Illustration by Melanie Veiring
meet the candidate
Photo by Sarah Owens
Gerald Garner is running for to serve another term on City Council.
Gerald Garner, a candidate for the Place 2 seat on the Mountain Brook City Council, has long been committed to public service — beginning as an Alabama Senate page. A University of Alabama graduate, Garner built a career in financial services and married his wife, Sally, a Mountain Brook High School alumna.
The couple chose to raise their family in Mountain Brook and have two daughters. Garner joined the Parks and Recreation Board out of a desire to support the community his daughters call home. After 11 years of service, he was appointed to the Board of Zoning Adjustment. He was elected to the City Council on Nov. 2, 2020, where he continues his commitment to thoughtful, community-focused leadership.
Ahead of this year’s election, Garner shared his views on key issues with Village Living.
Q: What inspired you to run for office in Mountain Brook’s 2025 municipal election?
We have incredible things — from our villages to our public spaces to our people and schools — and I want it to be even better. You have to want that from your heart. You don’t do it for business-motivated reasons. You don’t do it to be famous. You certainly don’t do it to make a fortune. We’re volunteers, really — not politicians. That’s why I wanted to do it. I look around and see some incredible things, and I want it to be absolutely out of this world.
Q: How do you plan to strengthen the relationship between City Hall and residents?
The city has a website that we try to promote. The city has apps — the police app, for example — that can keep you updated on inclement weather, road closures, accidents. City Council meetings are not the most exciting thing in the world for people to attend, so we have YouTube where residents can watch. But it’s difficult for cities to disseminate information. We have Facebook pages, and Stuart Franco and his group are trying to help us reach out more than we have. But not everybody is going to sign up for text alerts. Anytime we have the opportunity to tell residents, “Hey, there are some really good avenues for you to see what’s going on,” we try to do that. And people can call me for anything — that’s why I signed up.
Q: What is your vision for the future of Brookwood Village, and what role should city leadership play in that process?
There are three municipalities involved — Mountain Brook, Homewood and Jefferson County. How do you get all three of those groups to agree on a common outcome? It’s going to be difficult. But we’ve already seen some presentations, and there have been a lot of good questions and ideas. I think it’s going to be challenging, but I would love to see more retail. I think all the municipalities ultimately want to work together to make something really incredible.
Q: How closely should Mountain Brook collaborate with neighboring cities on issues like infrastructure and economic development?
You want to be good neighbors because you may need them for something — and they may need you. We’ve talked about the continuation of the bridge between Homewood and Mountain Brook to better connect neighborhoods and businesses. We already do a lot of collaboration. Our fire department has agreements with Homewood, and Mountain Brook is also partnering with Vestavia Hills to build a new fire training facility. So I think collaboration is important — it just has to make sense for your residents.
Q: What are your priorities for managing stormwater and mitigating flooding concerns in the city?
That’s always a big concern. We’ve seen 100-year-plus floods in the past couple of years, and those things happen. We’ve tried to work through it. We’ve done a lot of improvements, especially by the junior high school, because that’s where those big floods hit — and they really affected the church. But sometimes you need cooperation, and you don’t always get it. Our engineers are constantly looking for ways we can improve. But sometimes there’s no clear-cut way to mitigate it. And a lot of the solutions are so incredibly expensive that they could cause problems elsewhere.
Q: How do you intend to guide Mountain Brook’s development and growth in a way that aligns with community values?
Retail is unique to Mountain Brook. I think we have the opportunity to have the greatest retail areas out there. Our villages are so unique compared to every other city. You want to see businesses continue to open, especially small businesses — which are the backbone of the U.S., in my opinion. Whether it’s a restaurant or a retail outlet, you want to encourage them to come when there’s space available. When people bring ideas and opportunities, you don’t want to say, “No, we like it the way it’s always been.” Let’s look for opportunities to make it even better. But they have to make sense — and we have to have the opportunity.
Q: What is your approach to supporting Mountain Brook Schools?
We have a huge role, even if it’s not a day-to-day role. There are school systems around us where the city has much more control. Our main job is to appoint Board of Education members — and that’s a big job. You want to appoint people who care and who have a résumé that has the merits. I try to appoint people who bring extra experience or talents — whether that’s classroom experience or knowledge of education policy. That’s how we support the system. You need thoughtful people who put the schools, the students and parents first.
Q: How would you address public safety and maintain community trust?
It starts with relationships. I’ve built strong relationships with our first responders and Public Works. Just recently, those crews were out in the early morning hours, in bad weather, cutting trees out of the roads so ambulances and police could get through. Magical fairies don’t do that — Public Works does that. That’s how I support public safety: I back those guys. I make sure they have everything they need to do their jobs well.
Garner is running against David Silverstein for the Place 2 seat on the Mountain Brook City Council. The election is Aug. 26. To see Silverstein’s views on key issues, click here.
