Incumbent Paul Head retains Council seat

Incumbent City Council member Paul Head has won reelection to the Vestavia Hills City Council, defeating challenger David Harwell in the city’s only contested race in 2020.

Head, who has served one term on the Council, gained 1,080 votes to Harwell’s 531. After being reelected, Head said it’s important to “finish what we [the current Council] started.”

“Things have been going good,” Head said. “Our city’s never been better.”

Head said there was no reason to not continue with the same Council, while he also said Harwell was a “good guy” and obviously cares for the city.

After losing, Harwell said while he thought he would have done better than the votes showed, he enjoyed running for office.

“It was fun; I enjoyed it,” Harwell said. “That’s the way the cookie crumbles.”

Harwell again expressed concern for the city’s long-term debt and said he may not have gotten his message out well enough before the election. 

Still, Harwell, who said he considered himself a gracious loser, congratulated Head on reelection and said he loved everyone in the city and on the Council.

Voter turnout was low, with just 1,611 votes cast in this year’s lone municipal election, which only had the one Council seat on the ballot. Mayor Ashley Curry, along with council members Rusty Weaver, Kimberly Cook and George Pierce, were all unopposed in their bids for reelection.

City Clerk Rebecca Leavings said about 5.5% of the city’s roughly 29,000 registered voters cast a ballot in the election.