Who Runs Homewood Now? The City Manager, the Adopted 2027 Budget and What It Means for Homeowners

If you own a home in Homewood, or you are shopping in Edgewood, West Homewood, Hollywood or Rosedale, the way the city is governed stopped being trivia sometime last November. Homewood is in its first full budget cycle under a form of government it had never used in its 100-year history, and the decisions being made this month set the service levels, capital projects and reserve targets that a homeowner actually feels.

Here is what changed, who is making the calls now, and what the Fiscal Year 2027 budget tells you about where Homewood is headed.

What changed in Homewood’s city government?

Homewood residents voted in September 2024 to replace the traditional mayor-council setup with a council-manager form of government. The change took effect with the terms that began in November 2025, following the August 26, 2025 municipal election.

Two things changed at once. First, a professional city manager was added as the city’s chief administrator, responsible for day-to-day operations and for preparing the budget. Second, the council itself got much smaller: Homewood went from a five-ward, 11-member council to four wards and five members, with one council member elected from each ward and the mayor serving as council president, according to reporting by The Homewood Star. Jennifer Andress was elected mayor in that race and took office November 3, 2025 – the first woman to hold the office in Homewood.

The short version for residents: the mayor is still the elected face of the city and presides over the council, but the person who runs the departments and builds the budget is a hired professional who answers to the council.

Who is Homewood’s city manager?

Cale Smith was named Homewood’s first permanent city manager in February 2026 after serving as interim city manager from November 2025. Smith is not an outside hire: he had already worked for Homewood for roughly two decades, including a stretch as the city’s Director of Engineering and Zoning.

That background is worth noting if you are a homeowner planning an addition or a builder working in Homewood’s older neighborhoods. The person now setting departmental priorities came up through the department that handles permits, plan review and zoning, which is the part of city hall most Homewood homeowners eventually interact with. Homewood also brought on a new Finance Director, Aspen Collins, in August 2026; the city notes she previously served as Deputy Finance Director and Deputy County Administrator for Mobile County and as Finance Director for the Tuscaloosa and Bessemer housing authorities.

Where does Homewood’s money come from?

The city laid this out unusually clearly in its own budget explainer. When you buy something in Homewood, the sales tax you pay is split like this:

In the proposed budget, the city estimates that each penny generates roughly $11.57 million. That single number explains a lot about how Homewood behaves. A city that funds itself heavily through sales tax has a direct financial interest in its commercial corridors performing – which is why redevelopment along Oxmoor Road, 18th Street and US 31 gets the attention it does, and why the West Homewood and Oxmoor Road redevelopment work is a budget story as much as a neighborhood story.

It also means the city’s revenue is sensitive to retail conditions in a way that property-tax-heavy budgets are not. The city says as much: if sales tax collections come in higher or lower than expected, it affects how much the city can spend.

What did Homewood’s adopted 2027 budget change?

The final weeks of hearings were mostly about how to close a gap. City Manager Cale Smith has described the city as facing a shortfall of several million dollars, and he told the Council, as reported by The Homewood Star, that the city is “living outside of our means because we’re using fund balance.” Here is what the plan headed into the vote looked like, based on reporting from The Homewood Star, WBRC and 1819 News:

The same night, the Council also approved a minor rezoning at 1832 25th Court South, declared two fire-damaged buildings on 29th Court South unsafe, and approved $90,000 for OpenGov budgeting software. A pre-council review of the Fiscal Year 2025 audit showed the city’s net position fell by about $935,000, partly because of a $5.8 million payment toward the I-65/Lakeshore Drive interchange project.

What it means for homeowners: the bigger signal in this budget is that the city is spending reserves to hold service levels steady, and council members called this budget a starting point. Buyers comparing Homewood with nearby cities should watch the next audit and next year’s budget for how the gap is closed.

How did the 2027 budget take shape?

City Manager Cale Smith presented the proposed Fiscal Year 2027 budget to the City Council on August 10, 2026, at approximately $77.9 million in the General Fund. By the September 15 hearing, the figure under review had moved to $76.9 million – a reminder that everything stays proposed until the Council adopts it.

The hearing schedule runs September 8, 15, 17 and 21, with September 24 held in reserve if another session is needed. The Council took up adoption on Monday, September 28, and Fiscal Year 2027 begins October 1. All hearings are open to the public and are live streamed and recorded.

The city’s own summary of the September 15 session describes department heads answering questions about contracts, maintenance, staffing and future needs, with the broader discussion focused on finding savings, improving contract tracking, and moving closer to real-time financial reporting. The city also says it is looking at where services could be combined and building better long-term plans for buildings, vehicles and equipment.

If that sounds like process rather than headlines, that is the point. Long-term capital planning for buildings, vehicles and equipment is exactly the kind of thing that determines whether a city is patching potholes reactively in five years or replacing streets on a schedule.

What else is Homewood working on right now?

An outside staffing study. At the September 14 pre-council meeting, the Council received an independent organizational and staffing assessment from the firm MGT, which reviewed staffing, department structure, reporting relationships and work processes, interviewed department heads, surveyed employees and compared Homewood with peer communities. The city is explicit that the study is not an adopted plan and that no decisions were made – it is a roadmap for discussion.

The US 31 project. Construction began September 8, 2026 on ALDOT’s US 31 Access Management Project between Old Montgomery Highway and Ventura Avenue. The city describes it as a State of Alabama project coordinated by ALDOT, with most work happening overnight. It includes upgraded traffic signals, changes to reduce conflict points and crashes, new sidewalks, ADA-compliant curb ramps, pedestrian signals and safer crossings. Total construction cost is approximately $3.3 million, funded primarily through a $1.96 million ATRIP II grant from the state, with the City of Homewood contributing roughly $1.36 million as required by the grant agreement.

Homewood is not the only Birmingham-area corridor in motion this fall; the US 280 widening that opened in September changed commute math for a lot of over-the-mountain buyers as well.

Why should a Homewood homeowner or buyer care?

This is the part that usually gets skipped, so let us be concrete about it.

The local view from The Williams Group

The Williams Group at Keller Williams Realty works across the over-the-mountain suburbs, and one thing we see consistently is that buyers moving into Jefferson County from outside Alabama underestimate how much municipal structure varies from one city line to the next. Homewood, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook, Hoover and Trussville each fund themselves differently, tax differently and permit differently, and those differences are not cosmetic.

Homewood’s shift to a city manager is the most structural change any of our Birmingham-area markets has made recently. It is too early to draw conclusions about outcomes – the first budget under the new system has not even been adopted yet – and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What we can tell you is that the city is publishing more of its financial reasoning than it used to, which makes it easier to answer the questions buyers actually ask: how are the schools funded, what is the city spending on infrastructure, and is the tax base stable.

If you are comparing Homewood against a neighboring city, the funding comparison is worth doing carefully. Hoover’s two-county split is a good example of how much the same house can differ in annual cost depending on which side of a line it sits on, and our explainer on Alabama property taxes and the homestead exemption covers the piece that shows up on your own bill.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

City of Homewood, 2027 Budget: Where Does the Money Come From?, Budget Hearing September 15, 2026, Homewood Staff Organizational Study, Hwy 31 Construction Begins and New Finance Director. The Homewood Star, Municipal election set for Aug. 26 as city enters new form of government.

September 2026 update sources: WBRC, Homewood City Council approves 2026-2027 budget; The Homewood Star, Council to vote on 2027 budget Monday, Sept. 28; City of Homewood, Pre-Council and Council Meetings Sept. 28, 2026; 1819 News, Homewood budget hearing.

Last updated: September 29, 2026. The City Council adopted the Fiscal Year 2027 budget on September 28, 2026; figures reflect the plan presented for that vote.