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Lethbridge Mayor, Councillors take Oath of Office

Oct 23, 2017 | 3:37 PM

LETHBRIDGE – Arriving to applause from friends and family, Lethbridge’s newly elected city councillors and mayor-elect walked into council chambers Monday afternoon (Oct. 23) for their swearing-in ceremony.

City Clerk Aleta Neufeld performed the task of reciting the oath of office to each of them.
 
The new council is now official, as follows:
 
Mayor:

  • Chris Spearman

 
Council:

  • Mark Campbell
  • Jeff Carlson
  • Jeffrey Coffman
  • Belinda Crowson
  • Blaine Hyggen
  • Joe Mauro
  • Rob Miyashiro
  • Ryan Parker

 Spearman says everyone is re-energized.
 
“We recognize we have our work cut out for us so we’re going to have to go forward. Of course our city manager has announced his intended retirement so a little more than two-and-a-half months away, so we’ll have to design that process for a CAO recruitment. Of course we need to review and make sure our strategic plan is something that we want. And we’re going to have to review that based on what we heard during the election.”
 
During the campaign, he says one of the things that stood out to him, was the concern about taxes.
 
“I think that we need to make sure that they’re getting good value for taxes. We need to make sure that they understand why we make spending decisions the way we do.”
 
Newly appointed Councillor Mark Campbell says it has been a surreal few weeks, and he’s still learning about how the city runs.
“We’ve met a lot of people who are in different departments here. So that’s still a learning process from the City Manager all the way to the various departments that are here. I keep on saying how tremendously helpful everyone is here. They want everyone to succeed…. I’m so grateful for that.”
 
The sole female Councillor, Belinda Crowson says she simply wants to be the best councillor she can be; the more she can learn, the better she believes she will be.
 
“We do have a woman MP, two women MLAs. Certainly Lethbridge has a lot of strong women. And I will just continue to be the strongest councillor I will be.”
 
The next council meeting will take place Oct. 30, at 1:30 p.m.