Council veteran picked for Maumelle opening

Former Maumelle City Council member Marion Scott-Coney is back on the council, although representing a different ward from her previous time as an elected official.

Maumelle City Council members voted Tuesday night to appoint Scott-Coney to fill the Ward 2 position vacated by Marc Kelley, who resigned last month because he was moving out of state. She will fill the remainder of Kelley's term through 2020. Kelley was unopposed in 2016 for his second term on the council.

Six candidates had applied for the vacated position, including Rick Anderson, the other Ward 2 council member. If Anderson had been moved to the vacant position, an appointment would have been needed to be made for his seat.

Scott-Coney received four votes, Anderson one and Randall Mazzoni one in the only voting round needed. She had been elected to a Ward 3 seat in 2014 but resigned in June 2016 after she and her then-fiance, Doug Coney, bought a house in Maumelle's Ward 3.

Scott-Coney has been active in the community as a volunteer for many years and most recently has been chairman for Maumelle Vision for the Future, a group working through the Maumelle Area Chamber of Commerce to promote an upcoming special election for an increase in the city sales tax. The election is March 13.

With the new appointment, the Maumelle City Council has half of its members who first joined the council by appointment: Scott-Coney in Ward 2; G.K. Timmons, who replaced Scott-Coney in Ward 3; Terry Williams, Ward 3, who filled a seat vacated by Preston Lewis in 2016; and John Vaprezsan, Ward 4, who filled a council vacancy resulting from council member Caleb Norris being elected city attorney in 2014. City Clerk Tina Timmons was also appointed in October 2016 to fill the elected position after Joshua Clausen resigned.

Vaprezsan gained a full four-year term without opposition in the November 2016 general election. Also in the 2016 election, Williams would have been elected without opposition to replace Lewis, who resigned after the filing window closed. She also was the only applicant for Lewis' vacated position, leading to her appointment by the council before the November election.

Metro on 02/22/2018

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