The Quantico Town Council appointed Brandi Maly as a member of the six-member governing board that oversees the only independent town in the U.S. located within the borders of a military base.
We first told you earlier this month Seungwon Kang refused his appointment to the town council after winning the third-most votes out of 13 candidates who sought one of six seats on the council.
According to Mayor Kevin Brown, who was also re-elected, Kang lived in Stafford County when voters chose him to be on the council. While Kang owned a business in the town at the time of the election, he did not reside in the town, a requirement to serve on the council, according to state law.
Kang’s name appeared on the ballot produced by county elections officials despite not living in the jurisdiction he wanted to serve.
Maly will serve until a Special Election is held in November 2023 to fill the seat permanently. Brown said the town tried to schedule a Special Election earlier in the year. Still, the Prince William County Office of Elections advised against the move citing an upcoming Primary Election on June 20, 2023, said Brown.
In a twist, Brown added that the Quantico Town Council appointed Kang to its Planning Commission last month, which reviews development and land-use cases and makes recommendations to the town council after he became a resident of the town.
Brown has been mayor for more than 10 years, serving six 2-year-terms. In all that time, never have a total of 14 names appeared on the town election ballot for an election.
Brown says things in the town are going well — revenues from taxes, user fees, and parking tickets are up over previous years despite stringent rules since January 2020 that limit the public’s access to the base and, by extension, the town nestled on the Potomac River.
“There are many people from the base coming into the town, properties are being fixed up, and things are generally headed in the right direction,” Brown told PLN.
Nearly 600 people live in Quantico town.
