Brocato Claims Second Term As Hoover Mayor As Jeffco Cities Elect Leaders

 ========= Old Image Removed =========Array
(
    [_wp_attached_file] => Array
        (
            [0] => 2020/08/8-25-2020-Brocato-to-TV-cameras-768x497-1.jpg
        )

    [_wp_attachment_metadata] => Array
        (
            [0] => a:5:{s:5:"width";i:768;s:6:"height";i:497;s:4:"file";s:53:"2020/08/8-25-2020-Brocato-to-TV-cameras-768x497-1.jpg";s:5:"sizes";a:10:{s:6:"medium";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:53:"8-25-2020-Brocato-to-TV-cameras-768x497-1-336x217.jpg";s:5:"width";i:336;s:6:"height";i:217;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:9:"thumbnail";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:53:"8-25-2020-Brocato-to-TV-cameras-768x497-1-140x140.jpg";s:5:"width";i:140;s:6:"height";i:140;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:9:"wbhm-icon";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:51:"8-25-2020-Brocato-to-TV-cameras-768x497-1-80x80.jpg";s:5:"width";i:80;s:6:"height";i:80;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:13:"wbhm-featured";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:53:"8-25-2020-Brocato-to-TV-cameras-768x497-1-600x338.jpg";s:5:"width";i:600;s:6:"height";i:338;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:20:"wbhm-featured-square";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:53:"8-25-2020-Brocato-to-TV-cameras-768x497-1-600x497.jpg";s:5:"width";i:600;s:6:"height";i:497;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:18:"wbhm-featured-home";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:53:"8-25-2020-Brocato-to-TV-cameras-768x497-1-481x311.jpg";s:5:"width";i:481;s:6:"height";i:311;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:22:"wbhm-featured-carousel";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:53:"8-25-2020-Brocato-to-TV-cameras-768x497-1-409x265.jpg";s:5:"width";i:409;s:6:"height";i:265;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:28:"ab-block-post-grid-landscape";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:53:"8-25-2020-Brocato-to-TV-cameras-768x497-1-600x400.jpg";s:5:"width";i:600;s:6:"height";i:400;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:25:"ab-block-post-grid-square";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:53:"8-25-2020-Brocato-to-TV-cameras-768x497-1-600x497.jpg";s:5:"width";i:600;s:6:"height";i:497;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}s:14:"post-thumbnail";a:4:{s:4:"file";s:53:"8-25-2020-Brocato-to-TV-cameras-768x497-1-125x125.jpg";s:5:"width";i:125;s:6:"height";i:125;s:9:"mime-type";s:10:"image/jpeg";}}s:10:"image_meta";a:12:{s:8:"aperture";s:1:"0";s:6:"credit";s:0:"";s:6:"camera";s:0:"";s:7:"caption";s:0:"";s:17:"created_timestamp";s:1:"0";s:9:"copyright";s:0:"";s:12:"focal_length";s:1:"0";s:3:"iso";s:1:"0";s:13:"shutter_speed";s:1:"0";s:5:"title";s:0:"";s:11:"orientation";s:1:"0";s:8:"keywords";a:0:{}}}
        )

)
1662449496 
1598397959

When he was elected in 2016, Frank Brocato became the 10th individual to serve as mayor of Hoover.

On Tuesday night, the 67-year-old former city fire marshal was claiming victory in his bid for a second four-year mayoral term in Alabama’s sixth most populous city.

Hoover was among 27 municipalities in Jefferson County that held elections on Tuesday. Birmingham and Bessemer do not have elections this year.

In an election in which each City Council incumbent on the ballot was winning easily, Brocato was leading City Council President Gene Smith, a former city firefighter and a council member since 2004, by a margin of nearly three to one Tuesday night. Shortly after 9 p.m., with 16 of the city’s 28 boxes tallied, Brocato had 6,690 votes to 2,293 for Smith.  In an interview, Brocato said Smith had already called to congratulate him.

Hoover, which sits in Jefferson and a portion of north Shelby County, has a population of about 87,000, according to 2019 U.S. Census figures. Its per capita income of more than $44,000 is significantly higher than both the state and national averages.

The Hoover mayor serves with a seven-member council ,and the makeup of the next council looks likely to be very similar to the one that has been in place for the past four years. That’s because incumbents Curt Posey in Place 1, John Lyda in Place 3, Mike Shaw in Place 4, and Casey Middlebrooks in Place 6 were well ahead of their opponents on Tuesday night. In Place 5, one-term incumbent Derrick Murphy was unopposed in his re-election bid and has already been sworn in for another four-year term.

Meanwhile, runoffs on Oct. 6 may be necessary to settle the races for Place 2, Smith’s seat, and Place 7, held by retiring council veteran John Greene. In Place 2, Sam Swiney and Robin Schultz were leading one-two in a four-candidate field. In Place 7, 2016 mayoral candidate Steve McClinton was just shy of 50% of the votes counted in a three-candidate field. Alli Nations was running a distant second.

Except for Murphy, tonight’s election winners and the winners of the Oct. 6 runoff will be sworn in on Nov. 2.

See results from each of the Jefferson County cities that held elections Tuesday.

 

Judge blocks Trump administration’s ending of protections for Venezuelans and Haitians

A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from ending temporary legal protections for more than 1 million people from Haiti and Venezuela who live in the United States.

Alcaraz beats Djokovic at the U.S. Open and will meet Sinner for Grand Slam final

Sinner is trying to become the first repeat men's champion in New York since Roger Federer won the tournament five years in a row. Alcaraz hasn't dropped a set as he pursues his second U.S. Open title.

Anthropic settles with authors in first-of-its-kind AI copyright infringement lawsuit

A U.S. district court is scheduled to consider whether to approve the settlement next week, in a case that marked the first substantive decision on how fair use applies to generative AI systems.

Under Trump, the Federal Trade Commission is abandoning its ban on noncompetes

Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson has called his agency's rule banning noncompetes unconstitutional. Still, he says protecting workers against noncompetes remains a priority.

Anthropic to pay authors $1.5B to settle lawsuit over pirated chatbot training material

The artificial intelligence company Anthropic has agreed to pay authors $3,000 per book in a landmark settlement over pirated chatbot training material.

You can trust the jobs report, Labor Department workers urge public

A strongly-worded statement from Bureau of Labor Statistics workers comes a month after President Trump attacked the integrity of the jobs numbers they release monthly.

More BirminghamWatch Coverage