One year ago this week, Hoover City Councilman Steve McClinton proposed removing Council president John Lyda from his leadership position and replacing him with Councilman Casey Middlebrooks. Of the six members on the council present that evening, only one voted against the motion to vacate.
Councilman Curt Posey joined McClinton and Middlebrooks in supporting the change. Councilmen Derrick Murphy and Sam Swiney abstained, while Councilwoman Khristi Driver cast the lone vote against the resolution, supporting Lyda as president.
Lyda has been a member of the Hoover City Council since 2012, when he defeated incumbent Mari Morrison. He was elected president of the council in 2020, a position he will hold until the new council is seated in November, unless another motion like the one attempted last year is brought forth and passed.
Lyda, who was out of town at the time of the meeting where the council addressed the issue of removing him as president, subsequently released a statement telling WBRC News that the effort was a "political sideshow." Ironically, the same description could be used to describe council meetings both before and since then.
Following the vote to take the gavel from Lyda on May 6, 2024, in an interview with the Hoover Sun, Posey questioned several of Lyda's then-recent actions, including the way Lyda treated a well-respected local developer without allowing the developer to respond or defend himself and calling a special meeting at a time when he knew it would be difficult for at least two council members to attend; and then criticizing people for not showing up, claiming they weren't doing their jobs.
"It was very nefarious in nature, in my opinion," Posey told the outlet.
In the same story, McClinton told the Hoover Sun, "Lyda has done a lot of great things for the city, and it would go a long way if he would apologize for his behavior and actions." He added, "To prove you're sorry, you have to repent and change your ways."
In a Wednesday phone interview with 1819 News, McClinton said, "In the year since then, you have to ask yourself, 'Have things gotten better or worse?' since the vote?" Saying, "The evidence speaks for itself. It hasn't gotten better."
If public comments at and during council meetings in the last year are any indicator, they have not. Since the vote, Lyda's behavior has continued to draw the ire of current and former councilmembers and residents alike.
In August 2024, McClinton was forced to go before the council on the issue of whether the City should reimburse McClinton for legal expenses related to an unfounded complaint against him. McClinton told the council that Lyda did not allow other avenues for payment because, in Lyda's own words, he was seeking "payback" for McClinton speaking out on other council business.
When asked about the changes since that vote, Councilman Curt Posey told 1819 News, "We're still having some struggles. The Council meetings are still contentious at times." He reiterated his comments from an April council meeting, saying, "We've got to do something different, we've got to figure something out."
He agrees with concerned residents and fellow councilmen who said the council needed to be more responsive.
"I think the best thing to do is to answer the questions when people come up there. Give them their time and respond back to them. I think that's the biggest issue we have," he said.
Posey said there was a higher level of responsiveness when he was first elected, when Gene Smith was president. He explained that while the council cannot address some specific questions, such as ones related to flooding where there's pending legal action, other issues could be addressed.
An example of an issue where questions could have been addressed was the Kroll investigation and subsequent questions surrounding it and related payments for the work done. Posey said, "There was a better way to handle the Kroll Report."
For months, residents attended council meetings, asking questions that were ignored, answered incorrectly, or with partial details. During the council meeting, months after the work was done, in which the mayor's office finally sought a budget amendment to authorize payment for the forensic audit, Robin Schultz got up to speak and ask questions, commenting that Kroll had received payment, a fact that Lyda said was inaccurate.
It was later revealed that Lyda was not entirely honest when he said Kroll had not been paid. At that point, Kroll already had one invoice paid off the books; however, that payment, like the decision to hire Kroll via an email vote instigated by Lyda, was made without any transparency and was not addressed in a public meeting by the mayor's office or council.
In an interview about the council's transparency and responsiveness at meetings, Schultz reiterated what Posey told 1819 News about the changes: "Under Gene Smith's tenure, that council was one of the most transparent the City has ever had. Gene was pro-transparency. That changed under the Lyda/Brocato tenure." In addition to the lack of responsiveness to residents at council meetings, other changes since Lyda became president have included lessening the detail in meeting minutes and deleting council meeting videos.
Following a council meeting last month, 1819 News asked Lyda if he was running for reelection. He responded, "We'll figure that out," noting that qualifying is not until June.
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