HOOVER — The Republican Women of North Shelby County hosted a full house for their July meeting featuring Hoover Police chief and mayoral candidate Nick Derzis, followed by two-minute stump speeches from 10 candidates for five of the seven city council seats.
Two incumbents, Casey Middlebrooks and Steve McClinton, were unopposed and were declared winners earlier this week.
Diane Caldwell and Charlotte Meadows hosted the meeting, encouraging members to share with their friends and neighbors what they had learned about the candidates and to motivate them to get out the vote.
Meadows, acting as timekeeper and emcee, kept the program moving as candidates made their cases, highlighting the key points of why they're running or, in the case of the incumbents, what they're proud of.
Below are summaries of those introductions.
Place 1
- Tanveer Patel stressed repeatedly that she is not running to be a politician. She leaned on her experience as a local business owner, saying, "I believe that our city deserves everything. Our business sense, common sense, and conservative values. As a proud Republican and an owner of a small business, a working mother, I know what it means to balance a budget. I know what it means to make tough decisions, and life and building a life, not just companies, but relationships, jobs, and opportunities for others.""We are drowning in red tape," she added. "We don't need more politics."
- Robin Schultz emphasized some of his contributions to the City of Hoover, saying, "We can all complain about our problems, and we can talk the talk, we decided to walk the walk." Schultz talked about his efforts to increase transparency through the Hoover channel and their livestreams. He spoke to the fact that he's been to nearly every school board meeting since 2007, saying, "We have a relationship with the school system. We have a great relationship with the public safety department, a great relationship with the chief, and a great relationship with the fire chief. That's the reason people moved to Hoover: the public safety and schools. Those things that we're going to keep fighting for. And of course, fiscal responsibility."
Place 2
- Clint Bircheat brought along a copy of Thomas Paine's book "Common Sense," which he held up as he repeated a question a friend asked him, "What's wrong in government?" Berchet said his response was, "Our government has lost common sense. In 1776, Thomas Paine wrote a book about how he saw the lack of transparency in government, the lack of representation of governments, and how, when he looked around in his government, under the king of England, it doesn't make sense. The fact is, even in 2025, we have lost what makes good, common sense in government.""The council has to do four things really well," he added. "We have the sovereign duty, the sovereign duty to appoint and select school board members. We all know what that's meant in the last four or five years to have a good school board."Bircheat continued, "We have a right and obligation to pick our library board, our parks and rec, our planning and zoning, for economic development to build the place, our families get out, and our children go and spend time with each other as other children, as we as parents get out there. It's our job to the council to make sure that it steered well.""Hoover's on a 50-year run of greatness, but we're putting 10 cents of every dollar towards debt service right now. We need people who are fiscally conservative, who stops spending money, we don't have. Who knows how to make business deals," he said.Finally, Bircheat joined the long list of current city council members and candidates for the council who have endorsed Nick Derzis. He ended his speech, asking for votes for himself and said, "I'd appreciate you voting for Nick Derzis too." He confirmed to 1819 News after the meeting that he was formally endorsing Derzis.
- Copeland Johnson opened his brief remarks following a joke from Meadows about their height difference, noting that he's 6'11 without shoes and with shoes close to 7 ft tall. "I have a different perspective," he said, referring to his age, not his height. The 23-year-old has lived in Hoover for 15 years and believes his perspective as a member of Generation X is why he should be elected. "The reason that I'm running is just to be the proactive choice to incorporate into the next generation," he advised.Johnson continued, "What we're talking about is 40-plus years of earning experience that is almost looking to go unnoticed if we don't elect somebody to represent that generation. A lot of people in this room might be nearing retirement or headed towards fixed income. But as a generation that has a whole two to three decades of earning potential and spending potential, we need to be trying to incorporate the next people to push the economy forward.""I love to bring modern solutions to the current issues forward," Johnson said in his closing.
- Gene Smith explained that "he came to Hoover before Hoover was Hoover." He explained that his prior service should be viewed as a positive, as there would be no learning curve. "I'm going to be able to hit the ground day one running, and there are things that have to be looked at, you know, the Kroll report that dealt with missing government records and whether or not funds were missing, I don't think those questions yet have really been answered because those records are still missing," Smith outlined.He said that one of his biggest strengths in returning would be his instructional knowledge of promises made to ensure that those promises are kept.
Place 3
- Ashley Lovell pointed to her lifelong roots in Hoover and the fact that she returned to the city to raise her children here. She said, "I entered this race back on January 27. I announced that I was running for city council, but not only that, specifically for Place Three, because I believe that a change needs to happen within our government at the city council level. So I'm on a mission to do that change, and I'm still on that mission, and I will be until August 26 and beyond if you guys elect me."So with that being said, my three key priorities are transparency and accountability, smart development, and schools and safety," she added.
- Robert Williams gave the shortest speech. Introducing himself, saying, "I'm not a politician. I'm a lawyer, and I'm a realtor. And one of the problems that I see is that we have as a realtor is that we're selling a lot of houses. They're building a lot of houses, but we need the infrastructure to support those houses. You look at the traffic on stadium trace, you look at, you stormwater, you look at the sewer system, we need some help there. I believe that my experience in both law and rule estate will allow me to bring to the council something that they don't have right now. And I will offer honest, transparent, steady leadership."
Place 4
- Khristi Driver pointed out that, unlike some of the other candidates, she has not been in Hoover her whole life. She said, "I grew up in Blount County, and I found Hoover to be a very welcoming place for people who are not from here. It's one of the things that I love the most about living in Hoover with my family.""The most important thing in our city is and always will be public safety. Fire, police, our 911 Operations Center is out of this world, top of class. And if we ever fail to maintain that public safety, then everything else in will go downhill," she continued.Driver added, "So that is always going to be my number one priority as a city council member."She explained that she was appointed to fill out the remainder of Mike Shaw's term when he was elected to serve in the legislature, making this her first election.Driver pointed out that the topic of infrastructure had repeatedly come up throughout the meeting, saying, "The issue with our infrastructure is a failure of a strategic plan. We do not have a strategic plan for dealing with stormwater issues, for dealing with our sewers, or for dealing with our roadways."She closed, stressing, "I would say, economic vitality, one of the greatest powers we have as a city council body, not as individuals, but as a group, is how we incentivize development. And I'm committed to incentivizing redevelopment of spaces that need it rather than focusing all of our efforts on things that are new to development, and incentives should be paid for something that somebody isn't already going to do.""We have the power, as Derzis, said, to bring the right parties to the table to get people to work together," she emphasized.
Place 5
- Derek Murphy introduced himself, saying that he had the pleasure of being raised by his grandparents.Among the fundamental things that they taught him was "that we have a family to take care of us...Love God, and also love your country." He continued, "My grandfather was in World War II. You don't just love your country, love your community, even the street you live on. That's why I got into service."He was first recommended for the Planning and Zoning committee by former Mayor Tony Petelos before being elected to the school board. "I was the key person behind starting a vocational program, which is RC3, because many of our kids graduated 12-13,000 kids, and not everybody is going to go to college, let's be realistic about that. But 10 years from now, that's how cities have high unemployment rates, that school graduates, folks that are learning about mechanics, they EMT, they become firemen, and so on, in other directions."He said that he was likely the only engineer ever elected to the council, adding, "We probably have done more capital improvement projects than any time before, but it's not just about storm water, 115 intersections, and thousands of lights, 20 bridges. If you look at this east or west to us, some of the cities have bridges that are closed because of their structural impact. So having a long-term plan, a capital plan is not a five-year or six-year plan, it is a 20 and 40-year plan that you work on moving out the road."He ended by stating, "God bless you. God bless Alabama and Good bless America."
- Steve Lawrence introduced himself, highlighting his family ties and history in the area, saying, "1974, that's when my parents moved to Hoover. I was six years old." He went through some of the changes he recalls, including the annexation of Bluff Park into Hoover and the construction of the Galleria Mall. "My wife and I are Christian conservative Republicans," he outlined. "We've been married almost 25 years. We go to Shades Mountain Baptist Church."Lawrence said that his campaign slogan is "taking what works and improving what matters." He explained that what protecting what works means "police and fire and schools""Improving what matters is what really matters. We need leadership. Conservative people who are engaged that cherish every single tax dollar that we receive as a city, as a blessing," he continued.He stressed that the council needs "discernment in choosing the school boards, the library boards, and all the other boards." He added, "And lastly, we also need transparency in accounting. No more background deals hidden from the public, or people don't know what's going on.""Small problems become big problems when we don't address the small problems," Lawrence said.
The election will be held on August 26. Information about the election calendar and polling places from the City of Hoover Elections website.
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