Updated: Deputy Mayor Dana Parnello added a comment.

The Maple Valley City Council brought on the newest member to its seven-member team during the April 30 special meeting.

The council choose Syd Dawson, an active community member, to be the next council member for position No. 5 after a three and a half hour special meeting.

The final choice ended up coming down to three candidates — Syd Dawson, Christopher Tallman and William Prince — out of the 11 that applied.

Deputy Mayor Dana Parnello also added that Carla Denise Edwards was an excellent candidate as well and was considered highly for the spot as well.

Mayor Sean Kelly said all 11 of the candidates were great, but it came down to involvement in the community. He said the council felt like Dawson had very good responses.

“We started looking more at their applications and Syd Dawson stood above. He’s very involved in almost every facet of the community — the historical society, the Greater Maple Valley Community Center, the school district, boy scout den leader — you name it, he’s been in involved, which is great,” Kelly said. “We wanted someone who was very involved in the community and knows what’s going on. Community contributor, that’s who we were looking for.”

Of the many questions that were asked during the interview process, Kelly said there was one that stood out to him most — “Where do you see the city of Maple Valley in 10 years?”

“I thought that was a big one right there. Syd kind of stuck out when answering that, he talked about the legacy site, and also Syd is on the Legacy Site Task force. That’s our job, (to) set policy and a vision for the next 10 or 15 years,” Kelly said.

Another part of Dawson’s response to that questions according to Kelly was, “to build on our community partnerships, he talked about that quite a bit. He also talked about the historical society and the community center, how those are a very important part of the area.”

Dawson has also been on the Highlands at Lake Wilderness Homeowners Association for about eight years, was on the Tahoma School District Elementary School Boundary Committee, was board president for the Seattle University Albers School of Business from 2012 to 2014, and is still an active member on that board.

Kelly said the council and the city are appreciative of the 11 community members that applied for the position.

“All 11 of them were outstanding, they had great passion and visions for the community,” Kelly said.

Dawson officially gets sworn in May 14.