Norris defeats two opponents, wins term as Maumelle’s mayor

City Attorney Caleb Norris won a three-way race to become the new mayor of Maumelle on Tuesday night over retired District Judge Roger Harrod and one-time gubernatorial candidate Leticia Sanders.

Maumelle Mayor Mike Watson announced July 2 that he wouldn’t seek re-election after three terms.

Incomplete, unofficial results were:

Norris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,075 Harrod . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,767 Sanders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 873

Norris, who will be 39 next month, was elected city attorney in 2014. He ran for the position two years into his first term as a Ward 4 council member, resigning after winning the attorney’s job. He previously was an attorney with the Arkansas Municipal League.

Norris will take over as a long-awaited new interchange at Counts Massie Road and Interstate 40 is scheduled to be completed to help relieve traffic off of Maumelle Boulevard. A $14.6 million low bid was opened Oct. 24 with a construction completion timeline of 299 days, or within the first year of the new mayor’s first term.

“If the third interchange goes in, I think it will help with traffic some,” Norris said Tuesday night from an election watch party. “It won’t solve anything, but it will help. As far as economic development, I think it is one of the city’s best opportunities to grab some of the retail and restaurants that Maumelle citizens have been asking for.

“I think we just need to be optimistic and let businesses know that we want them and they’re welcome in Maumelle,” Norris said. “And we need to be aggressive in how we market ourselves.”

Norris chose to run for the mayor’s office rather than seek re-election as city attorney, where his annual salary was $85,000. The mayor’s annual salary has been $81,600 with a $6,500 vehicle allowance, or $88,100 total. The Maumelle City Council is considering legislation to do away with the vehicle allowance and raise the mayor’s salary to $88,100.

“I have spent the last four years in a support role and I enjoyed that a lot, but I also learned a lot about some of the things I think we can do better than we are currently doing,” Norris said. “And I threw my hat in the ring.”

Harrod, 73, retired as an attorney from the Nash Law Firm in Maumelle in June. He served as a three-term district judge for Maumelle until 2016 and is a former chief legal counsel for the state Department of Workforce Services. Harrod campaigned on his experience in government and business, which included being former senior vice president of TCBY Enterprises and vice president for development for Ouachita Baptist University.

This is the second political office Sanders, 42, has sought this year. A self-employed hair braider and a partner in a cleaning service, Sanders ran in the statewide Democratic primary for governor in May, losing to Jared Henderson.

The mayor’s four-year term begins Jan. 1.