Following several years of discussion and a very close vote, Peoria incorporated on June 7, 1954. County supervisors appointed a seven-member town council to serve the inaugural term—four who had been in favor of incorporation (Charles Brice, Manuel Leyva, F. L. Turner, and Roland Pomeroy) and three against (Don Wagoner, O. M. "Mac" Bradshaw, and Carl Hunt). The new council was sworn in and held its first organizational meeting on June 14, selecting schoolteacher Roland Pomeroy to be the city's first mayor.
One year later, the residents of Peoria went to the polls to select the town's first elected officials; returning councilmen Hunt, Kosier, Leyva, and Pomeroy were joined by new members Clarence Meeker, Edmund Tang, and Charles K. Vickrey, who became Peoria's second mayor.