Council members, if you will take your seats.

Good evening, everyone.

Welcome to the December third organizational meeting for the Chapel Hill Town Council.

It's wonderful to welcome so many friends and family to the council chamber tonight, and we are all very pleased to have you here for this momentous occasion.

Up first, we'll be honoring Councilmember Adam Searing.

Um, then I'll be sworn in as mayor so that I can officiate the second half of the meeting.

Um we will then have a very, very, very short break, um, with just enough time for staff to switch the nameplates.

Um following the oaths of office, the new council has two quick new business items to attend to um immediately after the meeting, we'll host a small reception across the hall, and there will be cake, fruit, and beverages in the first floor conference room.

Um so first up.

Um all the twenty twenty-three, twenty twenty-five council members for their hard work.

Um and of course, in particular, I want to give a special thank you to outgoing member Councilmember Adam Searing for his service.

Um before we move on to a resolution to honor him and his contributions, um, I want to offer Adam a chance to make some comments.

And also I wanted to personally thank you for your kind words and your newsletter and elsewhere this week.

I very much appreciate that.

So thank you very much.

Um as anyone uh who has ever been to a council meeting knows I'm not never at a loss for words.

Um so and then thinking about uh what I would say tonight, uh I um was thinking about many different things.

And I thought about some topics, uh some which were perhaps more appropriate than others, but I thought about that my advocacy for downtown parking garages.

I thought, nah.

And then I thought about my deference and uh very easy questions for the members of our development community who come before us.

And I thought, nah.

And then I thought about my ability to never ever get worked up about any town issue.

And I was remaining perfectly calm.

And then I thought.

But while those are all really interesting topics, I do want to focus on a few of the best parts of the last four years.

So the first one really is the heart of what all of us I think here who are elected officials do, and that's serving our constituents.

And that has really been the uh best part for me of uh being uh an elected official here in Chapel Hill.

Um when our constituents contact us and try and get more from their government and their community.

Um I think of some of the examples over the last four years.

Uh, near the start of my term, there was a neighborhood that whose power was going out all the time, almost every uh big storm.

They uh had tried to contact various officials, uh folks from Duke Power, nothing could happen.

Um they called me, I said, Well, maybe I can help.

Uh I was able to assemble a meeting with officials from Duke Power and the town and the neighborhood, and we all sat down and and chatted and worked work things through.

And the company installed a bunch of new equipment, cut out a bunch of the trees, and solved the problem.

And I thought, you know, that was pretty neat.

That's what I signed up for.

Um talking to kids and families uh is another example who were worried about our skate park.

It was falling apart.

Um they wanted to fix it.

It took a while, but I kept showing pictures, as everybody up here knows of every skate park in every other community, and now uh the repairs are almost done, and and we're adding to it even as well.

So what a what a great thing to do as a as a council member.

Um and then finally, I this is such a small thing, but there was an older resident who contacted me and the sidewalk in front of her house.

She she it kept falling apart, kept getting washed out, and she had never been able to get it repaired.

And um I said, Well, why don't we get some of your neighbors and and you and the town staff together and we met and came up with a permanent solution?

And that's such a small thing, but really is the essence, I think, of what we do up here and what all my colleagues I know do as well.

So very mundane, but really good things to do as an elected official.

Um and the second thing is really uh that has been the greatest part of last week is getting to know our town staff.

Um that is really so great and such a privilege as an elected official to figure out how our town works and see the hard work that goes into making it work.

And you know, what other job could you uh request to go out at 5 a.m.

with the guys on the garbage trucks and pick up everybody's trash and see how hard they work and how important their work is to the community, or my colleague um council member McCullough and I are on the solid waste advisory committee and deal with this sort of thing, and it's so silly, you know.

You think why would anybody be interested in that?

But it's critical, it's critical to our community, and what a great thing to do.

And really that part of getting to know the staff, one of the best parts for me was um getting to give some awards and um see the promotions of our uh first responders, our police officers, and our firefighters.

What a privilege to be able to do that.

And I'm so happy to be able to honor those who who help us and put their lives on the line for us every day.

And then finally, I um especially the last couple years, I have really enjoyed working with you all, my fellow council members.

And I know we don't always agree on everything, um, but but however, we do agree on a lot of things, and we've got a lot of stuff done together.

And I think particularly in recent months hiring our great new town manager, um, town manager Bor Hees, said Boor Heath, um, working together on our dealing with the floods and the disasters in our community, um, you know, approving some more great affordable housing uh plans for some of the lowest income members of our community.

It has been really a pleasure, and I very, very much appreciate all of you.

Um, and then finally I'll just stop and I won't go on forever as I'm want to do, but uh I will say, you know, serving in local government can be a pretty thankless job.