SEAN MCCOY SWORN IN; SEVEN NOW ON COUNCIL
For the first time in more than a year, the Longmont City Council had all seven of its seats filled during Tuesday night’s regular meeting.
Shortly after 7 p.m., Sean Mccoy took the oath of office and was officially sworn in as an atlarge city councilman.
Longmont Mayor Joan Peck previously held the at-large seat but vacated it last year after winning the city’s mayoral race. Mccoy will complete what would have been the remainder of Peck’s term through 2023.
In the Nov. 8 election, Mccoy defeated Gary Hodges and Mitzi Nicoletti — whom Peck endorsed — in the at-large race.
“I’m prepared to come up with ideas and work with others. I got a … phone call from the mayor, and we’re going to catch up,” Mccoy said in a separate interview Tuesday. “It was positive. … I know I can work with her, and I know I can work with other members on Council.”
Mccoy won the at-large race after securing 13,155 votes (35.8%) whereas Nicoletti received 12,208 votes (33.2%) and Hodges 11,309 votes (30.8%).
“You got to have … thick skin if you’re going to serve on council,” Mccoy said. “You can’t be too thin skinned on things.”
Mccoy takes office at a time when several developers hope to build large-scale projects in Longmont including a 75-townhome development on a nearly 6-acre property in the Bohn Farm neighborhood and an 85-room boutique hotel at the northwest corner of Third Avenue and Kimbark Street.
Residents of the Bohn Farm
neighborhood have raised concerns about the proposed project’s density, among other issues.
“I grew up in that neighborhood. Some of my family members still live in that general area,” Mccoy said of Bohn Farm. “That’s really a bad idea to have that many houses in that … area. It’s not really characteristic of it.”
While the council will weigh in on various developments in the coming months, it has decided to hold off on crafting any new gun-safety ordinances until the summer, if at all.
“Just in general — around guns — I just never in my life needed to carry a gun into a store to get milk, eggs and bread, and … I’ve lived a long time,” Mccoy said.
A Longmont native, Mccoy graduated from Longmont High in 1984 and has an undergraduate degree in political science and a master’s in education.
Mccoy teaches U.S. government at Monarch High School in Louisville and previously served on the Longmont City Council from 2007 to 2011.
“I’m very excited that he’s there,” Peck said of Mccoy, immediately following Tuesday’s Council meeting. “He knows the routine. We just very easily flowed.”