SMITHS STATION, Ala. - The five members of the Smiths Station City Council are working against a 60-day clock to choose a mayor to finish the term of Richard Cooley, who died Oct. 24 at age 79 after about three years in the office. The council took up the vacancy at its 6 p.m. meeting Tuesday at City Hall, 2336 Panther Parkway, following a work session, according to WTVM and the city's online calendar. Whoever is chosen will serve the rest of Cooley's four-year term, which runs through November 2029, the Ledger-Enquirer reported Nov. 5.

The outcome of Tuesday's meeting was not available when this story was prepared. Councilman Dwayne Peterson told WTVM on Nov. 6 that the council planned to discuss its preferred candidate at the regular meeting and hold the actual vote at a later session once a choice was announced. The council's next scheduled work session and meeting fall on Nov. 24, according to the city calendar.

Who is running the city now

Council Chair Pro Tem Victoria Green has been performing the mayor's duties since Cooley's death, WTVM reported, and the city's Facebook page described her as filling in during the interim, according to the Ledger-Enquirer. Green holds the council's Place 5 seat, according to the city website, which lists George Stringer in Place 1, Adam Littleton in Place 2, Steve Lansdon in Place 3 and Peterson in Place 4. Smiths Station's mayor is a part-time position that serves as the city's chief administrative officer, the website says.

"We are deeply saddened by this tremendous loss," Green said in the city's Oct. 24 statement announcing Cooley's death, which WTVM published that evening. The statement said Cooley died peacefully with his family at his side. The city later announced a visitation and funeral in Smiths Station, with burial at Fort Mitchell Cemetery, WTVM reported Oct. 26.

How the appointment works

Smiths Station had 5,384 residents in the 2020 census, which puts it well under the 12,000-population line that separates Alabama's two mayoral succession rules. In cities of 12,000 or more, the council president automatically becomes mayor for the rest of the term, according to a vacancies explainer from the Alabama League of Municipalities. In smaller cities such as Smiths Station, the League says, "the council can fill the vacancy either from its own membership or from outside the membership of the council," and the appointee must meet all the qualifications for mayor.

The city told residents it is following the timeline in Section 11-44G-1 of the Code of Alabama, the Ledger-Enquirer reported. Under that process, the council has the first 60 days after the vacancy to elect a replacement at a regular or subsequent meeting. If the seat is still vacant after 60 days, council members have 30 days to submit nominations to the governor, and if the governor makes no appointment within 90 days of the vacancy, the Lee County probate judge must call a special election.

The League's explainer says a council that misses the 60-day window "by default, loses its right to fill the vacancy." The dates in the table are calculated from the Oct. 24 vacancy and are not deadlines the city has announced. The city has said only that it intends to act within that window.

Who can be chosen

The next mayor does not have to be a sitting council member, Peterson told WTVM, though he said it likely will be one. "The city council is going to sit down and we are going to discuss who actually we think would be the best person," he said. Anyone interested in the job must apply through the city clerk's office, the station reported; the clerk is Cyndi Farmer, reachable at 334-297-8771, ext. 3, according to the city website.

If the council picks one of its own members, that council seat opens next, and the council would fill it at a later meeting, the Ledger-Enquirer reported. That is how the city handled its last mayoral vacancy. After the council appointed Cooley interim mayor in November 2023, it chose Peterson, a retired Army veteran, from five applicants to take Cooley's council seat on Dec. 12, 2023, according to a Ledger-Enquirer profile published in January 2024.

The 2023 precedent

Cooley came to the mayor's office through the same process the council is using now. Mayor Bubba Copeland died by suicide in November 2023, and Mayor Pro Tem Morris Jackson, who had the right to succeed him, declined, the Ledger-Enquirer reported. About two weeks later the remaining four council members, Jackson, Stringer, Lansdon and Green, voted unanimously to appoint Cooley, then in his fourth council term, as interim mayor.

Cooley then won a full term in the August 2025 municipal election with nearly 52% of the vote, WRBL reported at the time. "I am incredibly honored to be serving as your Mayor for a full term!" he wrote after the result. He was sworn in that November, and his death a year later leaves three years on the term.

Who Cooley was

Cooley graduated from Smiths Station High School in 1965, served four years in the Air Force as an aircraft maintenance technician and crew chief, including a tour in Vietnam, and later earned education degrees from Auburn University and Troy University, according to al.com and the Ledger-Enquirer. He spent about 40 years in education as a teacher, assistant principal, principal, assistant superintendent and superintendent before retiring in 2016. He joined the council in 2004 and was one of the leaders of the effort that incorporated Smiths Station as a city on June 22, 2001.

His campaign listed a community storm shelter for more than 500 people, an expanded sports complex and closer ties with Fort Benning among his accomplishments, al.com reported. He is survived by his wife, Brenda, according to WTVM. Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones told the station, "We are all saddened that we have lost a good man with the passing of Mayor Cooley."