This story has been updated to include comments from Robin Schultz, Steve McClinton and Copeland Johnson.
Less than a week from the Hoover municipal election, 10 council candidates, led by Robin Schultz, are demanding a state audit of the city’s finances on their first day in office if elected.
In 2024, an investigation of Hoover’s finances revealed problems with understaffing in the city’s finance department, thousands of missing and destroyed financial files, claims from the IRS that the city owes more than $200,000 in penalties and interest and a $36 million fund balance overstatement. There was no evidence of fraud.
“We cannot ignore the giant red flags in Hoover’s finances,” Schultz said in a statement. “The taxpayers deserve absolute clarity, and our coalition is committed to delivering it by introducing a resolution to ask the Alabama State Board of Examiners to conduct a forensic audit.”
Schultz, who in 2023 founded The Hoover Channel, a government transparency organization, said he started the coalition to advocate for a more thorough investigation into Hoover’s finances.
The coalition includes candidates Robin Schultz, Clint Bircheat, Gene Smith, Kenneth Cox, Ashley Lovell, Donna Mazur, Steve Lawrence, and current councilors Steve McClinton, Khristi Driver and Derrick Murphy.
Last year, Hoover Mayor Frank Brocato through the city attorney, hired Kroll, a government risk management company, to investigate the city’s financial situation after Hoover Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Cornett “identified a number of apparent irregularities.”
The Kroll audit cost the city almost $250,000.
Schultz said the report was limited in scope and believes a state probe will be more thorough.
Brocato said he had already shared the city’s financial reporting problems with state officials and claimed that the calls for further investigation were a political ploy, according to reports from the Hoover Sun.
“It is an organized, well-focused attack against us, and it’s just complete hogwash,” Brocato told the Hoover Sun last year. “While there are financial problems, the city is in great financial shape, and it’s hurting their narrative.”
Sitting Place 7 councilor Steve McClinton, who ran unopposed, said there are still questions that have gone unanswered.
“We still don’t have answers to the questions such as, who gave the order to hide those IRS notices, who gave the order to delete those files, and why was this never reported to council. The council never knew about this,” McClinton told AL.com.
He said the city’s financial problems are a “textbook example of lack of institutional control”
“To pooh-pooh it as political, that’s just spin...To deflect from the reality, that allows little problems to become big problems, and that’s what we’re facing now,” McClinton said.
“When you deflect and you defame and you’re trying to say it’s all political, that is startling...Not one person in Hoover is endorsing Frank, not because they don’t like him, but because they work with him every day. They see what the public doesn’t see. And to me, that’s startling.”
Schultz also maintains that the audit is necessary to answer questions that he said the city refuses to.
“There’s nothing political about this. This is about the transparency of Hoover finances...When a city government fails to answer the most basic questions, it may need to be taken to the next level,” Schultz said.
“We hope to come to find that there is a clean slate, that there’s no suspicion, no cloud hanging over the city. We want an unbiased entity to come in and say, ‘yes, everything is good.’”
Schultz said he has been involved in city politics for nearly two decades. He regularly attends council meetings and uploads recordings to The Hoover Channel when the city stopped doing so and removed previous videos from its YouTube channel in 2022.
He is running for city council for the third time, having lost in both 2016 and 2020.
Schultz said he just wants to hold officials accountable.
“We want the state to come in. We don’t want them to be limited as to what the scope is of the investigation, and if it’s a clean report, as the administration says, they have nothing to worry about,” Schultz told AL.com.
Coalition members maintain that the call for a state audit is for transparency purposes.
“Let me be crystal clear, this is not about politics—it’s about restoring trust,” Place 3 candidate Ashley Lovell said in a statement. “Robin’s leadership brought us together to demand answers and most importantly, action. Hoover needs leaders who prioritize transparency over excuses.”
But not all candidates fully agree with the coalition members.
Place 2 candidate Copeland Johnson said that while he is not anti-audit, he chose not to join the coalition.
“I‘m not suggesting that the effort by Mr. Schultz was anything other than genuine. However, I did feel it was best to avoid even the appearance of favoritism, premature governance and selective decision making when I have my own campaign to run.” Johnson told Al.com.
“An audit is a great progression towards the next step, but I just don’t like how it was presented.”
AL.com reached out to Brocato’s office but did not receive a response prior to posting.