GULF SHORES, Ala. — The City of Gulf Shores has introduced the newly sworn-in members of its Junior City Council for the 2026-2027 term.
The students were officially sworn in at the City Council meeting on Monday, Sept. 14. Afterward they took part in a meet-and-greet with Mayor Craft, council members and several city department heads.
The city described the gathering as an opportunity for the students to connect directly with the people shaping their community. FOAM Coffee hosted the event and provided space for the group.
The 2026-2027 Members
Members of the 2026-2027 Gulf Shores Junior City Council are:
- Ellyauna Adams
- Graham Archer
- Antonella Castro
- Addison Cosci
- Eli Gilbert
- Liliana Grandy
- Jud Harris
- Giuliana Kammers
- Evelyn Lamar
- Jameson Leaman-Ferguson
- Autumn Milliken
- Georgia Phillips
- Sydney Prantl
- Hudson Riggs
- Emily Tellez Romero
- Abigail Rowland
- Clayton Smith
- Haven Spruiell
- Rivers Watley
What a Junior City Council Does
Junior city councils are structured civic education programs in which students meet over a school year, learn how municipal government functions, and in many cases develop proposals or projects they present to the adult council.
The value is in the specifics rather than the ceremony. Most residents, including most adults, have only a general sense of how a city actually works — where revenue comes from, what a planning commission decides versus what a council decides, how a capital project moves from proposal to construction, what a department head’s job involves day to day. A program that puts students in the room with those officials for a year produces a group of young residents who understand the mechanics.
Formally swearing members in at a regular council meeting, rather than at a separate ceremony, is a deliberate choice. It places the students in the actual setting where city business is conducted, in front of the officials who conduct it.
A Local Business Hosts
FOAM Coffee hosted the meet-and-greet following the swearing-in. Local businesses providing space for civic programs is a small but practical form of community support, and it gives the students a venue more conducive to conversation than a council chamber.
Gulf Shores
Gulf Shores is a coastal city in Baldwin County whose year-round population is considerably smaller than the number of people present during tourist season — a dynamic that shapes much of its municipal decision-making, from infrastructure sizing to public safety staffing.
Students serving on the Junior City Council will see that dynamic from the inside over the course of the term.