Mike Densmore will be the new mayor of Alexander City after narrowly defeating incumbent Woody Baird Tuesday at the polls.
With more than 3,000 Alex City citizens casting their ballots Tuesday, Densmore defeated Baird by just 58 votes. Densmore gathered 1,610 votes in all compared to Baird’s 1,552, giving Densmore a 50.9 percent majority of the vote.
The runoff has been a bitter battle with Baird accusing a local citizen of stealing his signs in order to boost Densmore’s campaign. Baird has been mired in controversy as well, with the Alexander City Council voting to no longer permit Baird to sit at the dais during city council meeting due to his tone toward citizens making public comments.
“The council had enough and made the choice to remove the mayor because of his lack of manors,” councilman Eric Brown wrote in a lengthy Facebook post last week. “As an elected public official, you have to treat everyone with the respect you would like to receive. As a decent human being that is how you should react. Even if you don’t like what they are saying. Even if they did not vote for you. Even if they don’t make sense.”
Brown also criticized Baird for taking credit for projects that were already in the works before he became mayor.
Densmore is an Alexander City native who worked for 30 years for Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company before retiring as director of global strategic planning and organization development. He has also served as a pastor in the community for 40 years.
