 in response and expressing his desire to work collaboratively for the people of Wellington and our continued service to the other. I've known him for nine years now since the day that we were both elected the first time back in 2012. And I've always had a lot of strength from us. I congratulated him on establishing himself as a citywide leader tonight and agree with his desire for collaboration. I also received a gracious call from Councillor Ali-Jane and I congratulated him on the rest of the campaign. It's a significant accomplishment to bring many new voices into the democratic process and to secure over 13% of the vote in a year of historically high voter turnout in the city while running as an independent backing of any party. Today, under unprecedented circumstances, a record number of Wellingtonians renewed our local democracy and set the course for the city for the next three years. I'm honored by the opportunity to continue to serve this great city and help all of the folks in this little margin. In many ways, I believe my job in the months and years ahead is very clear. Fighting the virus must be the highest priority in the city government until we have widespread deployment of the vaccine. Once we reach that milestone, our top priority must be to lead a just economic recovery. And all the while, we must continue to make meaningful progress on advancing racial justice and addressing the climate diversity. My promise to you, to the Wellingtonians, is that our city team will take on the challenges ahead using the same kind of hard work, innovation, collaboration and persistence that has made Wellington one of the safest cities in America throughout the pandemic. The work ahead is serious, we must and we will succeed. At the same time, tonight's results have shown us that we have hard work to do to forge a new consensus about where we go as a community on public safety, housing, racial justice and more. I think we all agree with President Tracy that the goal of local government must be to create a growing from the worst for all. In the years ahead, I will continue to listen and work with the council and all Wellingtonians to find that new consensus and secure that progress. Before I say any more about the work ahead, I would like to say a little bit more. I'd like to offer another really hard fell and important thank yous. First of all, I want to thank the Echo Lady Center, the Lake Champlain for opening their doors late today to provide us with a COVID-safe space to march, mark this important night for the community. I was on the Echo Board a decade ago when we were trying to build this room and it's always hard-working to be here when this institution is functioning in this important way for the community. Of course, it has such a great community-minded institution everywhere, spectacular waterfront. Thank you, Patrick, Will, Pike, and Kevin for running this important race. Each of you has shown your commitment to our state. We're fortunate to have such strong engagement in local government in Burlington. And this year saw an engagement once again amidst challenging and unique circumstances with an election that was hard-bought, respectful, and substantive. I want to thank our incredible campaign team, Samantha, Cian, Viteer, and I, Claire Cummings, and Julia, who I don't think are able to be with us but have been a huge part of this effort. This election has been unlike any other, it can't be unlike any other, and you three plus our dozens of volunteers and interns who worked diligently to figure out how to do this, how to have a campaign in the middle of a pandemic, to reach every voter in Burlington in new and creative ways, deserve huge cheers. And I'm so grateful for all your hard work and support. I want to say a special thanks to the city's amazing, innovative, focused, and tough 600-plus person staff team. Thank you for all you've accomplished over the last 12 months. In normal times, city workers labor long, hard, and often unseen, to provide a huge range of essential and rich services to the people of Burlington and our business. And over the past year, with staff shortages and COVID threats, our team has continued to deliver the high-quality services that Burlingtonians expect and taken on a new high-stakes challenges never asked of city workers before. To all of my city colleagues, I hope you see Burlingtonians' decision to continue with our team as a validation of the hard work and sacrifice that each of you has made, and of the critical services you have delivered to people of our great city in East Johnson-Petsch. Running for mayor is absolutely a family affair, and none of us would be able to date such a commitment without the dedication of our loved ones. And I want to thank all the loved ones that the other candidates in this race, their support and encouragement made it possible for them to step up and participate in this important community of eight. And of course, I want to thank my parents, Ethel and Michael, for teaching me about the values of public service and for all of their love and support. And of course, I am able to run and serve as mayor only because of the love from and the sacrifice of my family. Honestly, thank you to Stacy and Lynn and Ada for all of their love and support over the past nine years and we're signing off for another three. I love all of you. Sorry, sorry, it's gotten me tonight. You can't be with us here on the waterfront. Well, as I said earlier, the work ahead is serious and requires a success. I also want the people running to know that we have much to look forward to in the months and years ahead. Soon, these miraculous vaccines will bring an end to this pandemic. Our lives will expand once again. Then, equipped with enormous relief and infrastructure resources from the federal government, we have the opportunity to remake and rebuild much to see government in our community. We will make permanent the emergency government innovations the last year. Going forward, we will continue to have local public health capacity. The ability to offer one-on-one constituent services and strong trusted communication channels with our BIPOC communities. Through infrastructure investments, we will better protect the lake, electrify the city's buildings and vehicles, dramatically reduce our climate footprint, and accelerate the renewal of our downtown streets and sidewalks. If I continue to pursue all this work and much more through the lens of racial justice, as we have since the early days of this pandemic, we will begin to eliminate the racial health disparities that the pandemic has laid bare. By choosing to keep in place the experience, proven leadership team, brilliant teams that give us the opportunity to forge meaning and progress at the pain of the last year, and emerge from this time of crisis truly stronger, more racial justice, greener, and more affordable. No matter which candidate you voted for, my door will always be open for feedback from and conversation with everyone in our community. I pledge to all the people of Brooklyn that I will work every day to make good on the promise of these unprecedented times. Thank you again for your confidence in our team. I wish you and your family a good job and good day. Thank you.