Hoover City Council candidate Ashley Lovell and Hoover City Councilman Steve McClinton joined JT live in the “Alabama’s Morning News” program at the WERC 105.5 Studio.
You can listen to the Podcast on the WERC website by clicking here!
Below is this Episode’s Transcript.
JT (00:00):
Alabama’s Morning News. I’m JT. Busy hour as we have Hoover City Councilman Steve McClinton and also, I guess Ashley, your last name’s Lovell. You related to Bob Lovell by any chance, the former Coca Cola giant.
Ashley Lovell (00:14):
I am not.
JT (00:15):
Okay, Well, welcome as you are going to be running for Hoover City Council. This is go round? Steve McClinton, you’re endorsing Ashley. Are you behind her? You’re helping her get in the swing of things here?
Steve McClinton (00:27):
Well absolutely, I think she’ll be fantastic.
JT (00:28):
So good morning, all right. So Ashley, I want to talk about your, the “Tattersall Files” this uh, this project…
Ashley Lovell (00:37):
Fitting name there.
JT (00:42):
Well, anytime there’s development going on, there’s always behind the scenes, you know, maneuvering and grooving and trying to get things done and personalities coming to play. Different people have different opinions. I mean we saw this with the expansion plans for what was going on with Stadium Trace Two. So tell everybody what is Tattersall and what is your involvement with that?
Ashley Lovell (01:00):
So Tattersall is a thirty acre parcel of land over on Highway 280. It is a commercially zoned piece of land and we have a developer over there who is looking to change the zoning to “conditional use” in order to put in “mixed-use” and to make a little bit more money.
JT (01:19):
Are you pro that or no?
Ashley Lovell (01:21):
Absolutely not on behalf of my neighborhood. I am not for that.
JT (01:27):
Why is that?
Ashley Lovell (01:28):
I think that there should be accountability to developers and the fact that you go into something knowing what you’re buying. Let’s pull through (with original zoning).
JT (01:38):
This area, this land wherever they want to do this. What would you like to see done with this land? What’s being done with it right now as we speak?
Ashley Lovell (01:44):
So it’s sitting empty as we speak right now. I would like to see it developed as it’s currently zoned, which is commercial use.
JT (01:52):
And what do they want to do, the developer.
Ashley Lovell (01:54):
The developer would like to see what’s called mixed-use, which is residential and commercial, you know, kind of a mix between the two.
JT (02:04):
What’s your opposition to that?
Ashley Lovell (02:06):
A number of reasons. Number one is that the people of my neighborhood don’t want it, so that’s number one.
JT (02:11):
They’d rather see full commercial instead of just partial commercial.
Ashley Lovell (02:14):
Yes, full commercial to completely benefit what we’ve got going on with that side of town, things that we can do, a place where we can you know, eat dinner, go shop, do things like that.
JT (02:24):
…As opposed to more, you know, condos and that type of thing.
Ashley Lovell (02:29):
Yes, absolutely, I mean traffic is a concern, safety is a concern. You start talking about all these issues that are surrounding this decision.
JT (02:37):
So as you think and ponder the idea of running for city council, this has kind of led you to believe that, you know, I need a bigger voice in this to move forward for my community in my area.
Ashley Lovell (02:49):
Absolutely, Tattersall has taught me that this is symptom of a larger issue that’s going on in Hoover City Hall.
JT (02:57):
Okay, all right, well we’re going to come back and talk more with Ashley. She is a Hoover resident, went through the Hoover school systems, moved away for a little bit, came back and back home again. So she is going to be running against I guess John Lyda. Is that the spot that’s you’re going for?
Ashley Lovell (03:12):
That’s correct? Seat three?
JT (03:14):
Is John running Steve? Have you heard if he is going to come back?
Does he want to come back? Does he want to run for mayor. I mean, where’s John right now in his political, you know, ambitions or where he wants to be.
Steve McClinton (03:25):
I would… I don’t know. I only know that Derek Murphy is up for reelection. I know I have announced. I know Robin Schultz is and Ashley is.
The others I have not talked to about, and they have none announced. I’m sure they’ll announce soon whether they are or are not.
JT (03:42):
Right, all right, Continuing our conversation with the Hoover City Councilman Steve McClinton as they call him in Hoover – the Ron Burgundy of Hoover – and also Ashley Lovell, who is going to be running for a council spot this next go around. Ashley, glad to have you in the studio here.
Ashley Lovell (03:58):
And JT, let me let me clarify something for you. You know, on my stance, I’m not anti-development or anti-mixed-use. The question that we have to ask ourselves is, wherever that development is going, is it the best use of that land in meeting the needs of the community.
JT (04:15):
For the he residents in that area.
Ashley Lovell (04:17):
Yes. Exactly.
JT (04:18):
And I believe you’ve got a lot of signatures in favor of what you are talking about.
Ashley Lovell (04:20):
Yes. Over twenty-six hundred signatures.
JT (04:22):
Saying no, it’d be better if it were one hundred percent commercial and not residential, because…?
Ashley Lovell (04:28):
I mean, it’s a thirty acre parcel of land and they’re looking to add over three hundred residences into that tiny little parcel of land that’s surrounded by Highway 280, Highway 119 and with no additional infrastructure updates.
JT (04:39):
Single family homes? Or a combination?
Ashley Lovell (04:42):
A combination of several different.
JT (04:45):
See the building we’re in, the Denim building here is on the ground, it’s businesses, and then second and third floors are condos that you rent here. And it works pretty well because a lot of these people that are here like the downtown scene. They can walk to different things, you know, they like being downtown. Out in one nineteen area where you’re talking about in near Greystone, it’s a whole different ballgame. It’s not the same thing we’re dealing with down here.
Ashley Lovell (05:11):
Absolutely, that’s it.
JT (05:13):
All right. So where is it in the development stages? Is it on hold or are they still discussing it? This needs Hoover City Council approval, I would imagine?
Ashley Lovell (05:20):
Correct. So it’s made it through planning and zoning, six-to-two approval. However, it is currently to go before the council. The developer has asked for it to, they’ve asked for more time. So originally it was set to go before the council in February. Now they’re asking for more time. It’s going to go… they’re asking for October.
JT (05:39):
Okay, So it’s been tabled until I guess after the election because there could be some changes. Interesting election, right, Okay, well let’s talk about the election. And you decided to jump in because of this and it opened your eyes to a lot of other things. So there’s a reason that you’re coming in and running in for John Lyda’s spot. So how does we had work, Steve and Ashley? When you run for council, are you running from that part of town? So you’re automatically, you know John Lyda’s area? Is that how it’s split up? Like…
Steve McClinton (06:09):
Hoover’s different? So okay, you don’t have districts or wards, okay places, so we’re all at large. So if you’re a Hoover City councilman or councilwoman, you represent ninety five thousand people, all ninety five thousand, so when people vote, they all vote for all seven and the mayor.
JT (06:24):
Okay Ashley, when you came into this thing, what was your knowledge of how things were going with council and the Mayor’s office and city government in Hoover prior to you moving back because you’re from Hoover and went through the Hoover school system but moved away to Florida and came back because of the school system, which I think is spot on, good idea, But how much knowledge did you have of what was happening inside city government and Hoover before you decided to jump in? The floor’s yours?
Ashley Lovell (06:54):
Well, let me… Yeah, exactly. Well, I think you have this idea of how you think it should operate, but then you get involved in something like Tattersall and you realize that it is a symptom to a larger systemic issue. And that is exactly what I discovered.
JT (07:09):
What is the issue?
Ashley Lovell (07:10):
The issue there is just I feel like that our city is just at a crossroads and the choices that are being made are going to impact our city for generations to come. I have seen, so, I’m a mom of two. It is my most important job, and I sit there and I tell my kids that Number One, what’s the Golden rule, “treat others how you want to be treated.” I am seeing with my very eyes, Seat Three, John Lyda. He is not treating others as they should be treated. And that’s just to begin with it. And so when I when I look at this, I tell my kids stand up to the bully. I tell my kids to stand up to someone who is not
doing the right thing. So in my day to day activities, you think I’m just going to let that happen. Absolutely not. So I never saw myself as someone as a politician, if you will.
JT (07:57):
Right.
Ashley Lovell (07:58):
However, I love my city. I love Hoover. I moved here for Hoover and Hoover City Schools. And that to me, I’m an athlete. I went to Birmingham Southern and played golf. And as an athlete, you can sit on the sidelines and watch something go down, or you can say, you know what, I’m going to step up and I’m going to do something about it. So that’s kind of where I’m at.
JT (08:20):
You know what I keep hearing when it comes to Hoover’s city government, and I want you both to kind of weigh in on this. Is that a couple of things to keep coming and surfacing to the top. A lot of discussion on Trace Crossings development to that area there, and then you had River Walk and you know there’s a bit of a battle between council and others, you know, on council and then the Mayor’s office and city attorney, and you know, there’s a lot of moving parts when you start development projects, and it got contentious for a while. There was some tension there, and then there was a discussion about what about the transparency of the Hoover City council meetings? Why can’t the people see those? And then it’s like, what about the budget, where’s the budget to see this as residents And just a lot has been discussed with Hoover’s city councils. So it’s got people scratching their heads going, wait a minute, why and what is going on here?
Steve McClinton (09:10):
Well, first of all, Hoover is a great place to live and Hoover has different problems than other seas have. We don’t have crime, we don’t have those kind of problems the other cities unfortunately have. But my biggest pet peeve with government is that it should be an open checkbook. It’s not a private entity. Doesn’t have trade secrets so that people have the right to see what goes on with their government. And transparency doesn’t mean that you get to see what I want you to see. You see everything, the good, the bad, the ugly. And people are very forgiving if you screw up and mess up. If you just tell me we screwed this up, they’re more than able to forgive you. What they aren’t going to do is tolerate doubling down in a government that is pushing people around, developers, citizens, elected officials, and what they expect is transparency and honesty. And if you just do that, ninety-nine percent of your problems go away.
JT (10:02):
Well, as you know, in politics, there’s always politics. So you know you’re going to have people with different opinions, different ways of you know, addressing those issues in the city. And sometimes they feel that, look, these are inside discussions with our group here. Not everybody needs to know everything that we’re discussing. It’s just going to hurt us more than help us. You know, there’s some of that reasoning, right. But with that said, now there’s a lot of discussion. At least I’m getting text message “JT, you know the chief is he running for mayor?” What’s going on with this? And I’m think, where’s this coming from? So I talked to the Chief. He hasn’t made any announcement about it yet. He goes, you know, yeah, I’m hearing it too, but you know, nothing official going on. So where are we with the mayor’s race? Frank says he’s going to rerun in Chief Derzis is kind of like, I don’t know. I mean, if people want me to be the mayor, I’m not going to turn it down or you know, so I don’t know where we are in that process. What are your thoughts on Chief Derzis running.
Steve McClinton (10:56):
I hear the same things you hear, and I have talked to people who do want Chief Derzis to run, and a lot of major influencers, a lot of people with money. Let’s face it, Nick Derzis is like the Nick Saban of Hoover. So he is very well respected. He is not only just here locally but regionally, nationally. And you know, if he did run, he would have my one hundred percent unconditional support, because it’d be like Nick Saban running for PTO president or a Thanos snapping his fingers. He would just boom change overnight. And that’s not to slap the current mayor, okay, but we do have disagreements on how things are run. And I do think, you know, it’s time for a change. But again that’s up to Nick Derzis and his family to decide what they should do. I think the people of Hoover have a huge respect for Nick Derzis.
JT (11:42):
Well, I invited Frank to come on, the mayor Frank Brocato, and he said, surely, let me know when. And so we’ll have him on, you know, maybe tomorrow, later in the week whatever to talk about this as well. And John Lyda is also invited to come in and chat. And I know, John, I’ve got nothing against any of these guys. They’ve been kind to me and the work I’ve seen them do. Uh, you know, there’s been some good things done by both of those folks. But you know, when changes, you know, start rolling, it’s snowballs and it turns into an avalanche all of a sudden, and people are like, maybe it is time for a change. So John Lyda, is he planning to run for mayor? I heard that too.
Steve McClinton (12:20):
I’ve heard those rumors too. I don’t know, I have no earthly idea.
JT (12:24):
Well, lot’s going on. I mean, as Tony Petellis used to say, Hoover’s Happening. That’s right. Well, guys, great to see you, Thank you for coming in Ashley. Nice to meet you. Good luck with everything. I appreciate you.