Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Alabama's Morning News. I'm JT. Busy hour as we have
Hoover City councilor and Steve McClinton and also, uh, I
guess Ashley, your last name's Level. You related to Bob
Level by any chance, the former Coca Cola giant.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I am not.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Okay, Well, welcome as you were going to be running
for Hoover City Council. This this goal right, all right?
Steve McClinton, you're endorsing Ashley. Are you behind her? You're
helping her get you know, in the swing of things here?
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Well absolutely, I think should be fantastic.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
So good morning, all right, good morning. So Ashley, I
want to talk about your you know, the Tattersaw files
this uh, this projecting name there. 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
(00:50):
we saw this with the expansion plans for what was
going on with Stadium Trace two. So tell everybody what
is Tattersaw and what is your involved with that?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
So Tattersaw is a thirty acre parcel of land over
on Highway to eighty. It is a commercially zoned piece
of land, and we have a developer over there who
is looking to change the zoning too conditional use in
order to put mixed use and to make a little
bit more money.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Are you pro that or no?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
Absolutely not on behalf of my neighborhood. I am not
for that.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Why is that?
Speaker 2 (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 and so.
Speaker 1 (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?
Speaker 2 (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.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
And what does he want to do the developer.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
The developer would like to see what's called mixed use,
which is a resident, medential and commercial, you know, kind
of mix between the two.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
What's your opposition to them?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
A number of reasons. Number one is that the people
of my neighborhood don't want it, So that's number one.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
They'd rather see full commercial instead of just partial con.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Yes, full commercial to completely benefit what we've got going
on on that side of talent, things that we can do,
a place where we can you know, eat dinner, go shop,
do things like.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
That as opposed to more, you know, condos and the
type of thing.
Speaker 2 (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.
Speaker 1 (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.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Absolutely, Tattersaw has taught me that there is it is
a symptom of a larger issue that's going on in
Hoover City.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Okay, all right, well we're going to come back and
talk more with Ashley Is. She is a Hoover resident.
I 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 Lighta.
Is that the spot that's you're going for?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
That's correct? Seat three?
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Is John Steve? Have you heard 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 are where he.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Wants to be, 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 says who 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 Okay, all.
Speaker 1 (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 and JT.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
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 is
wherever that development going the best use of that land
meeting the needs of the community for.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
The residents in that area exactly. And they believe you've
got a lot of signatures in favor of.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yes, what you're talking over twenty six hundred signatures.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Saying no, it'd be better if it were one hundred
percent commercial and not residential, because.
Speaker 2 (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 to
eighty one nineteen with no infrastructure.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Updates, single family homes.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Or combination, combination of all of several different.
Speaker 1 (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
(05:06):
area where you're talking about in near Graystone, it's a
whole different ballgame. It's not the same thing we're dealing
with down here.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Absolutely, that's it, all right.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
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, correct.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
So it's made it through planning and zoning six to
year 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.
Speaker 1 (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 light
As spot. So how does we had work, Steve Ashley?
(06:01):
When you run for council, are you running from that
part of town? So you're automatically you know John Lights areas?
Is that how it's split up?
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Like Hoover's different? So okay, you don't have districts or courts,
okay places, so we're all at large. So if you're
a Hoover City council men or councilwoman, you represent ninety
five thousand people, all ninety five thousand, so every people vote,
they all vote for all seven in the.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Mayor, 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
to 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
(06:46):
did you have of what was happening inside city government
and Hoover before you decided to jump in? Well, let
me the floor's yours?
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Yeah, exactly. Well, I think you have this idea of
how you think it should operate, but then you get
involved in something like Tattersaw and you realize that it
is a it is a symptom to a larger systemic issue.
And that is exactly what I discovered.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
What is the issue?
Speaker 2 (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 the number one,
what's the Golden rule, treat others how you want to
be treated. I am seeing with my very eyes Seat three,
(07:33):
John Leida. He is not treating others as they should
be treated. And that's 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.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
You will right.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
However, I love my city. I love Hoover. I moved
here for Hoover 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 that's kind of
(08:20):
where I'm at.
Speaker 1 (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 crossing 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,
(08:43):
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
(09:05):
their heads going, wait a minute, why and what is
going on here?
Speaker 3 (09:10):
Well, first of all, Hoover live living in their great
place to live, and Hoover has different problems the other
seas have. We don't have crime, we don't have those
kind of problems the other seats unfortunately have. But my
biggest pet pee with government is that it's be an
open chatbook. It's not a private entity. Doesn't have trade
secrets so that people have the right to see what
goes on their government. And transparency doesn't mean that you
(09:35):
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 telling 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
(09:57):
they expect is transparency and honesty. And if you just
do that, nine percent of your problems go away.
Speaker 1 (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 turn it'll it'll
hurt us more than help us. You know, there's some
(10:23):
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
(10:44):
he's going to rerun in Chief Jerseys is kind of like,
I don't know. I mean, if 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
Jerseys running.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
I hear the same things you hear, and I have
talked to people who want Chief Jerseys to run, and
a lot of major influencers, a lot of people with
money have this face that Nick Jerseys 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
(11:18):
my one hundred percent unconditional support, because it'd be like
Nick Saban running for PTO president or a Thano 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 we run. And I do think,
you know, it's time for a change. But again that's
up to Nick Jerseys and his family decide what they
should do. I think the people of Hoover have a
(11:41):
huge respect for Nick Jerseys.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Well, I invited Frank to come on and do the
mayor Frank precatom and he said, surely, let me know when,
and so we'll have in one, you know, maybe tomorrow,
later in the week whatever to talk about this as well.
And John Lythham 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
they I've seen them do. Uh, you know, there's been
(12:04):
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 Light is he planning to run for mayor?
I heard that too.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
I've heard those rumors too. I don't know, I have
no honur.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Well, lot's going on. I mean, as Tony Petellis used
to say, Hoover's happening, happening. That's right. Well, guys, great
to see you, Thank you for coming to Ashley. Nice
to meet you with all right, good luck with everything.
I appreciate you