The City of Great Falls held their swearing-in ceremony at the city commission chambers on Tuesday, marking the beginning of a new term for municipal government leaders.
Justin Robicheau reports - watch the video here:
Joe McKenney won his bid for re-election to the city commission and took his oath.
“I think this is really good for our community. This is elective government. It's representative government. We're going to have a full house today of folks that are volunteering to serve their community. I like today.”, said McKenney.
Newly elected commissioner Casey Schreiner, who served eight years in the Montana State Legislature representing Great Falls, said the position gives him another avenue to serve the community.
"It's really exciting. You know, for years I've tried to put myself forward to, to give back to the community, whether it be through public service, through the legislature, through being a local teacher. And this is just another opportunity to do stuff to make the community move forward and help my neighbors," Schreiner said.
Re-elected Mayor Cory Reeves outlined his priorities for the first 100 days in office, with downtown parking taking center stage.
"Downtown parking is a fiasco, as everyone knows. So I really want us to get aggressive with, community partners and the commission to try and figure out a solution. We're not going to solve parking, but at least maybe we can manage it. So I think that's going to be one of the top priorities of the first 100 days is what do we do about downtown parking," Reeves said.
The ceremony also marked the end of outgoing City Commissioner Susan Wolff's four-year term. Wolff reflected on her biggest contribution during her time in office.
"I was able to relate to everyone, no matter what their own beliefs may be. And I pride myself in that. I ran as a nonpartisan. I worked as a nonpartisan. I think that was my biggest contribution and kind of be a glue point, if you will, to bring people back to some of the, you know, the really hot topics and the difficult topics we needed to address," Wolff said.
Reeves praised Wolff's service and said she will be missed.
"She was my mayor pro tem. She was someone I could text her call on the weekends when I was frustrated about something or needed to understand the why. So she's just been my biggest advocate. We didn't always agree on everything, but she always showed me grace and respect. And I'm going to miss Susan a lot," Reeves said.
