Birmingham News (AL){PUBLICATION2}
CANDIDATE SAYS HISPANICS IGNORED  
 
August 11, 2004  
Section: Neighborhoods  
Page: 6-H  
   JEREMY GRAY News staff writer  
Hoover City Council candidate John Ocampo said Hoover's Hispanic population should have some say in city government.  
 
 
 
"It's about time for people in our state to recognize there is a Hispanic community that needs representing," Ocampo said.
 
 
Ocampo is one of eight candidates running for Place 7 on the Hoover Council.
 
 
The 38-year-old Gulf War veteran said Hoover must allocate more resources to schools.
 
 
"We need changes in the school system; children are going to be underserved," he said.
 
 
Ocampo, who has lived in Hoover for two years, said he is disturbed by a decision not to offer bus service to students who live within a two-mile radius of the child's school.
 
 
"Our community deserves better," he said.
 
 
Born in Colombia, Ocampo first came to America 21 years ago and has lived in Alabama for 14 years.
 
 
The city, he said, needs to make a concerted effort to unite residents of all races and nationalities.
 
 
"We can start working together on different programs" to improve the community, he said.
 
 
Ocampo said, if elected, he will strive to rise above the petty differences that have split the mayor and council members.
 
 
"There's too much bickering and that hurts everybody," he said.
 
 
"I just want to do what's right for everybody."
 
 
Ocampo, who works in patient relations for Children's Hospital, said he believes Hoover needs better planning where development is concerned.
 
 
Ocampo has served in the Alabama Army National Guard since 1992.
 
 
He is a member of the United Way Latino Issues Committee and the Alabama Hispanic Democratic Caucus.
 
 
He attends St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church and volunteers at the Multicultural Resource Center.
 
 
Ocampo is married and has a child who attends Rocky Ridge Elementary.  

Birmingham News (AL){PUBLICATION2}
THREE MORE CANDIDATES VIE FOR OFFICE
MCCOLLUM: PROJECTS ARE PLANNED GROWTH  
 
August 11, 2004  
Section: Neighborhoods  
Page: 1-H  
   TROY GOODMAN News staff writer  
More than a year ago, Hoover Mayor Barbara McCollum smiled as she climbed two boulders, stepped into the cab of a track hoe and pulled levers to dump a bucket-load of dirt on what many say will be the city's next big tourism draw.  
 
 
 
It was the official start to con struction of Ross Bridge, a multimillion-dollar golf resort, conference center and residential community now under construction south of Shannon-Oxmoor Road. Hoover has teamed up with the Retirement Systems of Alabama and two developers to finance the 1,600-acre project. The resort and hundreds of new homes will be complete next year.
 
 
"It's so exciting," McCollum said during the July 2003 groundbreaking. "I've come out here three or four times just to make sure it's happening."
 
 
Some members of the Hoover City Council say they wished it never had - at least not the way McCollum has handled it. Now that McCollum is running for reelection, Council President Bob Austin and Councilmen Jack Wright and Jody Patterson have begun publicly complaining that Ross Bridge is an example of McCollum approving development without adequately considering the impact on city schools, fire protection and other services.
 
 
McCollum said plenty of consideration has been given to the infrastructure and services behind the new project. In fact, in terms of the $2.5 million RSA has put toward the $8.5 million Hoover-owned conference center, the mayor said she was savvy enough to get RSA to subsidize a city building. Ross Bridge is one of a handful of projects McCollum highlights in her 2004 campaign speeches.
 
 
The other accomplishments she touts are neighborhood improvements, including building sidewalks, adding parks and pushing for a mixed-use development rule that allows neighborhoods to include a villagelike retail area.
 
 
McCollum said her financial leadership helped shape Hoover's improved bond rating and left the Finance Department with a $25 million reserve fund as protection against an economic downturn.
 
 
One project she is talking more about is this month's opening of the Hoover Public Safety Center on Valleydale Road near U.S. 31. The 380,000-square-foot complex is a converted warehouse that has helped the city overcome a space crunch it has had since the 1980s-era Municipal Center was built.
 
 
McCollum said the Safety Center has been the most affordable, workable solution to increasing municipal office space and building a new jail. Her critics, including Austin, Wright and Patterson, said the project's $32.6 million price tag is a huge waste of money.
 
 
"I look at all the other things that we could do for that $30 million," said Patterson, who is challenging McCollum in the mayor's race. One of Patterson's neighbors, Preston Lawley, said the mayor's push to open the Safety Center and improve worker conditions is a sign of forward thinking.
 
 
Lawley is a McCollum supporter and a candidate for Place 1 on the City Council.
 
 
During her four years in of fice, the mayor said she has honed her skills at promoting smart growth, something her 2000 campaign promised. McCollum describes herself as a tough negotiator who regularly sends developers back to the drawing board when they bring forward a project that could drain city services. Also, she welcomes residential or commercial ideas when zoning laws are strictly followed.
 
 
"That involves a lot of negotiating, working with partners, knowing when to compromise, when not to compromise," McCollum said.
 
 
The single mother of two works part-time at the University of Alabama at Birmingham's school of public health. She is a former school teacher who served for 12 years on the Hoover City Council and six years on the city Planning and Zoning Commission.  

Birmingham News (AL){PUBLICATION2}
MIKE NATTER WANTS CIVILITY ON COUNCIL  
 
August 11, 2004  
Section: Neighborhoods  
Page: 6-H  
   JEREMY GRAY News staff writer  
Mike Natter said he is tired of complaining about the lack of civility on the Hoover City Council.  
 
 
 
"I don't have the right to continue complaining without taking some action," said Natter.
 
 
For the 30-year-old construction company president, that action meant running for office himself.
 
 
He is a candidate for Place 7 on the Hoover Council.
 
 
"My main concern with the City Council was the civility that's obviously not being shown. We need to do something about it," he said.
 
 
"We need people in there who are business-minded and don't want to be career politicians," Natter said.
 
 
He chose to run "independent" of other candidates, Natter said, because he wants the council and mayor to work together as one body.
 
 
"I'm going to be ready to work with whoever the people vote in," he said.
 
 
Natter said he believes the city needs "selective growth processes" that would involve carefully balancing the additions of new businesses and homes to Hoover.
 
 
"It's important for us to have affordable housing in Hoover but current property owners' rights shouldn't be infringed upon," he said.
 
 
Natter said the city should act quickly in moving city police officers to the new Public Safety Center and possibly consider adding a new substation on Lorna Road.
 
 
"I think it's important to protect those who protect us," he said.
 
 
Natter also wants the city to take a more proactive approach in addressing traffic problems.
 
 
"We need to pinpoint the areas that are most heavily burdened and the ones that are likely to be in the near future" and devise plans to ease congestion in those areas, he said.
 
 
A Hoover resident for 21 years, Natter is a former Eagle Scout who still volunteers with the Boy Scouts of America.
 
 
He also volunteers with the Salvation Army and American Red Cross and is a member of the Prince of Peace Catholic Church.
 
 
For six years, he served as a coach for the Hoover Soccer Club.
 
 
Natter has a bachelor's degree in business administration from Auburn University.  

Birmingham News (AL){PUBLICATION2}
GRAY WANTS MORE INPUT FROM CITIZENS IN CITY AFFAIRS  
 
August 11, 2004  
Section: Neighborhoods  
Page: 2-H  
   JEREMY GRAY News staff writer  
Hoover City Council Place 6 candidate Russell Gray said the average citizen does not have enough say in city affairs.  
 
 
 
"The citizens of this city do not have proper representation in city government," he said.
 
 
Gray, 46, said he believed that when he formed the Hoover Neighborhood Alliance in April.
 
 
At the time, he said the nonprofit grassroots group would focus on informing citizens about municipal issues and voicing residents' concerns to city leaders.
 
 
"I'm not leaving that role," Gray said.
 
 
"I believe a City Council seat would be a catalyst to push that effort forward," he said.
 
 
One of the main reasons Gray, a real estate broker, decided to enter the race was because of his concern about the growth of the city, he said.
 
 
"The city has approved roughly 10,000 living units that could be built if a permit is taken out," he said.
 
 
That could add almost 6,000 new students to a school system that only recently faced a controversial rezoning debate.
 
 
"I'm not a no-growth candidate," he said. "But we've got to slow down and assess where we are going."
 
 
Gray said if elected, he would like to see the City Council make a greater effort to involve homeowner associations and neighborhood groups like the HNA in the decision-making process.
 
 
Gray, a 16-year resident of Hoover, said more needs to be done to improve city roads and money for city projects needs to be more carefully managed.
 
 
He said he worries that political "machines" are at work promoting slates of candidates with hidden agendas.
 
 
"The typical citizen gets left out of city government when de cisions are made in the inner circle of a coalition," he said.
 
 
A vote for him will prevent that from happening, Gray said.
 
 
"It's critical we give some voice in government back to the people."
 
 
Gray has served eight years on the landlord advisory board of the Birmingham Housing Authority and spent a year on the Hoover Chamber of Commerce's economic development committee.
 
 
He has two children. One attends Simmons Middle School, and the other goes to Hoover High School.  

YOU NEED TO READ THIS ONE...it involves the schools and rezoning
 
Birmingham News (AL){PUBLICATION2}
WITT DEFENDS BOARD'S DECISION TO REDRAW ATTENDANCE ZONES  
 
August 11, 2004  
Section: Neighborhoods  
Page: 10-H  
   JON ANDERSON News staff writer  
Hoover school board President Kay Witt last week defended school board members and elected city officials from what she called "flaming arrows" being fired by political candidates.  
 
 
 
Witt read a two-page statement during a special called school board meeting Thursday, defending the integrity of school board members and their decision to redraw elementary school zone lines and plans to redraw secondary school zone lines.
 
 
Witt said several politicians in Hoover's municipal elections are using issues involving the school system as an attempt to gain votes. They've faulted current elected officials for not controlling the school board, accused school board members of not listening to parents and called the rezoning effort a "fiasco," Witt said.
 
 
Witt said the school board has made a concerted, conscientious effort not to be involved in the political arena.
 
 
"However, when flaming arrows are fired into our houses, or in this case, our mailboxes, we are forced to remove and extinguish those arrows," she said.
 
 
While the Hoover City Council appoints school board members, "the school board is not a political entity," Witt said. "To the current mayor and City Council's great credit, they have not attempted to control this school board."
 
 
School board members do value their opinions, "but we do not make decisions based on popular vote," Witt said. "Anyone who tries to control the school board to gain political favor is misusing his or her power."
 
 
The redrawing of elementary school zone lines for the school year that begins today is not a fiasco, Witt said.
 
 
The rezoning affected about 1,455 of Hoover's 5,100 elementary students, records show. Of those, about 390 were fourth and fifth-graders who were given the option to remain in the school they attended last year. About 100 students took advantage of that option, records show.
 
 
"It is unfortunate that some students have to leave schools they love, and that made the rezoning plan an agonizing decision for school board members," Witt said.
 
 
However, the school board did listen to parents before making their decision, she said. School board members received e-mails, phone calls and comments from as many voters who were in favor of the rezoning plan as they did from those who opposed it, Witt said.
 
 
"We do not base our decisions on popular vote, but on what we believe, after careful study and deliberation, to be best for the children of Hoover," she said.
 
 
The rezoning plan approved by the school board in April was designed to bring many students closer to their schools and accommodate population shifts, growth and changes in Hoover's geography over the past 15 years.
 
 
One of the more controversial aspects was the rezoning of about 1,000 of the 1,300 Hoover elementary students who live in apartments. School officials said the apartment rezoning was needed, in many cases, to get students closer to their school, but also to redistribute apartment students more evenly among schools to reduce high student turnover in certain schools.
 
 
Witt said the changes will benefit all elementary school students. Teachers will have fewer students in each classroom who are new to Hoover schools and thus need extra time and attention, she said.
 
 
With a new middle school slated to open in August 2005, secondary school zone lines will need to be redrawn, Witt said. Again, school board members have listened to parents and explored every suggestion, she said.
 
 
"There is no way to please every person in this situation because somebody has to attend all three of these middle schools," Witt said.
 
 
She said she understands that 30 percent of the land in Hoover is undeveloped.
 
 
"History leads me to believe that this land will be developed due to economic factors and public demand for housing regardless of who we elect as future mayors and City Council members." Witt said. "I agree that this growth needs to be well-planned, but this growth will necessitate the need for additional schools and the need for future rezoning plans."  

Birmingham News (AL){PUBLICATION2}
LUDWIG WANTS TO ENSURE THAT NEW COMMUNITIES HEARD  
 
August 4, 2004  
Section: Neighborhoods  
Page: 3-H  
   JEREMY GRAY News staff writer  
Mary Sue Ludwig worries that as Hoover continues to grow, the residents of newly developed communities will find themselves underrepresented by the city.  
 
 
 
It is a scenario she said she experienced first-hand when she moved into the gated community of Greystone.
 
 
At the time, she said, there were only 25 houses in the subdivision. Residents were unprepared for the headaches that came from having to pay two sets of fire dues and operating on a different water and sewer system than Hoover homes that were in Jefferson County.
 
 
"We had fees slapped on us that we didn't know anything about," she said.
 
 
"Hoover didn't recognize or realize the problems we were going through . . . the residents inherited the problems and we had to deal with them."
 
 
Ludwig, who ran unsuccessfully for the Place 5 Hoover City Council seat in 1996, believes residents of new developments in Shades Valley may face the same problems. She is seeking the Place 3 seat in this election.
 
 
"I see the city growing in a different direction and I'm afraid what happened to us will happen to them."
 
 
The 66-year-old homemaker said she decided to re-enter the political arena, after sitting out the 2000 election, because she believes there needs to be more open communication between city leaders.
 
 
Ludwig said there needs to be more fiscal responsibility in Hoover government as well.
 
 
Specifically, Ludwig asserts that City Attorney Steve Griffin "is not an attorney for the people." She also said city officials responsible for governing planning and zoning are "not doing the job they should be."
 
 
Ludwig is the co-chair of the Progress 280 Task Force, chair of the "Church and State Committee" for Lakeside Baptist Church, a trustee of the North Shelby Library, and a member of several other civic groups, including the Friends of Hoover and the Hoover Service Club.  

Birmingham News (AL){PUBLICATION2}
MCCOLLUM DEFENDS RECORD AS MAYOR'S RACE HEATS UP  
 
August 4, 2004  
Section: Neighborhoods  
Page: 2-H  
   TROY GOODMAN News staff writer  
Hoover Mayor Barbara McCollum ratcheted up the campaign rhetoric this week, using neighborhood meetings and other gatherings to criticize her opponents in the mayoral race.  
 
 
 
As she seeks a second term, McCollum defended her four years in office as one of the most productive periods in Hoover history, ticking off a list of accomplishments that included the 1,600-acre Ross Bridge development on the city's western edge and a 380,000-square-foot Public Safety Center that opened this week on Valleydale Road near U.S. 31.
 
 
Meanwhile, three of her five challengers in the mayor's race reiterated their belief the past four years have been detrimental in terms of the city's ability to grow and still plan for providing basic services such as police and fire protection to new homes and businesses. The candidates also bickered about who has bankrolled key portions of the Ross Bridge project and whether the $32.6 million price tag on the Safety Center is wasteful spending.
 
 
The candidates' verbal volleys have been ongoing for weeks. They reached a new intensity last week during several neighborhood political forums and at a media tour of the Safety Center.
 
 
At one meeting McCollum attended at a neighborhood clubhouse off Alabama 150, west of the Riverchase Galleria, the mayor squared off against her challengers: Tony Petelos, Bob Lochamy, Walter Mims and City Councilman Jody Patterson. Stephen Bryant, another mayoral candidate who entered the race last month, did not attend.
 
 
'Untruthful picture'
 
 
McCollum told the audience of about 40 that her opponents in the race have painted an untruthful "doom and gloom" picture of the city to smear her administration. "Hoover is doing great and, hopefully, will continue," she said.
 
 
Patterson, a city councilman who opposes many projects McCollum has championed in recent years, said the Ross Bridge development is an example of how McCollum has gotten too cozy with developers without considering the impact on the city's debt or whether it can pro vide basic services to hundreds of new homes. McCollum regularly boasts of helping broker the deal between the Retirement Systems of Alabama and two developers to build the Ross Bridge Golf Resort and Conference Center and its 2,300-home planned community. Construction is under way on the project.
 
 
"We're not taking a careful look at what some of these developers are bringing us and promising us," said Patterson, a builder and a former McCollum supporter in the 2000 election. "All these great and wonderful promises that we hear, all this great and wonderful tourism, great and wonderful convention center, great and wonderful things that are coming - we're subsidizing."
 
 
Patterson, Lochamy, Petelos and Mims all criticized the mayor's decision earlier this year to spend $6 million of the city's money on a parkway to Ross Bridge. The challengers said RSA and developer Daniel Corp. and USS Real Estate could afford to build their own road.
 
 
McCollum countered the new road is a long-needed project to take growing traffic congestion off Shades Crest Road, a twolane residential road nearby. She said the Ross Bridge project came along later and served as an incentive to boost city tourism dollars and other income.
 
 
Road necessary
 
 
"We had to build a road to solve a problem on Shades Crest Road," McCollum said during the forum. She called Ross Bridge an unusual public-private investment that could only have happen under her leadership and vision for growth.
 
 
McCollum also struck back at her three critics on the Hoover City Council, including Patterson and Council President Bob Austin and Councilman Jack Wright. She blamed the trio for the ongoing bickering at city hall and deriding their votes against some of her projects and her proposed budget as a political ploy to gain votes.
 
 
"We accomplished a tremendous amount in those first few years . . . an election year changed it a lot," McCollum said.
 
 
Petelos, once commissioner of the state Department of Human Resources and a former state lawmaker, criticized McCollum for not doing impact statements before large projects such as Ross Bridge or land annexations are approved. Petelos said impact statements would avoid future school-zone coverage problems and protect the city from adding land tracts that could strain police, fire and other basic services.
 
 
"We do impact studies all the time," McCollum said. She declined to offer details on when a much-needed fire station would be built in Ross Bridge.
 
 
McCollum also defended her belief that the recent expansion of the Hoover Council from five to seven members could happen only after a circuit court intervened.
 
 
Her mayoral challengers, with the exception of Mims, said McCollum used her influence to try to halt the council expansion. Then, when Austin filed a lawsuit to force the seven-member plan forward, she said a court order would be enough to change her mind and support the expansion, the challengers said.
 
 
"The council president had to sue the mayor to make this happen," Petelos said of the sevenmember plan.
 
 
Hoover ballots will be cast Aug. 24. Other campaign-related events are scheduled throughout the coming weeks, including a mayoral forum Aug. 12 sponsored by the League of Women Voters. That forum will be held at Hoover High School at 7 p.m.  

Birmingham News (AL){PUBLICATION2}
MARTIN SUPPORTS SCHOOLS, WANTS TOWN HALL MEETINGS  
 
August 4, 2004  
Section: Neighborhoods  
Page: 8-H  
   TROY GOODMAN News staff writer  
Retired school teacher Patti Martin said a love for children is what moved her to enter Hoover politics.  
 
 
 
"I want to guarantee the city school system remains where it is and pushes forward," she said.
 
 
Martin, 48, taught in Jasper public schools for 10 years before joining Hoover City Schools as a gifted-student teacher for all grades through 8th grade.
 
 
Martin is a candidate for Place 5 on the Hoover City Council.
 
 
She said the school system is appropriately separate from city hall in its decision-making.
 
 
But the city council and the mayor's office, Martin said, should play the advocate in making sure funding stays steady, parent input increases and national education benchmarks are maintained.
 
 
If elected, she promises to support smart-growth philosophies based on making sure neighborhoods have smaller schools and adequate roads and services.
 
 
A supporter of current Mayor Barbara McCollum, Martin also said the city should continue its push toward improving parks and recreation options for residents and visitors.
 
 
Her campaign has centered on starting quarterly town hallstyle meetings in Hoover where residents can ask city leaders questions and get information on upcoming plans and projects, Martin said.
 
 
She wants to increase public programs for Hoover seniors and make sure city council liaisons are set up to work better with all city department heads.
 
 
The Russet Woods resident, a married mother of two, is actively involved in the Birmingham Jaycees and other civic groups.  

Birmingham News (AL){PUBLICATION2}
IVEY: CITY MUST IMPROVE PUBLIC DIALOGUE  
 
August 4, 2004  
Section: Neighborhoods  
Page: 6-H  
   TROY GOODMAN News staff writer  
Hoover's next administration could be improved if it is "about communication, not public spectacle," said Gary Ivey, 48, of Riverchase.  
 
 
 
The owner of Crest Cadillac Hummer on U.S. 31 is a candidate for Place 4 on the Hoover City Council.
 
 
Ivey talked of ways city-hall bickering could be stopped before it begins.
 
 
"You've got to have communication between the city council, the mayor and residents," Ivey said.
 
 
If elected, he said he would push for more public projects, including parks and recreational programs.
 
 
Also, now that the Hoover Public Safety Center is staffed, he said he wants the next mayor and council to come up with an affordable plan for moving more of the police department and its detectives down to the Valleydale Road complex.
 
 
The $32.6 million Safety Center does include an expanded city jail, but only a limited number of law enforcement officers are budgeted to move in, city officials said. Hundreds of square feet of office space remain open for expansion, Ivey said.
 
 
He is campaigning against any city tax increases to bolster budgets. Ivey also wants to change the way the current budget process is handled so that department heads have more say, and so that annual expenditures are closer to "real" dollars rather than projections, he said.
 
 
Ivey said it would be a good idea to begin quarterly meetings with the council and the president of the school board so the kind of confusion generated by the recent rezoning plan is minimized.
 
 
On the issue of smart-growth, he has this to say: "Growth is wonderful as long as you take into account the big picture" and not annex too much, too soon, Ivey said.
 
 
Married with two children, Ivey serves on the city Planning and Zoning Commission and the board of Safehouse of Shelby County.  

Birmingham News (AL){PUBLICATION2}
AUSTIN SAYS HE'S KEPT PROMISE OF OPEN, HONEST GOVERNMENT  
 
July 28, 2004  
Section: Neighborhoods  
Page: 5-H  
   JEREMY GRAY News staff writer  
Hoover City Council President Bob Austin said he made one promise during his campaign for the council in 2000 and has kept it.  
 
 
 
"I lived up to the only campaign promise I made, and that was to have an open and honest government," said the 58-year-old lawyer.
 
 
If elected to a second term, Austin said he hopes, however, the lines of communication between the council and mayor are better than they have been of late.
 
 
"I'd like us to have communication between the mayor's office and the council, of a meaningful nature, so we can get something positive done in the city," Austin said.
 
 
He is proud, he said, to have filed the lawsuit that led to the expansion of the city council from five members to seven, and that he was never implicated in a controversy involving council members misusing cityowned cell phones.
 
 
Austin has lived in Hoover 31 years. Whether or not reelected, he said, he will lobby the state Legislature to have the mayor and council elected in staggered terms.
 
 
Austin said this needs to be done "so we don't have eight new faces in government every four years."
 
 
Under his plan, the mayor's office and three council seats would be up for grabs one year and, two years later, the other four council seats would be up for election.
 
 
Austin said his experience as the incumbent makes him the best candidate for the Place 1 council seat.
 
 
"I could make better use of the next four years than someone who didn't have that experience," he said.
 
 
Austin, an outspoken critic of City Attorney Steve Griffin and Mayor Barbara McCollum, wants to see the city establish its own legal department so "the city attorney is really the attorney for the city."
 
 
His plan would have several assistant city attorneys "that handle prosecutions in the municipal court as well as any appeals."
 
 
Austin said the city would only retain outside counsel when absolutely necessary.
 
 
Aside from his four years on the council, Austin has also served on the city school board and the library board.