The voters of Mountain Brook voted to reject change candidates and instead re-elected both of the incumbents on the ballot in Tuesday’s municipal election.
In place 3, incumbent City Council President William “Billy” Pritchard defeated challenger Kent Osband. Pritchard received 5,320 votes (70.7%) to Osband’s 2,186 (29.1%).
In place 5, incumbent Lloyd Shelton defeated challenger Tate Davis. Shelton received 5,051 votes (67.2%) to Davis’s 2,459 (32.7%).
In Place 1, incumbent Alice Womack did not seek re-election.
Graham Smith defeated Christopher Powanda. Smith is a former Legislative Director for U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Alabama). She was endorsed by Shelton. Smith received 5,530 votes (73.5%) to Powanda’s 1,990 (26.5%).
41.9% of Mountain Brook’s 18,197 registered voters participated in Tuesday’s election – a very high number for a municipal election.
Mountain Brook has staggered elections. Mayor Stewart H. Welch III, Gerald A. Garner, and Virginia Smith have terms that will not run out until 2024.
The wealthy Birmingham suburb has been gripped by controversy ever since the school system tried and later withdrew a plan to adopt a tolerance curriculum advanced by the Anti-defamation League. Social conservatives objected to the new policies claiming that the school system was engaging in liberal indoctrination of students rather than classical instruction.
Some parents also expressed concerns about the school system’s mandatory masking policy during the COVID-19 global pandemic. Recently conservative Mountain Brook parents claimed that a quiz given to students to gauge their opinions as part of the perceived liberal indoctrination in the schools.
The city council does not direct the highly ranked Mountain Brook public schools, but they do appoint the members of the school board. Since conservatives could not vote out school board members, they directed their anger into the city council races. An effort that at this point appears to have backfired as Mountain Brook voters preferred the ‘establishment’ candidate by over a two-to-one margin.
Alabama has nonpartisan municipal elections where candidates do not have to declare a party affiliation. Mountain Brook has a city manager form of government.
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