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By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Managing Editor

HOOVER – In a landslide victory, Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato has been reelected to his position after receiving 76 percent of the vote during the city’s municipal election on Tuesday, Aug. 25.

Serving the city for the last four years, Brocato said the city is in wonderful shape and he hopes to keep it that way for the next four years and beyond.

“Hoover is in a great, great place,” Brocato said. “I know that we’re all going through COVID and it’s a difficult time for most cities, but we’re actually in really good shape. Our city council has done a wonderful job in helping manage our finances, we’ve put good budgets together. Our citizens are supporting our business and have been since early on.”

One of the aspects Brocato is most proud of is the city’s diversity in many different ways.

“One of the things we’ve talked about all along is diversifying our economy over the last four years and we’ve done that,” Brocato said. “We’ve got a great base of citizens here that love their city and one of the most wonderful things about our cities is our diversity. That’s what makes a great city.”

Brocato received 9,969 votes compared to competitor Gene Smith’s 3,147 votes to earn four more years in office.

“I really am grateful, it’s a wonderful night for our family and our city. I’m so thankful,” Brocato said.

The most hotly contested seat in Hoover’s municipal election was for Place 2, which was vacated by Smith when he decided to run against Brocato.

With five candidates looking to replace Smith, there was a lot of balance in the vote and no candidate gained more than 50 percent of the vote to take the seat.

Instead, there will be a runoff between Robin Schultz and Sam Swinney. Swinney received 3,346 votes (27 percent) and Schultz received 3,113 votes (25 percent). Beyond that, Ron Brown received 2,368 votes, Dina Shunnarah 1,770 votes and Mitzi Eaker 1,760 votes.

There was also a tight contest for Place 7 with three candidates running for the vacant seat. Steve McClinton narrowly avoided a runoff with Alli Nations by receiving 50.6 percent of the vote.

McClinton got 6,131 votes compared to Nations’ 3,761 votes, while 2,217 votes went to Carin Mayo.

Place 1, Place 3, Place 4 and Place 6 seats were all contested, but all were won by incumbents in landslide votes.

In Place 1, Curt Posey defeated Leah Siefka 9,456-2,590. John Lyda defeated Michael Jeffries 9,620-2,679 for the Place 3 seat, while Mike Shaw won the Place 4 seat by a vote of 9,472-2,849. Then, in Place 6, Case Middlebrooks retained his seat with 9,538 votes compared to James Deer’s 2,470 votes.

The only seat uncontested was for Place 5, which will continue to be held by Derrick Murphy.