The Vestavia Hills 2025 election is on Aug. 26.
When Vestavia Hills voters go to the polls on Aug. 26, they’ll find seven names on the ballot.
At the top will be two-term incumbent Mayor Ashley Curry going up against challenger Richard Cheatwood, a former Vestavia Hills police officer.
Kimberly Cook, another two-term incumbent on the City Council, is facing competition from karate instructor Karl Julian. And three people — Brian DeMarco, Jacob Pugh and Michael Vercher — are battling for an open council seat vacated by Paul Head.
Some observers view Cheatwood’s bid for the mayor’s race as a long shot because he’s not as well known as Curry, a retired special agent for the FBI who oversaw the FBI’s Birmingham office.
Curry, 75, defeated former Mayor Butch Zaragoza in 2016 and was unopposed in the 2020 election cycle. Also, the fact that Cheatwood was fired from his job as a police officer in 2017 for “conduct unbecoming of a police officer” doesn’t play well in his favor.
But Cheatwood, 54, is hoping his opposition to the failed property tax increase that was proposed for Vestavia Hills City Schools in 2023 will gain him some support. Curry supported the tax increase, but about 4,100 Vestavia Hills voters (56% of those who voted in the referendum) sided with Cheatwood to help defeat it.
“Maybe Vestavians believe they’re overtaxed,” he said. “Everybody wants a tax break, and I’m going to give it to them.”
Cheatwood said he would favor eliminating property taxes for people ages 65 and older because the taxes are so high now that some elderly people have to sell their homes. He also said he would like to make it so that taxes going to schools are paid only by people with children in school.
Curry said he voted in favor of the property tax increase because property taxes are the primary source of funding for Vestavia Hills City Schools, and he wants schools to maintain the high quality that has existed for decades.
“I now have grandchildren in the schools, and I want them to have that same quality of excellence that my children had,” Curry said.
Cheatwood also said he favors getting rid of the city manager position and going back to a mayor-council form of government. The current mayor and council are giving City Manager Jeff Downes too much control, and the city government is wasting money on things that aren’t needed, Cheatwood said.
The pedestrian bridge currently being installed over U.S. 31 likely won’t be used well and will end up being a liability, he said. Also, while he does favor building a police substation at the Sicard Hollow Athletic Complex, he doesn’t think a new police training center is needed there, or a library branch, he said.
Some people may have lots of money and not care if the city spends money on things like that, but others don’t want to have to pay taxes like they pay in Mountain Brook, Cheatwood said.
Curry said it would be a big mistake to switch back to a mayor-council form of government because the city manager system is working so well. When Downes was hired, the city had virtually no reserves, he said. Now, the city has a $21.6 million emergency reserve fund, which is more than $6 million over what’s required by city policy, Downes said.
City revenues are growing and the city is making progress on addressing capital needs that residents have been seeking, Curry said. The planned projects at the Sicard Hollow Athletic Complex and Liberty Park are clearly the priorities identified by city leaders after conducting resident surveys, he said.
Curry thinks the city can use reserve funds and surplus from their general fund to meet those needs without borrowing money, but if they do have to borrow some, they would never borrow so much as to jeopardize the city’s AAA credit rating, he said.
He also said he is eager to see the veterans memorial get built at Altadena Valley Park and, in the future, a performing arts center for the city.
Curry said he believes he has the support of the public but doesn’t want to take it for granted and encouraged people to vote on Aug. 26.
