terms of our insurance ratings and the premiums that our citizens get charged for their their home insurance. What's really remarkable to me about this latest reaccreditation is that it really gives us as a council from a governance perspective independent evidence that the fire department has been subjected to outside quality standards and has had someone outside of our group come in and voluntarily kick the tires to ensure that we are getting exactly what we think that we are getting and we're very proud of you so thank you.

Thank you, and I appreciate the comment. I couldn't have said it any better. Getting somebody to come in and kick the tires, if you will, from outside, it's kind of uncomfortable sometimes. But I can sit here and say I think we're doing a good job all day long, and Chief Javanet and everyone else can do the same thing. But at the end of the day, when somebody else comes in and evaluates us, hopefully that carries some weight. Thank you. Mr. Smith?

You did mention Thursday that Hoover was the first person fire department in this state to receive this accreditation?

That's correct. We were accredited in November of 2021, then followed by Montgomery Fire Rescue and Mobile. And those are the only two other departments in the state that are accredited. Do they have class one ratings? Mobile, I mean, Montgomery does. I think Mobile's a class two, but I'm not sure about that.

Mr. Murphy?

You know,

the council and the mayor talk about setting the standard for this administration, and Chief, you and your department are definitely setting the standard, not only in the city and Alabama, but the country and the world. So kudos to you and your staff.

Thank you.

Thank you. Any comments or questions from the public on this issue? Hearing none, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, the ayes have it. All right, Chief, I said that's a lot of beef up there. I don't know how we're going to, I hope we got a wide-angle lens.

Hey, Chief, I apologize. I gave my wife my truck, left my jacket while I was fixing her car. No jacket. No jacket. Some bourbon somewhere.

I wanna say one more thing and I'll leave it alone. I wanna thank Mr. Brian Munger, city administrator, who went with us on the trip. The commission always likes to see city government there. I know Mayor Durzis had all plans to be there and something came up and he was unable to attend, but we know he wanted to be there, but certainly appreciate Mr. Munger being there for us. Thank you.

Thank you, Chief. Moving on to resolution number 89-42-26, Mr. Walter.

This is a resolution accepting community grant from the Jefferson County Commission that will be used for the lake house facility.

Motion to approve resolution number 8942-26. Second.

I have a motion and a second. Any comments or questions from council?

Yes, Mr. President. So I'm not entirely against accepting $30,000. I think it's wonderful that our staff and others have gone out and procured the opportunity for us to have a grant for this item. When I look back at the original decision in the last administration to authorize spending $500,000 for this new facility or replacement facility for what used to be on this park, there are sometimes regrets that you can have when you look back in the rear view mirror and realize that maybe you didn't fully understand or make a great decision. And so I want to raise my hand and say my mistake. I don't believe that it's a good use of taxpayer dollars to spend that amount of money for a replacement at this facility. I do think that we should have something nice there. I do 100% believe that we can put something beneficial to the public at that location, but I'm certainly not in favor of spending up to $811,000 when we have other important needs in the city. And I've shared this with the administration, no surprise. I just have to take a stand on this one and say, I don't want there to be a chance that my voting in favor of $30,000 grant also paves the way to say, yes, I'm in favor of spending 60% more than we originally authorized for this. So I would really appreciate if we went back to the table and figured out a plan where we could spend less money and still do something nice enough that the public can really get a return on.

Thank you, Mr. Iver. Any other comments or questions from council?

Just one quick one. This facility itself, I'm sure it's going to fall up under, is it parking rec? Is it parking rec? And they're going to be, it plans to rent it out, utilize it as well, too? Okay, that's all.

Any other comments or questions from council? Any from the public on this issue? Hearing none, all in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? Nay. The ayes have it. Moving on to ordinance number 262710, Mr. Waldron.

This is an ordinance of the city of Hoover to exempt certain covered items from the municipal sales and use tax during the last full weekend of February. Authorized by the state code, it's generally referred to as the state severe weather preparedness sales tax holiday.

Motion to adopt ordinance number 26-2710.

Second on Mr. McClinton's motion to adopt.

I have a motion and a second. Any comments or questions from the council on this issue? Any comments or questions from the public? All right, Ms. Dickerson, if you'll call the roll, please.

Council Pro Tem Driver. Aye. Council Member Schultz. Aye. Council Member Smith. Aye. Council Member Lovell. Aye. Council Member Murphy. Aye. Council Member McClinton.

Aye.

Council President Middlebrooks.

Aye. With seven ayes, the ordinance is adopted. Moving on to resolution number 895026, Mr. Walter.

Probably just one moment, we got something. This is a resolution authorizing the mayor to execute task order form number two with Wagner Engineering for the Park at Hoover project.

Motion to approve resolution number 8950-26. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Since this item was not discussed on Thursday night, I'm going to ask Mr. Munger to enlighten us, please. Okay.

Yes, sir. Thank you. So, uh, you all recall the lengthy discussion that previously led to the council's declaration regarding, uh, the bark and the comments from, uh, its ownership team, uh, and also their engineers. So anytime, uh, we are attempting to supervise someone, uh, that is doing work of this importance, uh, it is obviously very important that we match, uh, the skill of their professional with an equitable amount of oversight. So as you heard during their presentation, they have a team of professional engineers that have pledged as part of the MOU that they are working towards with our legal team to complete a full analysis unit by unit and deliver to the city certain documents for examination. much in the way that you would have a monitor in an asbestos remediation project to verify quantities. It is incumbent upon us to, and I think it behooves the city and protects the city, to have someone there that is of equal training and expertise to monitor and oversee their work that they do and to represent the city's interest. As part of the MOU negotiation, I do believe there will be compensation for this item Flowing back to the city of course that will be subject to the council's eventual approval but this item was placed on the agenda because the work will is represented as the analysis rather of No construction at this point is representative starting in the near future. We want to have this agreement in place so that our contractor and structural engineer can be ready to deploy on site as needed whenever their team does.

Comments or questions from the council?

Mr. Schultz? The last part you said in the MOU, you said we will attempt to get the reimburse for the fees. Is that correct? I'll defer to the city attorney on that, but that's my understanding.

That's correct.

Okay. Thank you.

Any other comments or questions for council?

Mr. President, I've had several residents just asking what the status of the situation is. Can you just provide just a basic what's happening in layman's terms for our average?

If we go into executive session, I'll be glad to discuss it with you. but I can tell you we're working diligently on a resolution, but to give you details that we really need to go into executive session.

Other comments, questions?

Just a couple. This service, like a third party to the council, of course, but we're anticipating them performing analysis for four months.

That is the estimate that we've been provided. Again, this is contemplating the developers, engineer, and architects, basically going unit by unit, redrawing as-built plans, everything that you heard our staff tell you that has been requested, they've represented, that they will provide. But we would like to obviously... Have the ability as you recall we were not able to access all units in the complex During our inspection and we would like to have someone someone representing the city's interest, right?

So will this be a additional report? So I'm assuming well, let me out soon direct but we're not directing basically We are not going to direct and it will be a report submitted back to us on behalf of the city of the third party engineers finding.

Actually, this is going to be an expert witness. So this would be part of what we need. We filed a lawsuit, and now we're trying to resolve that. And they will have a report. Whether or not that's made public or not remains to be seen because they're our expert. Okay. Thank you.

Any other comments or questions from counsel? Any from the public?

Okay.

Hearing none, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed? The ayes have it. Moving on for public hearing, we will consider the next two in one motion, Resolutions No. 894426 and 894526. Mr. Waldrop.

These are both resolutions regarding the declaration of a weed and vegetation nuisance. One is located at 2177 Kelly Lane. The other is located at 5038 Melrose Way, both within the city of Hoover.

Motion to approve. Resolution numbers 8944-26 and resolution number 8945-26. Second.

I have a motion and a second. We will now open up the public hearing for these properties. Mr. Mack?

Yes, good news. We're down from five cases that we had on the agenda at work session. Woodmeadow, O'Neill Drive, and Highland Crest were cut to our staff satisfaction. These, however, Melrose Way and Kelly Lane remain out of conformity with our ordinance.

Any comments or questions from council on this? Any comments or questions from the public? Hearing none, we will close the public hearing. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Those opposed, say nay. The ayes have it. At this time, this concludes our business portion. Anybody have any comments from council to close this out?

Mr. President, I'd like to remind everybody that Spain Park plays their first home game this Friday, so go Jags.

Thank you.

And also, Mr. President, we do have budget hearings all day tomorrow beginning at 9 a.m. for those who might be interested in spending the day with us.

Is that 9 or 8? 9. Okay, I'm glad I didn't show up early. Come join us. It's going to be lots of fun.

Come early or get a special seat.

Any other comments? Mr. Mayor, anything? I'll just comment that. All right. Go Jags. Go Bucs. Before we adjourn, a special shout out to former council member Joe Reeves. Joe, always great to see you.