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By TYLER RALEY | Staff Writer

HOOVER – With another term coming to the end for the mayor and members of the Hoover City Council, the full field of candidates has been announced for the city’s upcoming municipal election.

Hoover’s citizens now know who all is running for each spot on the city’s top governing body with the qualifying period having ended on Tuesday, June 24.

The 2025 ballot features 18 people campaigning for eight spots, as Hoover holds the most City Council seats of any municipality in Shelby County at seven.

Current mayoral incumbent Frank Brocato will be seeking his third term as the leader of Hoover after having been first elected to the position in 2016. He will be contested by one other candidate.

For the spots on the City Council, two places will be running with no opposition, while the other five have challenges.

Places 6 and 7, held by Casey Middlebrooks and Steve McClinton, respectively, will run uncontested in the election. Middlebrooks is running for his third full term on the council after being appointed in September 2016, while McClinton looks to serve a second term.

The seat for Place 4 is currently filled by Khristi Driver, who has let the public know of her intentions to run for the same position. Driver was appointed to the council in November 2022 after former Councilor Mike Shaw won a special election for the state House of Representatives.

Driver’s opposition consists of two candidates in Christian Coleman, who works as a freelance writer and has served in the Alabama Air National Guard, and Donna Mazur, who previously served on the Hoover City Council from 2000 to 2004 under then mayor Barbara McCollum.

Place 5 is held by Derrick Murphy, who will seek his third term on the body, but will be contested for the first time since the 2016 election. He is being challenged by Steve Lawrence, who has been a Hoover resident since 1974 and held a 28-year career in risk management.

Place 1 is the first of three seats without an incumbent. Curt Posey, who serves as the City Council’s president pro-tempore, was first elected to his seat in 2016 following a run-off.

Two candidates qualified to run for his spot in the upcoming election in Tanveer Patel, who is a business entrepreneur and immigrant from India, and Robin Schultz, who owns and runs PC Medics of Alabama and Bluff Park Drone.

Place 2 contains the most competition in the 2025 race, with four candidates campaigning for the spot.

Clint Bircheat will run for the seat against coach, administrator and mentor Kenneth Cox Jr., 23-year-old pre-law student Copeland Johnson and former Hoover City Council president Gene Smith.

All are running for the spot currently held by Sam Swiney, who will not seek a second term with the council.

Place 3 will also be up for grabs in the election as current council president John Lyda will not seek a fourth term on the governing body after being first elected in 2012.

Liz Lane, an artist in the city, Ashley Lovell, who works in the marketing department for Lincare and Robert L. Williams will be running for the spot that Lyda holds, marking the end of his time as the most seasoned councilor.

The mayoral seat will feature the incumbent Brocato challenged by longtime Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis, who announced his campaign in March in front of the old Buy Buy Baby in Riverchase.

Derzis has served more than four decades with the Hoover Police Department and 20.5 years as the police chief. As required by state law, he took a leave of vacation from his position following his qualification and will do so for the next two months until the election results are certified.

The municipal election for the city of Hoover will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 26.