John Vaprezsan, a pastor and volunteer chaplain for the Maumelle Police Department, won a 4-3 vote Monday night from the Maumelle City Council to fill a vacant Ward 4 alderman's position.
Aldermen chose Vaprezsan for the ward's Position 1 seat over former Ward 4 Alderman Jan Hogue, whose term in the Position 2 seat ended Wednesday. Hogue hadn't sought re-election in November but was one of six ward residents to apply for the Position 1 vacancy created when Alderman Caleb Norris was elected city attorney in November.
Aldermen Steve Mosley, Rick Anderson, Marc Kelley and Jess Holt chose Vaprezsan on the final ballot. Aldermen Ken Saunders, Preston Lewis and Marion Scott voted for Hogue.
Vaprezsan led with three votes from Mosley, Kelley and Holt on a first ballot on which aldermen chose one applicant from among all six. Hogue and Kacey Ziegler, an attorney with the Nash Law Firm in Maumelle, tied with two votes each. Hogue then won a runoff vote between the two, 4-3.
Aldermen interviewed all applicants in an open forum to begin Monday's meeting. Other applicants were: David Gershner, an attorney with the Davidson Law Firm in Little Rock; Andrew Tullos, chemical and irrigation manager for sales at Pugh's Earthworks in Maumelle; and George Wilken, retired science and operations officer for the National Weather Service in North Little Rock. A seventh, Jonathan Thames, market communications manager for AT&T's Arkansas-Oklahoma region, withdrew his application earlier Monday, Mayor Mike Watson said.
Vaprezsan has been senior pastor at Freedom Baptist Church in the neighboring Morgan community since moving from Michigan to Maumelle in November 2010. He told the council that he has logged more than 6,000 hours of volunteer service within the local community in those four years, including serving as chaplain for the Police Department and on the Community Advisory Board for Maumelle Water Management.
During his interview, Vaprezsan said he considered the alderman's job "to represent the constituents of Ward 4, to open communication with them and to give them fair representation here at the City Council."
Asked if he could envision a situation where he would vote against his constituents' wishes, he said that "the easy answer would be no."
"I don't know if I have the right to go against them," he said. "I'm not here to represent myself. I'm representing them."
As an alderman, Vaprezsan said he wanted to bring more attention to "those in need" in Maumelle, generally regarded, he added, to be a wealthy city.
"We in Maumelle are blessed," he said. "But we do have a great deal of needs here. The people of Maumelle are very generous, but if they don't know a need exists, they can't help."
When asked if he considered running for the position during the Nov. 4 election, Vaprezsan said that he did, but found out a day late that the deadline to file for office had passed.
Hogue had been on the City Council for 10 years. The last three years came after being appointed by the City Council to move from the Position 1 seat to Position 2 to fill out the term of former Alderman Brenton Witonski, who resigned when he moved out of the ward.
Prior to the meeting, Watson and other newly elected and re-elected officials were sworn in. Vaprezsan was then sworn in after his selection so he could join the council for the remainder of the meeting.
Metro on 01/06/2015