Gary Zolliecoffer, whose 2006 election as mayor of Altus prompted a flurry of court action because he was a convicted felon, died Friday before he could take office after being elected Nov. 4 to the Franklin County Quorum Court.
According to an obituary on Shaffer Funeral Home's website, the funeral for Zolliecoffer, 66, of Altus will be 2 p.m. today at the Altus Church of the Nazarene with burial at the Nichols Chapel Cemetery.
"It's sad. He was a good man, and what happened was years ago. It wasn't him," Franklin County Clerk DeAnna Schmalz said Tuesday.
Zolliecoffer, a Republican, had won the District 6 seat on the Quorum Court after running uncontested in the Nov. 4 general election, Schmalz said. She said incumbent District 6 Justice of the Peace Mary Jane Cains, a Democrat, had filed to run for re-election but dropped out of the race before the May primary.
Schmalz said officials were aware Zolliecoffer was convicted of larceny and burglary in 1965 at age 16 and that though he polled more votes against incumbent Mayor Veronica Post in 2006, Post was certified as the winner and Zolliecoffer never served in the position.
But Schmalz said the research she did didn't resolve the question of whether Zolliecoffer actually was eligible to serve on the Quorum Court. She took the question to the county election commission but was told it wasn't the commission's job to decide that issue. Commission President J.P. Pendergrass did not return a call for comment Tuesday.
"As far as I'm concerned, on Jan. 1, Gary Zolliecoffer would have taken the oath and would have served on the court," she said.
She now has turned her focus to the process of finding a replacement for Zolliecoffer. She said she believes the Quorum Court will have to declare a vacancy in the position after Jan. 1 and send a request to the governor's office to appoint a successor.
Paris attorney Kevin Barham, who represented Zolliecoffer in the court challenges against his taking office as Altus mayor, said Tuesday that it was the Arkansas attorney general's office that laid the issue to rest.
In a 2009 Pulaski County Circuit Court challenge to Gov. Mike Beebe's refusal to commission Zolliecoffer as Altus mayor, an assistant attorney general argued the court could not overrule the governor's discretion in commissioning officials for office.
"He was the 'ultimate fail safe,"' Barham recalled the assistant attorney general arguing in court. '"If the voters screw up, it was up to the governor to fix it."'
In an April 2009 opinion sought by Beebe over whether he was required to commission Zolliecoffer, the attorney general said no. The governor had a responsibility to uphold the Arkansas Constitution's prohibition against convicted felons serving in public office.
Zolliecoffer's court challenge was dismissed in October 2009, the judge ruling that he did not have jurisdiction over the governor's commissioning powers, the court records showed.
Zolliecoffer received 136 votes in the 2006 election to Post's to 123. But after the election, Post challenged Zolliecoffer's eligibility because of his felony conviction.
Barham had responded at the time that no judgment was ever filed in the case and that that voided any finding Zolliecoffer was a felon. He also argued that challenges to eligibility could only be brought up before the election. Post didn't make her challenge until after the election.
After initially certifying Post as the winner of the election, the election commission, in 2008, certified Zolliecoffer as winner.
Multiple court challenges by Post, one of which went to the Arkansas Supreme Court, were rejected, the courts ruling they didn't have jurisdiction over the election matter.
NW News on 12/03/2014