 Well, we will begin 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 invocation 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 our return to the podium. Thank you. Let us pray. Father, we do thank you for this awesome occasion. We thank you, dear Lord, for your grace and your mercy. And Father, we thank you for where you've brought Tyler and the position that you have in me. Now, God, we pray that it will be one that will be a blessing for all of Columbia and that, dear Lord, that his only motive will be to serve the people. And we pray, dear Lord, for our entire city council, that God, they will have that spirit of taking care of your people. So we thank you for getting 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, we do pray that us all say amen. Please be seated. 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 with us 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, et cetera, 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 who 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 Kobel is with us, and Dr. Stacey Van Pelt Brennan is here, as well as our City of Columbia Honor Guard that you just witnessed. And of course, we have Councilman Brennan and Councilman Alette 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. I'm just 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 may be standing, if not ask them to stand and personally thank our former mayor Kobel. I know I saw Bob Kobel in the room and members of City Council, Howard DeVall. Yes. And I'm just going to go ahead and speak it into fruition because it's done Senator Tamika Ise Devine. Any other count is, oh, where is Ms. Enclare? Oh, Ms. Anson Clare. Yes. The legend, the legend Ms. Anson Clare and certainly all of their legacies are forever cherished to us, particularly to me and the staff. I'm sorry. Luther, the other legend. Luther Batiste. Do you see what I get asked myself into when I start calling the names, right? Because I don't like to miss anybody, certainly not Luther Batiste. Yes. Is he in it? No, did he just come in the room? So y'all have to help me out. Where is Mr. Davis? Hi, Mr. Davis. Mr. Sam Davis. Yes. Too many legends to count 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 made 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 Alec Bailey, Elise and the children and the parents, the brothers, I think. We are really excited about the energy you bring you 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 Columbia 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 give a brief 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, Dr. Stacy Van Pelt Brennan. And at this time, if you all could come for William, if you will repeat after me, please. I do solemnly swear that I am do we swear that I am duly qualified 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, I will 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 will use my best endeavor will use my best endeavor to preserve the peace preserve the peace and carry into effect according to law and to carry into effect and according to law the purposes for which the purposes for which I have been elected. 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 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 DeVall, I guess I can say, well, you're not former yet. About five minutes, right? But Howard used to or 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 Mr. 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 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, hardworking people and I look forward to working with them for another four years. I'm just going to run through a couple highlights. Clint Shealy, Frank Askeridge, Dana Higgins, Tiffany Latimore and all the Columbia water team. Thank you for your drive to improve our infrastructure. Missy Gentry, there's Missy over there and Krista Hampton 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 efforts successful. Shanique, where's 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 and the South region team in district three. And then there's the employee that hears from me the most. Our public works department is a hardworking group. My buddy Robert Anderson, Robert Anderson and your team. Thank you for all you do keeping this 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 and our midlands. Growth has come to South Carolina. And how we respond to the city, county and region is so important right now. As we welcome new large employers to the region, transportation and our transit system are more important than ever. Getting world class talent to world class job is something that the comet board is focused on every day. The comet stepping 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 nod 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 a wave your hand, 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 and 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 serve 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 and being a part of that drive is something that keeps me going every day. But of course, none of this would be possible without the support I get from my family, my parents, my sister, Katie and Mack and most of all my life Lauren public as Ms. Wilson said public service is not just a personal sacrifice. It's a family sacrifice. And I would not be able to continue my service to this city without your love. So thank you so much. Thank you so much. The time is now for this great city and I look forward to the next four years. Thank you so much. Okay, Mr Bailey, your turn at this time. Councilman elect Tyler D Bailey at large with his oath to be administered by the Honorable Daniel cobalt Fifth Judicial Circuit Court Judge Mr Bailey of Lisa family. I know that feeling. Tyler, if you're able to repeat after me, I do solemnly swear that I'm duly qualified according to the Constitution of this state to exercise the duties of the office to which I've been elected and that I will to the best of my ability discharge the duties thereof and preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of this state. End of the United States Constitution of this state and the United States as a council member of the city of Columbia, council member for the city of Columbia. I will equally fairly and impartially 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 carrying into the purposes for which I've been elected the purposes of which I've been elected so help me God so help me God congratulations councilman. So Will you're right there's a lot there are a lot of people here for me so you know when you've done it a couple of times like well it's your 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 in 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 elect 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 Colombia elected a fantastic council woman out of the bustles I was okay and I believe there was 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 Colombia everyday people you know I think local government is the purest form of democracy big enough that you need a whole campaign team small enough that you feel responsible for every pothole and Colombia 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 Colombia believed in me to serve in this role so this is going to be the greatest honor in my life what I do promise y'all is work hard with integrity to be accessible and the 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 that I do not behind me but beside me and a council member of county council always told me the first vote and most important vote that you can get is a vote of your spouse and she was a hard vote to get she was a hard vote to get and what I what I promise 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 watched my dad pastor countless people my I come from a long line of preachers and the pool of service is all demanding at times but I have to serve my family first and you can do both things that's what I'm going to do on city council I have so please give my fantastic wife a round of applause for voting for me 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 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 it was 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 voted for me and the people of Columbia who believe in democracy I ran a citywide campaign I did not focus on specific demographics or specific neighborhoods I'm gonna be a representative for all people who voted for me and people who did not vote for me and we have 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 DeVall was a great leader and I'm I'm humbled to serve coming behind councilman DeVall he was the type of leader who was accessible who cared about people who cared about neighborhoods and always 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 we need your support in the years to come but we have a lot of things to be excited about I'm humbled to be before this mic right now and uh thank you all I know about you all but I'm charged up and ready to go I better be right I mean I I absolutely have to be so I'm so thankful and proud of this leadership and all the wonderful things that are in store for the city of Colombia 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 like to be in this room for these events I thank you thank you thank you I won't begin to name names except for our wonderful city clerk Erica Hammond who keeps us all going we will ask Reverend Dr. Anthony McCallum to come forward of the Bethlehem Baptist Church for the benediction and please join us for a reception to be held in the city hall lobby immediately there after the swearing-in ceremony thank you so much for being here let us all 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 this city with integrity and love as they work in the best interests 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 in every day and forevermore amen