 Let us pray. God our Father, we come before you this day with thankful hearts for the many graces and blessings that you have bestowed upon us. We're thankful for all of our current city council members and our mayor for their hard labor and endeavors made for the good of our beloved city that we call home. As our newly elected city council member Peter Brown assumes his duties to help lead and guide our city, we ask that you empower him to bear his responsibilities with the utmost integrity, courage, and humility. May he be inspired with courage, wisdom, and compassion so that he may stand in solidarity with the needy and the poor and defeat prejudice, injustice, and intolerance so as to unify our city. May he be guided to know and to do what is right, good, and true to challenge and defy anything that would diminish justice in our city, in our country, and in the world. May we always see in him a humble dedication to the service he's been called to. And may he see in us a willingness to give him our full support and continued prayers. We ask this through Christ our Lord, amen. Welcome, everyone, to this very special occasion for the city of Columbia. We are so thankful for the presence of all Columbia citizens in person and hopefully those also watching from our streaming platforms. Thank you to today's program participants, the Reverend Monsignor Richard DeHarris, the city of Columbia Honor Guard members, Judge Casey Manning, and Mayor Daniel Rickerman as we officially welcome Councilman Alled, Peter M. Brown, to the city of Columbia family. So like to acknowledge that I've been doing this a little while and I want to forget anybody. So bear with me, members of our community who may be in attendance, members of the clergy, neighborhood, and business leaders, elected and appointed officials. I see many of our officials from the Richland County. Thank you for being here with us. Any presidents, representatives of higher education institutions, state agency heads, or members of the judiciary to include any of our municipal court judges that may be here. Because I work so closely with each council member, I recognize the sacrifices that they and their families make to serve our community every single day. Councilman Alled Brown and Mrs. Brown, thank you in advance for your willingness to serve and all the sacrifices you will make for Columbia and her citizens. The city staff and I are here to help you and we look forward to getting to know you both and your daughters, Ashley, McCain, Cecilia, and Mary Rutledge who's here with us today. At this time, we will proceed with the oath of office to be administered by the honorable L. Casey Manning, retired circuit court judge of South Carolina. Judge Manning, Mr. Brown, Mrs. Brown, Mary Rutledge, come forward. Can you all hear me? Good. One of the privileges that you have as a retired circuit court judge, you get an opportunity to speak before you get ministered to. And I will tell y'all briefly that I've known Peter for over approximately a quarter of a century. I remember when they moved into the house right across the street for me before you were born. And when I got a phone call, I was surprised, but not totally surprised, but very pleasantly surprised to have been asked to participate in this very important event for the citizens of not only the city of Columbia, but of this great state. I can't think of a better person to be here at this time at this moment than another Joey Taylor's looking down smiling because he knows that Peter Brown can fill his shoes and no one Joey Taylor, he would tell you to buy a size a little bit larger than the ones he wore in anticipation of what you will run into in this job. I'll use three, four letter words to describe my feelings about Peter Brown. First of all, he's a good man. He's a fair man, therefore he's a just man. And as a result of those three, four letter words, you'll find out that he is an honest man. And I can't thank you for anyone better to come in at this time and here's to this great city to be a member of city council. It's very special once again for me to be able to participate in this event. Now, with that having been said, Bible, if you're left here holding it, I've done this many times before folks. All right, raise your right hand. You are Peter Brown, Is that correct? Yes, sir. I Peter Brown As a council member of the municipality of the city of Columbia I will equally. I will equally, barely and impartially to the best of my ability and skilled. Exercise the trust. Exercise the trust. Repose the name and I will use and I will use my best endeavors to preserve the peace and carry into effect according to the law, the purposes for which I have been elected, so help me God. I do solemnly swear that I am duly qualified according to the constitution of this state to exercise the duties, of the office to which I have been elected, and that I will to the best of my ability to discharge the duties thereof and preserve and protect and defend the constitution of this state and of the United States. So help me God. Ladies and gentlemen, John Lowe with his lovely wife Pam, and his daughter Mary Rutgers. I have the privilege to present to some and introduce to the other the next city councilman for the great city of Columbia, Peter Brown. Thanks Judge Manning. I just want to thank everybody for being here today. Obviously I want to thank my wife Pam and my daughter Mary Rutledge. We call the three of us the core family of the Browns. The older daughters are not here today, so I would also like to thank Ashley McCain and Cecilia for all of their support and what makes us a wonderful family. But first of all, the most important thing is that I think the city of Columbia, the voters believed in our messaging. It was always the same. Columbia is a great place to live. It's a great place to raise a family, and it's a great place to run a business, but we can do better. And that's really what I'm here for is hopefully to bring a little different perspective to this great institution and really just kind of help carry on what Joe Taylor did for, and Joe and I have known each other for a long time. And obviously I feel blessed to be in this position and honored that I'll be filling his position. So thank you once again for everything, and I look forward to getting to know everyone here. I'm really excited, and I can't wait to get to business tomorrow. Thank you. I too would like to thank everybody for being here. It's a great day. Pam, thank you for letting them do it. It's important for the city. It's important for us. And Peter's joining a family of folks, our council that's here who truly believes that Columbia is the place to be, and that it should be the number one city. Now we debate and we argue, but at the end of the day we do everything because we care about this city. And Peter's going to fill the void. He's going to be part of that, and we're very excited that he's here. I want to thank our folks from Richland County for being here, Mr. Chairman, Ms. Newton, Mr. Brannum, Patrick, and Leonardo. I really appreciate y'all being here. That means a lot because I think over the last 14 months, we've tried to create relationships and collaboration, and I think you're going to continue to see that with Peter filling a void that we've had over the last several months. Also, we'll do a little housekeeping, remind everybody that there is some refreshments downstairs, opportunity to talk and meet with Peter, and we hope y'all will join us. But this is a great day, and it will continue to move forward. We've had an incredible run. The city is moving forward. There's more excitement than we've ever seen, and it's because we're all working together. So thank you. Let us pray. Loving God, as we conclude this swearing-end ceremony and go forth from this place, may we cultivate the capacity to see humanity and dignity of those whose lives touch ours and whose lives we touch, so that we treat everyone with respect and reverence. May we recognize that our lives are to be measured not by the titles we carry, but by the number of hearts we heal and lives that we transform. May we walk away from this gathering determined to find ways to live an inspired life, to absorb the inspiration of others, and become an inspiration ourselves to those around us. Give us, Lord, the peace the world cannot give, and your protection and safety as we go our separate ways. And now, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and may Almighty God be with us all. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Let us go in peace.