After a sometimes-controversial election cycle, Smyrna’s Town Council is back to full membership.
Ayonne “Nick” Miles campaigned for weeks to win a seat on the Town Council in a race he lost by just six votes. By contrast, it took only a matter of minutes for council members to unanimously elevate Miles to a different vacant seat on the council at a meeting Tuesday night.
After the vote, Miles was immediately sworn in.
The vacancy arose last month following the sudden resignation of at-large Councilman Bill Pressley after the council voted on April 8 that one of the two candidates for Mayor, George Coates, was ineligible to run. Pressley was the only vote in favor of Coates’ candidacy. Two weeks later, he resigned in protest.
“The election was wrongly handled and left our people no stand - no vote," Pressley told colleagues on April 21. "So with that [said], I am resigning tonight.”
Miles will serve out the remainder of Pressley’s term, about a year. He is one of three new members of the six-person council along with Ken Olson and Nelson Drew Jr. Mayor Tabitha Gott is also new in her position, although she served on the council previously.
