SMITHS STATION, Ala. - Smiths Station has a new mayor. The City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday, Nov. 10, to name Victoria Green, the council's mayor pro tem and its Place 5 member, as mayor, according to The Observer in Opelika and WTVM. Green fills the seat left open when Mayor Richard Cooley died Oct. 24, and she will serve the rest of his four-year term, which runs through November 2029.

Lee County Probate Judge Jere Colley swore Green in at the meeting, The Observer reported. The vote came 17 days after Cooley's death, well inside the 60-day window Alabama law gives a council to fill a mayor's vacancy. Green had already been handling the mayor's duties since Cooley died, according to the city's Facebook page as cited by The Observer.

How the council chose a mayor

Because Smiths Station has fewer than 12,000 residents, Alabama law does not call for a special election when a mayor's seat comes open, WTVM reported. Instead, the council must pick a successor within 60 days, and it may choose one of its own members or any other resident of the city. If a council fails to act in that time, The Observer reported, council members and the mayor may send nominees to the governor, and if the governor makes no appointment within 90 days, the county probate judge must call a special election.

Councilman Dwayne Peterson told WTVM before the vote that anyone interested could apply through the city clerk's office, though he said a sitting council member was the likely choice. The council met in a work session and then a regular meeting at City Hall on Nov. 10, and WTVM reported that the meeting was open to the public. In the end, members nominated Green and voted for her without dissent.

Who Victoria Green is

Green represented Place 5 on the council for six years, The Observer reported. She told WTVM that Cooley, who was her neighbor, asked her to run for the council seat in the first place, and that she won the seat after talking it over with her family. She said Cooley also asked her to run again in 2020.

"I would not be able to do this position without all the people of Smiths Station," Green told WTVM. She said she plans to focus on economic growth, including bringing new commercial development inside the city limits. Green also told The Observer she did not expect to be in this position six years ago, and she said the past three years have "not been easy for this city."

That last remark points to a hard stretch for City Hall. Cooley himself became mayor as an interim appointee in 2023, after Mayor F.L. "Bubba" Copeland died by suicide, according to The Observer. Cooley then won a full term as mayor in August 2025, and Green is now the second council member in three years to be elevated to mayor by her colleagues after a death in office.

A new mayor pro tem and an open council seat

The council also chose Place 4 Councilman Dwayne Peterson as mayor pro tem to replace Green, and that vote was unanimous as well, The Observer reported. "As you can see by how emotional her swearing in was, she cares about this city, the people and we all do," Peterson said. Under the city's mayor-council form of government, council members serve at large by place, and the part-time mayor serves as the city's chief administrative officer, according to the city's website.

Right after taking the oath, Green read a letter resigning her Place 5 council seat, effective immediately, The Observer reported. She asked the council to follow state law to fill it and noted that a 60-day window had begun that day. WTVM reported that the city plans to post the opening, take applications, interview candidates and vote on a replacement within that window, and residents who want to be considered can contact City Hall at 2336 Panther Parkway or 334-297-8771.

Remembering Richard Cooley

Cooley was 79 and died peacefully on Oct. 24 at Columbus Hospice House, surrounded by family, according to the city as quoted by The Observer. He was a Smiths Station native who helped lead the effort to incorporate the city, and he served on the council starting in 2004. Before public office, he spent 40 years in education as a teacher, principal and superintendent, and he was a U.S. Air Force veteran who served during the Vietnam War.

Green announced at the meeting that the Lee County Commission planned to present a resolution honoring Cooley on Thursday, Nov. 12, at 5 p.m. Central time at the Lee County Justice Center, The Observer reported. District 3 County Commissioner Jeff Drury attended the Nov. 10 council meeting. The tributes follow more than two decades in which Cooley's name was tied to nearly every stage of the city's short history.

About Smiths Station

Smiths Station was officially incorporated on June 22, 2001, and had 5,384 residents in the 2020 census. The city sits in southeastern Lee County, about 8 miles from Phenix City along U.S. 280 and U.S. 431, and it is part of the Columbus, Ga., metro area. Although Alabama runs on Central time, Smiths Station and nearby communities keep Eastern time in daily life, and City Hall lists its hours as 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern, Monday through Friday.