 Good evening and welcome and happy new year. I'm just going to let us take one breath together to enter the space and the moment. Given there is a quorum of the council present, I'm calling the January 2nd, 2024 Special Town Council meeting to order at 641 p.m. I'll call the roll. Please use your microphone to say present when I call your name. Pat D'Angeles. Present. Anna Devlin-Gothier. Present. Fricka Ate. Present. Lynn Grissomar. Present. Mandy Jo Hanneke. Present. Bob Hegner. Present. Paula Lord. Present. Pam Rooney. Present. George Ryan. Present. Kathy Shane. Here. Andy Steinberg. Present. Jennifer Taub. Present. Alicia Walker. Present. Thank you. There will be no public comment period at this special meeting. However, there will be a public comment period at the regular council meeting on January 8 and at every regular meeting. Comments may be submitted at any time in writing online at www.amherstma.gov slash council comment. Quick announcements following this special meeting, we will hold a ceremonial swearing in for all newly seated town officials. Everyone is welcome to stay. Upcoming town council meetings are January 8 and January 22. Committee meeting dates will be set by committees once members are appointed. You can check amherstma.gov slash calendar for board and committee meeting notices. The council's first order business is the election of the president and vice president. Once a president is sworn in, I'll pass the gavel to them and they will preside over the remainder of the meeting. First, I'm gonna ask the town clerk to come up and swear in any counselors who haven't already come in to be sworn. This is just gonna be a quick one and then we'll have some ceremonial swearing in afterwards. Suadette, our town clerk. Good evening, everyone. Welcome, happy new year. Hi, hi. So nice to see everybody. So for those of you who have not been sworn in, I believe Hala, Anna, Pat and Preke, if you wanna stand and raise your right hands please. I'm gonna do a general swearing here. Okay, do you all solemnly swear or affirm to faithfully and impartially perform the duties incumbent upon you by your election to the town council? All right, congratulations and thank you. First, we're going to elect a president. I'll open the floor for nominations. Nominations do not require a second. Counselors may self-nominate. And I ask that your nominations be a name only, no statement or discussion. I'll ask each nominee if they accept the nomination, which is just a yes or a no, no statement or discussion. Once there are no more nominations, I'll ask each nominee if they'd like to make a statement up to two minutes. And then I'll open the floor for counselor statements. Each counselor will have an opportunity to make one statement for up to two minutes. We'll do the vote by written ballot. Each of you has an envelope with little ballots to write your preferred counselor or abstain. After I collect the ballots, I'll announce the results. Seven votes are required to elect a president. If there is no winning nominee, we'll repeat the process until there is. The floor is open for nominations. George. Nominate Lynn Grisimer. Do you accept the nomination? I do. Thank you. Anna. I nominate Mandy Jo Hanneke. Mandy, do you accept the nomination? I do. Are there any further nominations? Seeing none, I'm gonna ask each nominee if they'd like to make a statement up to two minutes long. Lynn, please go ahead. Thank you. First of all, thank you for the honor of being nominated, George. I appreciate that. With five years of this form of government under our belts, if you will, I look forward to taking a hard look at our charter, our roles of procedure, and along with that, the role of the president and vice president. I am sure that each of you as counselors have thoughts about changes you would like to see. My list includes, but doesn't end here, ways to have the role of the president be more manageable, whether that includes agreed upon responsibilities for the vice president, committee chairs and co-chairs, and all other counselors. How to effectively evaluate and prioritize issues as they are introduced to the town council. And subsequently, how to increase greater understanding of the issues by the public, the actions that the council may or may not take, and the consequences of those actions, and how to shorten our council meetings. Some requests I have of all of the counselors are the following. That you join us for agenda setting, but not just for one or two meetings, but for an entire month, so that you get to see the flow of issues and how they get discussed in agenda setting. That you look at how you can contribute to shortening meetings, and that you seriously look at which committees you would like to serve on based on your interests and expertise and your desire to learn. And finally, that you let me know how you are doing and how I can best assist you in achieving your goals as a town counselor. Thank you. Mandy. Thank you. I am running for president because I believe the council needs a real choice in its leadership, and it has not had one since 2021. Having spoken to many of you, I have heard both the desire for change and that two terms is long enough for a leader. You want change in how the president leads, operates and ensures succession. If elected, I offer it all. I will not only bring positive change to the role of the president, but I will also ensure that the vice president is ready to assume the role. My term as president would be marked by our values of promoting a healthy balance, teamwork and transparency because I will ensure that more counselors are included. I promised this in 2021 and I promise it again. I will ensure the presidency is doable by any counselor, not just those that don't have full-time jobs. I will distribute the representative duties among all counselors. This includes the numerous meetings with other groups that presidents attend and the ceremonial celebratory events. Let's share these opportunities together and help achieve a healthy balance for the role of the president, encourage more teamwork among counselors and provide opportunities for more counselors to flourish in leadership and advocacy. You heard these same promises from Lynn tonight and three years ago because she made them in 2021 when she was last challenged for president to quote her speech from three years ago, quote, I will delegate opportunities to represent and lead the council at other events and meetings. Yet in the three terms since that promise, the role of the president has not changed. Other counselors have not been provided opportunities to represent and lead and the president has not ensured that the vice president is ready to succeed as a leader. In her time as president, Lynn has not lived up to her promises regarding the role of the presidency. I will. Choice is good and change is healthy. If you want a person who lives up to the promises she makes regarding the presidency, a president who will ensure that the vice president is ready to assume the role in one year. And as Lynn said in 2021, a presidential role that is quote, more doable, more transparent for those who follow, I ask you to vote for me. The floor is open for other counselors who wish to make a statement, one statement up to two minutes. Kathy, please go ahead. In the enviable role of sitting where the president usually sits, I thought I should at least raise my hand. You know, I think we're facing a difficult choice, but I don't think change alone is a value. In fact, when I worked with the federal government, I was often happy that leadership had depth and they kept on a roll. And there were several leaders that except when parties massive changed, I was glad to have them continue. I think Lynn has grown with the role, thinking back on the first year, I always worried that if she didn't look to the left and the right, she would not see my hand. And since I didn't know her, I wouldn't be called on. So she's gotten much fairer and more able to scan the room, which is helped by Zoom. And she really does an amazing job in juggling what is often an exhausting agenda. And I totally agree with what Mandy said. And we've all been saying, the agendas just need to be less packed to make the job easier to do. But so far, Lynn's been able to end exhausting meetings with a smile and an even temper. That said, I think we need a change in as we look to this coming year to be more inclusive, sharing talks, sharing representation that don't need to be just the president, agenda setting, much more extensive involvement in agenda setting, multiple agendas rather than just one. I would like the president not to be on more than one council committee and can be ex officio on the others and to thinking of maybe sharing the chair role so that others can learn how to chair what is often a very difficult meeting to chair. Some of these run against our charter. If you read the charter, it says the president shall appoint the president. I'll ask you to wrap up now, Catherine. Can be on any committee and shall chair. But I think we can set a precedent in our own rules and our own behavior on how sharing will be more constant. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other counselors who would like to make a comment? George, please go ahead. I think probably like many of you when I meet people who are not from Amherst and I tell them that I serve on or I have served on a town council. They are curious about the form of government and I describe it to them for a few minutes and almost invariably asked me, you don't have a mayor and I almost always respond, well, we have 13 mayors. I think the challenge that Linus faced and anyone faces in her role is how to get 13 people to work together and to some common goal. And while I can understand desire for change and I share it to some degree, I think that Linus is the right person at this time to continue to try to get 13 mayors to find some kind of common direction. I think a lot of it falls on us as individual counselors. It's not something that's written in the rules. That is the task of the president of the council. I also want to push back a little bit on Mandy. I don't think the role of the vice president is something that the president is supposed to be preparing for leadership. The only thing it says in the rules is the vice president runs the meeting if the president is not present. So I hope that my colleagues will support Lin. I think she'll do a good job. And so that's why I put her name in nomination. Are there any other comments? Pat, oh, I'm sorry, I thought your hand was up. George and Kathy, your hands are still up. Seeing no other comments, I'm gonna ask you to fill in your paper ballots now. Councilor Atte voted for Lynn Griesmer. Councilor Rooney voted for Griesmer. Councilor Taub voted for Griesmer. Councilor Walker voted for Hennikey. Councilor Hennikey abstained. Councilor Lord voted for Griesmer. Councilor Devlin-Gothier abstained. Councilor Ryan voted for Griesmer. Councilor DeAngeles voted for Griesmer. Councilor Griesmer voted for Griesmer. Counselor Steinberg voted for Grismar. Counselor Shane voted for Grismar. Counselor Hegner voted for Grismar. I have 10 votes for Lynn Grismar and one vote for Mandy Johanke with two abstentions. Thank you. Cathy, if you don't mind, I'm going to stay here. I've had a cold and I just assume not share it with the council. This way, I can see you all. Do you solemnly swear or affirm to faithfully and impartially perform all duties and come in upon you as president of the Amherstown Council? I need to remember to push the button. Forget somebody remind me, please. We are going to move on to the election of the vice president, and I need to just find my script for that. The election of the vice president is open for nominations. It does not require a second. Counselors may self-nominate, name only and no statements or discussions at the time of nomination. I will then ask each nominee if they accept the nomination, yes or no, and no statements will be made at that time. In alphabetical order, each nominee if they would like to make a statement, they may do so for up to two minutes. The floor will then be open for counselor statements, and each counselor is allowed one two-minute statement. You have a written ballot, your name is on that ballot, and just as we just did for the president, you will use that ballot. Each vote counselor X votes for counselor Y. Announce the results, seven votes required, and if no winning nominee, we repeat the process, and then the person is swearing it, sworn in. The floor is open for nominations. Pam Maroney? I'd like to nominate Anna Devlin-Goffer if she's willing. Anna, are you willing? I am. Thank you. Okay. Halla Lord? I would like to nominate Alicia Walker for vice president. Alicia, are you willing to run? Yes, I am. Thank you. Okay. Are there any other nominations at this time? Then going in an alphabetical order, we will start with Anna Devlin-Goffer for a two-minute statement. Over the past two years, I have learned a great amount about what it means to be part of the leadership of this council. As vice president for the past two years, I have built a foundation of trust with our state legislators. I have learned how to support counselors in bringing forward their ideas and visions and bringing them to fruition, getting them on agendas. I have worked with the president to push our individual understandings and ensure diversity of thought in the leadership of this council. My ideas for the coming term include increased work as a liaison to our state and federal legislative bodies. As vice president, I will track the bills that Amherst has submitted and those which the council may have an interest in supporting. I will support the president by writing and providing testimony and working with those officials to meet the needs of our community. We know there are lots of emerging needs in our community. I have shown my ability to work in this way in the past two years. Some examples at the West East Rail hearings and writing a home role which is currently at the state. I believe that the council should have someone specifically designated to do that work and that given the responsibilities already on the plates of committee chairs, it would be an appropriate duty for vice president. Perhaps the strongest attribute I bring to the role of vice president is my ability to both support the council and productively challenge the process in order to advance it. I am constantly asking maybe to the chagrin of the clerk of the council and the president why things happen the way they do. Pushing us to consider how we might change processes in order to be more inclusive and disrupt the systems of power that are inherent in government. We have seen changes in the inclusion, for example, the inclusion of the vice president in meetings with our state legislators as a demonstration of that commitment. I know that I am returning to this role and it is not without significant consideration. As many of you know, I was considering running for president. I recognize that at this time, the role of president is not conducive for someone who also holds a full-time job. I plan to work with the president in the coming term if she is amenable to it, to shift the way that things are done empowering counselors and committee chairs, always asking why and continuing to build new ways of conducting business. In the coming term, I can promise you there will be no complacency. I am coming in with ideas informed by experience and ability honed in the same way. I hope I have demonstrated my competence and my commitment and my willingness in the past two years. I humbly ask for your support in continuing this role. Thank you. Alicia, please go ahead. Thank you, Lynn. So I do just want to take a minute to say that my acceptance of my nomination has nothing to do with how I feel about Anna's service as vice president. I think she has been an amazing vice president for the council for the last two years. And so I just wanted to make that very clear. And I am honored to be nominated alongside her for this role. So contrary to what some of my other counselors have expressed tonight, I believe a great deal in sharing leadership and power sharing. And I think that our council and our town would greatly benefit from having different voices, different leadership and changes a lot more often than we have seen. And so again, this has nothing to do with Anna. I think she has done an amazing job. I just think we need change and I think we need choice. And I really was interested in accepting this nomination because I didn't think that we should just have one person walk into being the vice president or the president. I think that it's healthy for us to have choice, to have options. And I would like to step up at this time because I believe that for me personally, this is an opportunity for growth and an opportunity for learning. My first two years on the council have been a huge learning curve for me. I have learned a lot about government and how things work. I also have spent a lot of time asking questions to Athena, asking questions to Lynn and other counselors. And I will continue to do so if elected as vice president. So I don't step into this role to make promises of how I think I will be able to lead. But that I promise to be a leader that listens and learns. And I think we should look into trying new things. So I will be somebody who is willing to think outside of the box to think about how things can be changed, to be more accommodating to those who may not have had positions of leadership in the past. I want this council to be a place where we can lead by an example, where we can support and uphold each other. And I think that that includes allowing other people to step into positions of leadership and to sort of step back to the side at other opportunities to be able to support them. And so for this reason, I do accept my nomination. And I again, I'm really honored to be nominated alongside Anna. Thank you. Are there comments that people from the council would like to make? Hala. Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to speak. I want to uplift Alicia Walker's nomination for presidency with an open heart. I do adore you, Anna, and I thank you for your service. But I'm also thinking about our community. I'm thinking about the fact that just at first glance, the people of color on this council are about 23 or 25%. I don't know everybody's lived experience, but I'm also thinking that about 1.5 of us are living in apartments. So I'm thinking about our community at large and how and or what lived experience can bring to the experience, not to ever undermine or demean what each of you have to bring in your heart and your commitment to all of us. But I also hope that we uplift in a different way, lived experience, so that we can represent all of Amherst in a a new, wholly authentic and loving way. I do hold each of my esteemed colleagues here in my heart, for sure, but I just want to secondly verbalize, although I don't like speaking in public, Alicia Walker's nomination for vice president. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other comments from councillors? I'm not seeing any at this time. Therefore, I'm going to ask you to write your choice on your ballot and the clerk of the town council will collect them. Councillor Grissimer abstained and said she would be glad to work with either candidate. Councillor Ette voted for Devon, Gauthier. Councillor Rooney voted for Devlin, Gauthier. Councillor Taub voted for Walker. Councillor Ryan voted for Devlin, Gauthier. Councillor Hegner voted for Devlin, Gauthier. Councillor Shane voted for Devlin, Gauthier. Councillor Steinberg voted for Devlin, Gauthier. Councillor Devlin, Gauthier voted for Devlin, Gauthier. Councillor D'Angeles voted for Devlin, Gauthier. Councillor Lord voted for Devlin, Gauthier. Counselor. Oh, I'm so sorry. Counselor Lord voted for Walker. I'm so sorry. Counselor Walker voted for Walker. And Counselor Haneke voted for Devlin Gauthier. That's nine votes for Devlin Gauthier, two, three for Counselor Walker, and one abstention. Congratulations, Anna. Anna, you need to stand up and go be sworn in. Do you solemnly swear or affirm to faithfully and impartially perform all duties and come in upon you as vice president of the town council for the town of Amherst. Congratulations. What did she say? That was you again. I'm fine. Either way, we have no hearings tonight. We have no general public comment, no consent agenda or resolutions and proclamations. I don't want to spend a lot of time on the next agenda item, but I do want to point out that in your packet are various items that describe the committees of the council and the other committees to which counselors or the other responsibilities to which counselors are elected. The first of the committees going from CRC, Community Resources Committee, Finance Committee, GOL and Town Services and Outreach Committee are appointments of the president. Tomorrow at the latest, you will receive a request from me to give me your first, second and third choice. I'm going to need that request back as soon as possible and in fact, in less than 24 hours. And the reason is, is because the charter requires that we make those appointments by the second meeting of the council, which is Monday the 8th, so six days from now. The next are the non-voting liaison to town multiple member bodies. That is actually a referral. First to GOL, GOL then works to determine which ones they're going to recommend that we actually have liaisons to. And that means checking back with the committees and there may be some other committees that would like a liaison. So we won't actually get to the liaison positions probably until later in January. The other items are Jones Library Committee. We have one counselor appointment there. The previous counselor is no longer on the council. The budget coordinating group, there are three counselors and no more than two can be from the finance committee. The joint capital planning committee, three counselors and representatives to speak on behalf of the town council at four town councils, four towns meetings. That's two counselors. So let me just deal with the issue of six, seven, eight and nine. In those instances, I'm going to ask in the same email that you express your interest in any one of those positions. That will then constitute the basis for us starting the discussion on the 8th, at which point, even if you have not expressed interest, you can still add your name for any one of those four positions. And then the council votes for those positions. That is not a president appointment. It's a council appointment, okay? And let me just mention on the Jones Library Building Committee, it is a, I believe it's an appointment for the remainder of the building committee as long as you are on the council. We already have two counselors who are continuing on the building committee for the elementary school building. And that's Kathy Shane who has been sharing that and Alicia Walker. And what I do have is essentially a record also of where people have expressed interest in the past. If you would like to discuss any one of these committees with me, please feel absolutely free to do that at any point in time in the next 24 hours. But I will also probably be contacting you because it's always a juggling act to try to figure out how to get certain committees properly filled. Unless there's any other questions on that item, I'd like to go on to the next item. Last item under this area is the process to fill vacancies on the housing authority. As we were informed by the town manager through the town clerk, during the election process in November, the housing authority failed to end up with two of its seats filled. Therefore, based on the charter and based on the memo that quotes the charter that is in your packet, we now have to join with the remaining members of the housing authority to select two additional members to serve for the full two-year term. It's they will serve until 2026. There we have used this process most recently in determining the three school committee members that have ably served us over the last three week, three months, and we wanna thank them. I know one of them is at least is sitting in the room. And in the process, we will be going through that same process. However, I also urge you to, particularly as district counselors and townwide counselors in your communications to make sure that people know these positions are available and that you can use the memo as a way of informing people. If there's no question on that, although I please, I have drafted a, excuse me, I have drafted a publishing, a published statement or press release that will go out tomorrow to advertise those positions so that we can do this within the 45 days as required by the charter. The timeline that- Your microphone. Thank you. The timeline that is attachment B, I think B, yes, basically has us completing this in early February so that the difference, however, between this situation and the school committee is because the board already has three members out of five, it can continue to meet as a body. And so it's not hampered by being unable to meet because it does not have a quorum. Are there any questions about the vacancy on the housing? Sorry, yes, Mandy Jo. Well, we're gonna discuss later on in the future for the moment, Mandy Jo, yes. You seem to be referring to a document that is not in the packet about an attachment and other things. The document in the packet was a memo from our town clerks who I'll debt. And so I'm curious what the press release you referred to actually reads as. Athena, it was in my packet. I'm checking. I believe I added it this afternoon. Oh, okay. It was in a SharePoint packet, but I'm not sure. Not when I downloaded SharePoint today. So if there are any questions, I guess my question is, is the press release much different from the one that was done for the school committee? No, it's a signable. Since I haven't seen it, okay. Unless I missed a word where I didn't substitute housing authority for school committee. That's good. That's the only thing I really was concerned about. Everything else we can deal with on Monday. Thank you. Okay. Are there any other questions about the housing authority vacancies? Kathy. Lynn, I will look at whatever is in the packet, but if there is a really short paragraph, we could put it out in a newsletter so people would know. So just to describe how often it meets, what kind of commitment you would have if you were on the housing authority? Yeah, some of those issues are not issues. I know the answers to at this point, but I can make sure that you have the announcement and the announcement can then be sent out, okay. Are there any other questions about the housing authority vacancies? Okay. Given we have no appointments, we have no committee or liaison reports, we have no minutes. Paul, is there anything you would like to share with us? Okay. And I have no other comments at this time under town councilor. How about future agenda items? Councilor comments. Sorry, can you give us a preview of Monday's agenda? I'd love to, but I don't have one. But if I send it out or Athena, maybe you have some thoughts or some ideas of what's on that agenda. The council postponed action on the rental registration. Thank you. No, it didn't. It's the town that council referred it to CRC and it remains in CRC. So it's not ready to come out till CRC meets again. DOL made some recommended rule changes. So that could be on the agenda for Monday. And then I think there are some of those things. I'm sorry, I can't pull them off the top of my head. As soon as we, we will meet tomorrow for that and we can make sure that it's out and known to people. Okay. Are there any other questions at this time? Kathy. Just a quick one. If the agenda, which is always wonderful to find it's not going to be packed. But one of the discussions many of us have been having is what's in our rules of procedure on committees and the thought of that we could make the size different of the committees and potentially include people who aren't counselors on them. And if we could have either a beginning discussion of that or we could schedule that for discussion on a retreat sooner rather than later, just to at first just have the ideas thrown around. And so if we have breathing room in an agenda that might be a useful general discussion. If take up rules of procedure, I think we could begin that discussion. I should that we should also, we will also begin polling for a retreat date in February. And the options to be looking at are either a Monday night that we weren't going to meet as a council for like a four hour retreat or a Saturday like we have done in the past. Pam Rooney, you have your hand up. Thank you. A similar conversation about liaisons and the role of liaisons would be very helpful. It seems rather to do it with us than send that particular topic to DOL specifically. I think it's a good broad ranging conversation that I would love to have. Okay, great. So, and Mandy Jo, you have your hand up. Yeah, we passed town manager goals about two weeks ago and it might be good because many of those goals probably should be prioritized amongst themselves to help the manager in terms of what the council prioritizes within each sort of big sub goal. If there's time on an agenda early in this term, it might be good to have those conversations to so the manager gets a better idea of within each big goal what the council's priority is. Do you think it would be helpful to place on the agenda for the eighth just a discussion of the goals so that the new counselors and the counselors who have returned have an opportunity to kind of mutually understand the goals? I'm looking more for a prioritization of council priorities, okay? Are there any other comments, questions, requests for future agenda items? Seeing none, I'm sorry, George. I actually would appreciate a discussion of the town manager goals since four of us are new. I would actually like to see that on the agenda next time. Okay, thank you. Are there other requests? I'm actually looking for hands because this is the first time we have had all of us in the room in two years, over two years. So it's like, wow. And you know, one of the things I love about sitting here to be honest, I can see all of you except for two people right here. So any other questions or comments? George, you still have your hand up. We do not have any topics not reasonably anticipated, at least none that I'm aware of, and we have no executive session. And so I am going to officially adjourn the town council meeting for tonight. We are going to move on to a ceremonial swearing in of all members of various elected bodies. There are five of us, five bodies. And we are glad to have so many people in our audience tonight. And I do want to thank both Athena, Angela Mills, and Sean for putting together the assembly for tonight, the food for tonight, and preparing for a ceremony of joint action. Yeah. Just a question about Zoom connectivity. Should we log off of Zoom of our personal ones? You can log off of Zoom. We'll leave the town room Zoom going so that folks at home can watch those. Thanks for asking that. Thanks. Okay, we're going to log off. Kathy, you're still on. I'm going to suggest, Athena, shall we start with school committee? First of all, I'd like to welcome Representative Mindy Dom and also from Senator, I mean from Representative McGovern's office, Kobe as well. And Mindy, I would like you to say a few words if you would when we get going. Okay? First of all, let's look for any members from the school committee who are here who would like to be formally sworn in in the ceremonial swearing. Yeah. Excuse me, Mr. Wallace. And Gabriella. Would you please? Both of them. And Gabriella, please. Gabriella, come up here. I want you to both stand up. Come on up. Please, Gabriella. Yes. All right. We really want to thank you for the work that you did there. We want to thank all three of you for stepping in and managing that job for the last three months. That was really great of you to do so. All right, we're going to new members on the school committee. None here? I don't see any. Oh, that would be why they're not here. Okay, library. Trustee, we have one of you. No, not you. All right, Bob, come on up. Do you solemnly swear or affirm to faithfully and impartially perform the duties incumbent upon you by your election to the Jones Library Board of Trustees? Congratulations. I did not see Judith Swain here. So that one, is there anybody here from the housing authority? Come on up. And we just did this this afternoon as well. You can raise your right hand please. Do you solemnly swear or affirm to faithfully and impartially perform the duties incumbent upon you by your election to the housing authority? Congratulations. And the town council. How do you want to do that? Would you like to do it as a group and then one at a time? As a group. And then if people want one at a time, they can take a picture with you and do that. Okay, so we're going to all stand. Does anybody object? Get cozy. Okay, if you can all raise your right hands, please. Whoops, wait a second. There we go. Okay, we good? All right. Do you all solemnly swear or affirm to faithfully and impartially perform the duties incumbent upon you by your election to the Amherst town council? Congratulations. And please enjoy the refreshments out. Oh, Judith, wait a minute. We have one more swearing in. Judith Swain, get up here, right over here. No, if you can raise your right hand, please. Judith, do you solemnly swear or affirm to faithfully and impartially perform the duties incumbent upon you by your election to the Elector Oliver Smith will? Congratulations. We hit them all. Would Mindy? Yes, Mindy. I got it out of me tonight. Thank you, Christina. Hi, everybody. Congratulations, members of the town council, those returning, those new, and other committees that are here. I'm going to take the liberty of just saying congratulations on behalf of Senator Cumberford and myself. She really wanted to be here tonight, but she had another commitment and couldn't be here. We are just in such admiration for local elected officials. We know you have the hardest job. And we're here to support you in every way that we can. I'm looking forward to working with the new town council as well as with the members of the other committees to make sure that the state recognizes what we need and that we get what we need. So thank you so much. Congratulations. Mindy, we really want to thank you for being here. Thank you so much. Would you like to say anything on behalf of the representative? Oh, hold on. No, we'll give it, Kobe, come on up. Hi, everyone. I'm Kobe Governor Levine. I'm the regional manager for Jim McGovern and for many of you. It's great to see you again. For those of you who maybe I haven't worked with before, I'm really looking forward to doing so. Myself and the congressmen are just down the road in Northampton. We look forward to continuing the partnership that we've built with the Emmerstown council. And we really look forward to the next couple of years with all of you. So thank you and congratulations. We now have more library trustees and more school committee members. Let's get the library trustees up here. Don't be shy, come on up. I'm gonna have you both stand side by side. Come on, stand, come on. I'll make this painless. Are you wanna? Okay, come on, why not? Why not, why not? All right, if you could all three, raise your right hands, please. Do you all solemnly swear or affirm to faithfully and impartially perform the duties and come in upon you by your election to the Jones library trustees? Are you two again, thank you. Congratulations, almost in recognition. If you can raise your right hand, please. Do you solemnly swear or affirm to faithfully and impartially perform the duties and come in upon you by your election to the Emmerstown school committee. Congratulations. Have we missed anybody? That ends the ceremonial part of our evening. Please enjoy refreshments and socializing. Thank you.