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Hildale • The City Council here approved a fellow councilman to replace the community's mayor of 25 years Tuesday.
Philip Barlow, 48, will be mayor at least until the November election, when he will run for the office.
"I'm just glad to serve," he said. "I just want to dedicate myself to the success of this community and building it up."
Barlow, a service writer and auto repairman at the locally owned Streamline Automotive, has been on the City Council since his appointment in September 2006.
The four other City Council members at Tuesday's meeting approved him unanimously.
His cousin, George M. Barlow, was appointed mayor of next-door Colorado City, Ariz., on Monday. In both cases, theirs were the only names put forward.
The two communities on the Utah-Arizona border are the home base of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Nearly all residents of the two cities are members of the Warren Jeffs-led polygamous sect.
Former Hildale Mayor David Zitting resigned in January. Both he and his counterpart in Colorado City, Terrill Johnson, were among about 30 men exiled from the church and the community by Jeffs in recent months, according to former FLDS Church members with ties to the community.
Jeffs is awaiting trial on bigamy and sexual assault charges in Texas but has been able to communicate using a phone in his cell.
Council members also approved a $5,000 retirement package for Zitting.