 Again everybody comfortable and ready for this special occasion. Yes we will get started with today's City Council swearing-in ceremony here in our City Hall council chambers with an indication by the Reverend Dr. Thurman Bowens Jr. of the Trinity Baptist Church followed by the presentation of colors from our City of Columbia Honor Guard and a National Anthem and I would turn to the podium. Thank you. Let us play. Father we do thank you for this awesome occasion. We thank you dear Lord for your grace and your mercy. Father we thank you for where you brought Tyler and the position that you have with me and our God. We pray that it will be one that will be a blessing for all of Columbia and that your Lord that His only motive will be to serve the people and we pray dear Lord for our entire City Council that God will have that spirit of taking care of the people so we thank you for giving the right man at the right time for the right position. We give your name all the praise and all the glory and all the honor for seeing Jesus marvelous magnificent and majestic name you do pray that is all we say amen. Again welcome. This is such a very special occasion for the City of Columbia family and we are very thankful for the presence of all Columbia citizens whether you're here if that's in person or hopefully watching at home. Every time we do a swearing-in there's a lot of the same things said but never is there an occasion in which the staff and I take more pride because even though it's the same protocols etc we follow there's always this sense of a special energy I feel like of new beginnings particularly when it's the beginning of a new year and the hope I think that comes with public service and what that means to these individuals to give their time talents and treasures and so we don't take that lightly at all. I want to thank today our program participants and the podium guests of course Mayor Daniel Rickerman and Columbia City Council. Thank you to Reverend Dr. Thurman Bowens Jr. of the Trinity Baptist Church and Reverend Dr. Anthony McCallum of the Bethlehem Baptist Church. The Honorable Daniel Copel is with us and Dr. Stacy Van Pelt-Brennan is here as well as our City of Columbia Honor Guard that he just witnessed and of course we have Councilman Brennan and Councilman Allette Bailey and their families. We also want to send our regards to Councilman McDowell whose oath was previously administered but we certainly are thinking of him and his family today as well. I would also like to acknowledge several members of our community who are in attendance. Members of the clergy, I'm not going to ask everyone to stand or going through the protocol, have to establish protocol. Our neighborhood leaders, elected officials in the room and appointed administrators, presidents, representatives of any higher education institution, state agency heads and members of the judiciary to include our own municipal court judges who are with us today. I also want to ask to acknowledge and some of them maybe standing, if not ask them to stand and personally thank our former Mayor Copel, I know I saw Bob Copel in the room. Members of City Council, Howard Tovall, I'm just going to go ahead and speak it into fruition because it's done, Senator, to reach out and provide any other count. And certainly all of their legacies are forever cherished to us, particularly to me in the past. I want to delve into, when I start calling the names, right, because I don't like to miss anybody, certainly by Luther Batiste. Yes. Is he in the, no, did he just come in the room? So y'all have to help me out. Where is Mr. Davis? Hi, Mr. Davis. This is Sam Davis. I'm on Columbia City Council over the years. Okay. Well, we cherish every single one of you, for sure. Because I work so closely with each of these council members, I recognize the sacrifices that they and their families make to serve our community every single day. Councilman Brennan and Lauren and the children, your parents. Thank you. You know that the staff and I will continue to work really hard with you, particularly as you emphasize beautification efforts and the pride you have in all of our communities. And Councilman Latt Bailey, Elise and the children and the parents, the brothers, I think. We are really excited about the energy Bernie and I have taught. And I'm really excited for you really here to help your eagerness is infectious. And we are here to help you as you learn and share your talents with us. So with that, I will thank everyone in advance for your willingness to serve. Thank our citizens and you as this community who support us in what we do and recognizing the sacrifices that these councilmen will make for Colombia and her citizens. With that, we will begin the administration of the oaths of office. At that time, when the councilman are given their oath, they can get for proof remarks after that if they so choose, and they will take their seats with their colleagues on City Council. To get started, we will have Councilman William Brennan, District three with the oath to be administered by his mother by the Stacy Van Pelt, and at this time, if you all could come forward, thank you. William, if you will repeat after me, please, I do solemnly swear that I am I do solemnly swear that I am duly qualified. I am duly qualified. According to the Constitution, according to the Constitution of the state to exercise the duties of the office to exercise the duties of this office to which I have been elected and that I will to the best of my ability and that I will to the best of my ability discharge the duties thereof and preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of this state and of the United States as Council Member of the City of Columbia as council member the city of Columbia I will equally fairly and impartial equally fairly and impartially to the best of my ability and skill to the best of my ability and skill exercise the trust reposed in me exercise the trust reposed in me and we'll use my best endeavor we use my best endeavor to preserve the peace preserve the peace and carry into effect according to law and to carry into effects and according to law the purposes for which the purposes for which I have been elected have been elected so help me God so help me God you can you can tell my mom and I didn't really work on that so we had to work on the pace there at the beginning I apologize Tyler how about this look at everybody that came out to see you Tyler this is fantastic this is fantastic this is fantastic it just it just lets you know the time is now for our great city you know I've had the honor of serving under two two mayors serving with now a state senator and a group of elected officials that just love this city my former colleague Howard Debal for I guess I can say well you're not former yet about five minutes right but Howard used to he tells a story of teaching the course at the municipal association about you've been elected now what kind of a elected official 101 but I didn't take that course I missed that course I let me tell you I missed that course but luckily we have miss Teresa Wilson at the helm of this wonderful city and the team that she has pulled together truly are innovative hard-working and outgoing and that taught me so much about city operations the the first four years were very educational for me about how important our city functions are to the quality of life for our citizens working with our city staff has been great this Wilson has built a wonderful wonderful team our assistant city managers have surrounded themselves with talented hard-working people and I look forward to working with them for another four years I'm just gonna run through a couple highlights Clint Shealy Frank Askeridge Dana Higgins Tiffany Lattimore and all the Columbia water team thank you for your drive to improve our infrastructure missy Gentry missy over there and Krista Hinton and all the staff and planning and community development thank you for helping our communities and commercial districts grow in a responsible approach mr. Simons Henry Simons thank you for your team and facilities and parks and recreation for believing that our parks and our neighborhood communities are the core and that we need to keep investing in them mr. Palin money man where's Mr. Palin Jeff Palin in the economic development team and the finance teams a special thanks for pushing our economic development pursuits and thinking of innovative ways to provide our public with important capital projects miss Benjamin Pam Benjamin and her staff you really create a great work environment that is so important to keeping our recruitment and retention effort successful Shanique Shanique you know we wouldn't be anywhere without your organization thank you for taking care of all the little details for us chief Jenkins and our fire department team we thank you for your drive to do the best you can do with what is available and we're going to work to change that chief Holbrook you have a fine CPD and code enforcement team and I've been impressed with the professionalism I've witnessed in the community from captain Blondowski in the south region team in district 3 and then there's the employee that hears from me the most our public works department is a hard working group my buddy Robert Anderson Robert Anderson in your team thank you for all you do keeping the city together I promise I'm gonna keep calling you so let's give a round of applause to our city our city staff you know city council members do more than just show up every second Tuesday and sit up here and set policy for our wonderful staff to follow through on you realize you get appointed to boards and commissions we're assigned to a few as each elected official and I have been very fortunate to serve on two regional boards that are so important to the growth of our city our county in our midlands growth has come to South Carolina and how we respond to the city county in a region so important right now as we welcome new large employers to the region transportation in our transit system are more important than ever getting world class talent to world class job is something that the common board is focused on every day the common step and up to the challenge of growth and the effects it has on transportation and it's been an honor serving on that talented board it was the ultimate not to be elected the chairman of the central midlands council of governments serving as vice chair under my friend newberry mayor foster sin who's here today will foster away your hands taught me so much about the importance of all the services our cog provides to the residents of columbia richland lexington and fairfield counties from providing services for seniors to infrastructure planning to workforce development more rolling up my sleeves and working with elected officials from all over the midlands has been refreshing please remember one thing the more we work together as a reason more great things we can do I truly love sir serving our city of Columbia people ask me why all the time all the time and I think it's knowing that we can catch those opportunities are out there for our city and being a part of that drive is something that keeps people on every day but of course none of this would be possible without the support I get from my family my parents my sister katie mac and most of all my life Lauren public as as miss wilson said public service is not just a personal sacrifice it's a family sacrifice and I would not be able to continue on my service to this city without you so thank you at this time councilman elect Tyler D Bailey at large with his oath to be administered by the honorable Daniel cobalt this judicial circuit court Mr. Bailey of Lisa's family I know that feeling Tyler if you're able to repeat after me I do solemnly swear I do solemnly swear that I'm duly qualified I'm duly qualified according to the constitution of this state according to the constitution this state to exercise the duties of the office exercise the duties of this office to which I've been elected to which I've been elected and that I will to the best of my ability and I will to the best my ability discharge the duties thereof discharge the duties thereof and preserve protect and defend and preserve protect and defend the Constitution of this state and up the United States Constitution of this state and the United States as a council member of the city of Columbia as a council member for the city of Columbia I will equally fairly and impartially equally barely and partially to the best of my ability and skill to the best my ability and skill exercise the trust proposed in me exercise the trust imposed on me and I will use my best endeavors and I'll use my best endeavors to preserve the peace to preserve the peace and carry into effect according to law and carrying into effect according to law the purposes for which I've been elected the purposes of which I've been elected so help me God you know when you've done it a couple times like this is the second time I believe your first time I wanted to make sure all my family and friends and supporters were here so I appreciate all y'all for coming before I get started this is probably the biggest speech in my life and I did not prepare a speech I was talking to my wife about two nights ago and she said you go to court all the time and you make arguments I said well when I go to court sometimes I just shoot from the hip and just let what flies out right but it usually works but you know when I ran for city council in 21 and at 23 I never prayed for me to win what I prayed for is if it was God's will for me to serve that the people would let me and democracy I believe there are really no winners and losers everybody who serves they're serving the people and so when I did not win in 2021 and the people of Columbia elected a fantastic councilwoman out of the bustles I was okay and I believe it wasn't my time God had something else for me and truthfully that year and some change was good for me my family and you know this role is so important city council we serve the people of Columbia everyday people you know I think local government is the purest former democracy big enough that you need a whole campaign team small enough that you feel responsible for every problem and Columbia is a big diverse city and what I did every day was I woke up and I worked hard I went out to neighbors neighbor meetings knocked on doors listen to their concerns and the people of Columbia believed in me to serve this role so this is going to be the greatest honor of my life what I do promise y'all is to work hard with integrity to be accessible and to work with everybody on council to move the city forward and the staff work with the staff as well I have to thank my wife Elise Bailey who's a fantastic lawyer and she's really behind everything I do not behind me but beside me and a council member on county council always told me first vote and most important vote that you can get is a vote on your spouse and she was a hard vote to get and what I what I promised in 21 when I ran and again in 23 is that I would make sure to always put my family first to make sure that I'm not going to be the type of leader who forsakes his family for the sake of everybody else and so you serve everybody else I watch my dad pastor countless people my I come from a long line of preachers and the pool of services all demanding at times but I have to serve my family first and you can do both things that's what I'm gonna do on city council I so please give my fantastic wife a round of applause but I could not get up here and not think it's fantastic city staff that we have I'm not gonna name everybody individually but the city manager Teresa Wilson and everybody in the city Columbia staff has been so helpful to me they brought me in I have my orientation where they brought me a bunch of binders and books and said go fish yeah I mean it was a bunch of stuff but I they were helpful and they've been accessible and I look forward to work with the city staff and city council in the years to come and finally I have to thank the people of Columbia who vote for me and the people of Columbia who believe in democracy I ran a city-wide campaign I did not spoke the folks on specific demographics specific neighborhoods I'm gonna be a representative for all people who voted for me people who did not vote for me and we have a great city council we have a great team I think the best days are in front of us we have a great mayor a great council Howard ball was a great leader and I'm humbled to serve who's accessible who cared about people who cared about neighborhoods and I was wanted to put people first that's the type of leader I plan to be and thank y'all I'm gonna need your prayers I'm gonna be supporting years to come but we have a lot of things to be excited about I'm humbled to be for this mic right now and thank you all thankful and proud of this leadership and all the wonderful things that are in store for the city of Columbia as we prepare for the benediction I too want to thank the staff they always pay attention to every detail down to getting the right flowers I'd like to be in this room for these events I thank you thank you thank you won't be in any names except for our wonderful city clerk Erica Hammond to ask Reverend Dr. Anthony McCallum to come forward of the bed with him back to church for the benediction and please join us for a reception to be held in the city hall lobby immediately there after this we're in there and thank you so much for being here look to the Lord for this benediction our gracious God as we stand before you in this hollow moment of prayer we pray for our mayor city manager city councils county commissioners police chiefs our judges and all who serve our local communities strengthen them all with wisdom and grace for the heavy burdens they may carry may they all manage the affairs of the city with integrity and love as they work in the best interest of the citizens of Columbia that they are called to serve now may the blessing of God that he may keep us and guide us may the Lord make his face shine upon us and be gracious unto us may the Lord lift up his countenance upon us and give us peace on this day and every day and forevermore amen