Good evening.

And welcome to the December second, twenty twenty five meeting of the Greensboro City Council.

I do need a motion to excuse um Mrs.

Hightower, Mr.

McKinney, and Miss Pinder.

Okay.

Moved by um Mrs.

Hoffman, seconded by Mayor Pro Tem.

All in favor say aye.

Um, we are in the Katie Georgette Council Chamber.

Um, we will begin tonight's meeting with a moment of silence.

I look forward to the great things they do in the coming years.

And for that, I want to say congratulations to all of you.

Um, they're going to change the name plates out, and then the new council will um take their seats.

Um we're out.

Good evening.

First, I would like to take a few moments and have Judge William A.

Wood to please come to the front and say a few words.

But these folks who are going to swear in tonight have committed to even try to make it a better place going forward.

And that's uh that's kind of their mission and what they got elected on.

Uh the first, we're going to get the ball rolling by swearing in, Judge, excuse me, um, Mayor Mary Kay Abiswaiter.

I demoted her to judge, but uh, but in any event, we're going to swear her in first, and as all of you know, I'm sure Mary Kay's got a long history of uh service to the community, both as a business owner and also being on the uh city council for many many years.

And uh the one person who's probably more thrilled that the campaign is over, is probably her husband Issa, because every morning I would pull into the I would pull into the courthouse uh to start my day's business early in the morning, and there would be Issa out there at the early voting poll uh shaking down votes out there by whoever whoever would listen to him, and that would be rain or shine.

So I'm sure Issa uh is uh is thrilled that uh this had the outcome that it did, and um that uh you can now move forward with Mary Kerry as the mayor.

So with that being said, uh they've got a large task ahead of them for a town the size of Greensboro, but we're gonna go on and uh get Mary Kay Abba's Wader, the mayor elect.

We're gonna get her sworn in as mayor right now.

And um here we have a vote to other God and give us my voice and following the two that I will support the Constitution of the United States, that I will be faithful as there are two of these stages there's constitutional powers and authority and make it established for the vote thereof that I will be okay to support the name has to defend the Constitution and laws of the City State, not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States to protect my law of the majority, and that I will thankfully discharge the duties of the office of the city of Prince Bournemouth, so help me God.

I will congratulate next we'll have the administration of the oath of office for councilmember Timmy Therm, District 5.

By the honorable Judge William A.

Wood.

I feel third and followed in the sweater that I support the Constitution and laws of the United States, that I would be faithful and there are two reasons to the state or Carolina and the Constitutional House and authorities may be established for the government thereof that I will endeavor to support, maintain, and defend the Constitution and laws of said state.

I didn't insist that the Constitution of the United States, the best of my knowledge and ability, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of my office as a member of the City Council of the City Approach Club, so that we've got you.

Next we'll have the administration of the oath of office for councilmember Hugh Holston at large by the honorable retired judge Paul L.

Jones.

All right, you don't have a redo.

I you host me to follow me and consumer swear that I will support the Constitution of all of the United States, that I will be faithful to very coolly more provided, and to the Constitutional Power and Authorities, which are or maybe establish the government thereof.

And I want to be able to support maintain again the Constitution and all the state.

I will.

Congratulations.

Now we would like to have some remarks.

Mayor Boothwaiter, would you start us off?

Thank you.

We will have our incumbents say a few words before we rotate out and give the others room to come in.

I stand before you today.

Well, I'm sitting right now, but I stand before you.

Things take time.

From the very beginning, my campaign was not about policy, or those who made campaign promises.

You heard me many, many times.

My philosophy is to build relationships.

My philosophy has always been to build relationships.

And that is what I want to continue to do on this council.

For every single new council person, I am there for you.

I am there to make sure that you know the things that have gone on before on this council previous.

How did we get here?

How did Greensboro get to this point?

Sometimes it takes 10-15 years, but we are at that point.

And this new council can take us above and beyond.

That is my goal, and that is my wish.

Building those relationships is something that we need to do not only with ourselves, but also with our community.

So to my family, my team, my volunteers, and every person who helped lift me up, guide me, inspire me, and you did it with heart and determination, and that's what I want to do for you.

My heart is in this, and I am determined.

You didn't just help me, you helped me build that network of relationships that will carry us far.

And I guarantee you, it is going to carry us far.

Thank you.

Councilmember Thurron.

Thank you.

I didn't really prepare remarks for tonight because as many of you all know, I do my best talking from my heart directly.

First of all, I'd like to start out by thanking the council members that showed me the way that brought me along.

So Nancy, the mayor, Vaughn Nancy, Nancy Hoffman, Goldie, Zach, everybody that brought me along, and especially Yvonne Johnson tonight.

She's deep in my heart.

She was one of the first that welcomed me to council, and it's it meant a tremendous amount to have her counsel and to have her advice and to have her witty comebacks when I was taking things a little bit to heart.

And she always had just the perfect little ups thing to say to me to make me feel better and put a smile back on my face.

And the folks, the volunteers and my campaign team.

It was it was a great ride.

And words for this existing council.

I am so excited to serve with you all, to have be amongst the ones to welcome the next generation of our city's leaders, and I think that's such an honor.

And I take that very seriously, and I look forward to serving with you all, to helping you all achieve what you want to achieve, to us working together, to moving forward together.

And I'm very excited about what the future holds for Greensboro.

We are on the cusp of greatness, of even more greatness, and it'll be my honor to serve beside each one of you, and for us to do this the next four years together.

So thank you.

Thank you for trusting me.

Thank you for calling me mom or me mom, uh as the case may be.

This is a good microphone.

Hello.

Ummy, you get mom or was it Mima?

So I'm told.

I've heard the term uh.

Thank you to my family for being here and supporting me, and my son and daughter-in-law, my sister and brother-in-law, uh grandson Hudson there, which whom you've heard earlier, um, but especially to my wife Olympia for being by my side and supporting me uh through all of my craziness and with the appointment back in 21 and then running again in 22, uh, and then for this this race in 25.

Also, and also I have some nieces here with me also.

Uh, also have uh many members of my campaign team for whom without whom I would probably not be sitting here today because they worked so hard and so diligently and were so supportive from the very beginning, all through the trials and tribulations and the heat and the cold and and everything else that that went on.

Uh very grateful and thankful for the love and support that you provided me throughout.

Uh fellow council members uh who are departing who are over here to my left, um Miss Hoffman and Miss Wells, and I can't see.

Um I know that Mayor Vaughn is still there, uh Jamila Pinder, Zach Matheny, and Sharon Hightower.

Uh did I miss anybody?

I got them all.

Okay.

Um I really have learned a lot from them in my time here on council.

Uh I know I said Jamila Pender, but uh she came in after me, but I'll always remember Jamila saying, you know, you gotta go to the data.

The data's gonna tell you everything you want to know.

So I've learned something from each and every one of my fellow former council members.

To my future council members, I'm really excited.

I mean, there's so much energy, there's so much passion.

Uh uniqueness and uh innovation and creativity, and I embrace it wholeheartedly.

At the same time, we're gonna have to govern.

And sometimes governing isn't as easy as it looks.

I know we made it look easy, right?

We made it look easy.

It's like making sausage.

Um but uh we can still have a good time as we do it.

We're we're not always going to agree, and I don't expect for us to agree all the time.

But I expect for us to to work hard for this for this residents of Greensboro.

I said before that uh this is a big customer service organization, and we're like the the call center team up here.

And you let us know what's going on if it's right.

You also let us know what's going on if it's not going right.

But either way, there has to be that communication.

There has to be that transparency and that advocacy so that we can continue to do the great things we've been doing.

We have some great successes.

But I leave it with this.

Everyone can get in and get their seats, please.

We're gonna begin in just a moment.

Administered by Judge Lisa Johnson Tompkins.

I involved two thousand things we allow support for the laws in the United States.

So before I'm going to administer this code, I just want to say what a pleasure is for me to be able to do so because his father is the seat in which um currently um judge the in it.

So I just wanted to say what an honor he is to be able to say.

I prefer to be Allen folks solemnly into serious squares that I will support the Constitution and laws of the United States, that I would be faithful to bear too allegiance to the state of North Carolina and to the Constitutional Powers and Forces which are for babies established for the government here that I will endeavor to support and maintain and defend the Constitution and Laws of City States, not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, to the best of my knowledge and ability, and I would faithfully discharge the duties of our office as a member of the City Council of the City of Greensboro, so that we are just we'll have the administration of the oath of office for Council Member Crystal T.

Black District One, administered by Judge Lisa Johnson Tomkins.

Um at the end, we would say I believe it or I thought this black dissolvingly and sincerely that I will support the Constitution and laws of the United States, that I would be faithful and very true to the state of North Carolina, and to the constitutional powers and authorities which are or maybe established for the government area.

That I will endeavor to support, maintain, and defend the Constitution and laws of the Senate State, not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States.

And that I would faithfully discharge the duties of my office as a member of the City Council of the City of Greensboro.

Yes, it's a delay.

Now we would ask for a few remarks from Councilmember Denise Roth.

Thank you.

First, let me say how deeply grateful I am to be here and thank you to the residents of Greensboro who place your trust in me.

You have given me a profound responsibility, and I do not take it lightly.

I want to begin by thanking my family, Chip and Connor, and also my mother who couldn't be with us tonight.

She's in Wesley Long Hospital this evening, so please keep her in your prayers.

They have supported me in more ways than you will ever see.

And public service is certainly a matter of family service, and I do not take that lightly.

And to my colleagues on council, thank you for welcoming me to this table.

Each of us have arrived here by different paths, but we share a common responsibility to do what is best for Greensboro.

I love I look forward to learning from each of you and to working with each of you throughout.

Greensboro is a city with an incredible story, a story of courage and resilience and reinvention.

As we move forward, I want to emphasize that I will lead by listening.

And I did that during the campaign, and I've learned so much.

Racially, economically, generationally, and politically.

Our strength will come from my ability to bring together neighborhoods and interests that do not always talk to each other and to make sure decisions in this chamber are informed by voices from every corner of our city.

Tonight is a moment of celebration, but tomorrow we will get to work.

And my promise to you is simple.

And always measure our success by one question.

Are the lives of people in Greensboro getting better?

Thank you.

I look forward to serving with you.

Councilmember Allen.

I never thought I would get one of these.

Some of what I gave, and looking forward to learning from each and every one of you.

I have to thank my parents and my family who are here tonight.

Wouldn't be here without the guidance and teachings of my father who taught me what service is.

So many names.

I'll be eternally grateful, and I will do all that I can in my power to serve this city and to give it my all as I have with all the work that I've done.

So I I belong to you now, and I am so grateful uh to be able to serve uh and I'm I'm grateful to my daughters for sharing me.

They've they've always had to share me with the community, uh, but now they'll be sharing me with the entire city.

So I'm I'm so thankful for you all.

Uh looking forward to uh the great things that were able to come uh to come to the former council, uh Goldie Wells.

I'm so grateful to uh Goldie, to uh Yvonne Johnson to so many folks that I've I've just been able to watch your leadership uh and and it's gotten me uh to the point where I realized that I needed to grow.

And uh so I thank you for those conversations for pushing me uh for pushing me away sometimes and for bringing me close.

Uh I'm so grateful and I'm looking forward to serving uh into this current council.

I am so excited to be serving with each and every one of you, and I truly mean that.

Uh I believe that so much is possible with uh each and every one of you.

I've gotten to know most of you over the years and a lot of you on the campaign trail, and I am uh truly excited about what we're able to uh gonna be able to accomplish.

Uh and I'm uh excited to serve with you and the building of trust and to follow in and learning from you.

Thank you, Councilmember Black.

I'm gonna try to speak without crying since Lisa uh decided to make me cry earlier.

Um I'm just proud to be sitting in this seat and to be able to serve the residents of Greensboro.

Um I have been at that podium so many times and uh advocated for so many things, um, mainly for the quality of life for people in this city, and I want to be able to serve and bring that to this dais so that our community understands that that's what everyone up here is representing.

Uh, thank my family for always supporting me.

As Irvin said, my daughter has given me to the community for since she was a girl scout, and that was at five, she's 30.

And so we have served in this community consistently, and um, I've always wanted to give back.

This is just a new way to give back, and I look at so many people in the audience and how they've touched me and how they've given me these little tidbits of advice that brought me to this point.

So I'm thankful for each and every one of you and and where you have put me in this place to my family who has heard about this campaign for almost a year.

Um, came to the to the polling sites, stood outside in the cold, passing out flyers, uh, early voting was brutal, but we stood there and then we put the work in, and um I believe that the people have spoken, and I want to be able to serve the people and give them what they are asking for.

So I thank you for entrusting me in this seat and to move forward with the direction in which Greensboro is excited about doing.

Uh, to our former council members that have come along with us, Tammy earned the name Mimall.

I gave her that name because I wanted to feel young.

That's really what it was.

But she has been um a guiding star along with the other council members.

We need each other.

We need each other.

We are a melting pot now on this council.

And you know, I gave Irvin my cell phone today, and I said, turn this thing off.

So I know that I need him just as much as I need the advice of some people who have served along the way.

So I want to thank you for entrusting me into sitting in this seat and representing you and in this city, and I hope that I make you proud.

Thank you.

Everyone can find your seats, please.

That I will support the Constitution and laws of the United States and that I will be faithful and bearing true allegiance to the state of North Carolina and to the Constitutional powers and authorities which are ordained and established for the government thereof.

And I will faithfully disparage to use my office as a member of the city council as a signature of the rest.

Thank you, everyone.

Your new council.

If we could give them a round of applause, please.

Now as you all know, the Greensboro City Council has a mayor and a mayor pro tenham.

And oops.

The speech.

Oh, we need your speeches first.

I am so sorry.

I need to be corrected.

Yes, I am so sorry.

I apologize.

Go ahead.

We've got people to thank.

Yes.

So I want to start by thanking the folks who aren't here today, of which I would never have gotten this far without, and that'd be my grandparents, Dr.

John Oliver Crawford and Portia Crawford, and my Aunt Mary Jane Crawford.

I want to thank Dr.

Wells for holding us down for all of these years.

And the beginning of that education started with butting heads with Dr.

Wells, with Tammy, with Hugh and with the mayor, our new mayor, Mary Kay, and our outgoing mayor, Nancy Vaughn.

Without those conversations at that dais or in delegations bringing community members to talk to council members then to fight for and to have conversations about what it is that we wanted from City Council.

So I want to thank my campaign manager who couldn't be here this evening, but really did an amazing job in our last campaign when I got to meet so many people that I'm sitting up here with or looking as they're going out.

And I am so excited about what we can accomplish and how we can move the trajectory of this city in a way that puts people first.

And so iron sharpens iron.

And I hope that we become very sharp up here.

Thank you.

Yes.

I want to thank God.

There's many lifetimes that it took to arrive here now.

And I give great thanks.

So many of you know I came down here 15 years ago following my twin with my kid, Juliana Gwynn in tow.

I got two rockers and a big black dog, and movements were birthed off of that porch.

And I met so many of you along the way to now become the first black queer person ever elected to the Greensboro City Council.

And I'm also when I announced I announced that I was the youngest woman, and I got a text from Mayor Nancy Vaughn said that she had done it at 37.

I am the youngest black woman ever elected to Greensboro City Council at 42, and I stand corrected.

And in those moments, that's where co-governance still exists amongst all of us.

And so I'm very grateful again to my family and loved ones, but especially District 3.

Shout out to District 3.

It is because, yeah.

Shout out to District 3.

It is because of their political imagination.

That I am so blessed and grateful to be here on today.

These folks who have campaigned, y'all.

I was on the ground for a whole year to earn this seat.

But I am so in awe in the ways on which you all have held each other and engaged civically, and I'm just so thankful.

Don't this look like a bunch of world changers right here, y'all, uh in the lineage of Greensboro.

And so, yeah, this is lineage work, y'all.

This is it's a continuum.

Um there's move we are in the lineage of movement work where we have turned protest to politics, and um I want to say let our ancestors be our mentors, and so I just want to speak the names um of some folks that uh that we stand on uh in their greatness.

So I want to name um first of all my grandma Dot, who helped me get my first degree.

Uh I want Grandma Pat, who's no longer with us, who also helped me learn how to read.

Um, but I've been inspired in Greensboro by movements past um with George Simpkins and the ANT forum, the Bennett Bells, and those who established the International Civil Rights Museum, and so many of my elders that have held I've been a student of this day, and they have held uh meet in council, and um for better or for worse, and here we are together now, and so I want to honor um the movement as being our inheritance uh gifted by Reverend Nelson Johnson, Lewis Beveridge, our forever mayor Yvonne Johnson, Representative Ralph Johnson, Mama Nia, my elders, elders, um, who are neighborhood leaders, uh Nettie Code, Dorothy Brown, Mary Smith.

If you all want to say one name of a person that has changed Greensboro, if you want to go ahead and bring them into the space right now, please do so.

Anyway, so I'm not showing up as all knowing y'all, um, but I do know uh that we uh I am committed to governing the same way that you all show showed saw me campaign.

Uh we were hard working, highly ethical, uh led with integrity, full representation, and so I plan on staying on mission of equity and inclusion in the city of Greensboro.

Um I hope to continue uh great work of the greats of the people that I've already I've been informed by resistance from the red lines with the black wall street and Greensboro that have always acknowledged that we deserve to design our city, and here we are doing it together.

So I give great thanks uh again and again.

Um thank you, Councilmember Marshall.

Wow, thank you.

What an honor it is to be sitting up here on this dais with everybody that campaigned during this last election and won their seats.

I cannot wait to see what we can do together.

So congratulations to all of you.

I was born and raised right here in Greensboro.

This is home.

And I cannot tell you how humbling it is to be elected by your hometown to serve.

Thank you for putting your trust in me for putting your trust in all of us to lead.

So I want to thank a few people, especially my family, more and Caroline and Graham.

I could not have done this without you.

So this is kind of on you.

To my parents, thank you for always teaching that being involved in the community was important.

Thank you for leading by that example.

I had the best campaign team.

Dylan Moore, former councilwoman, Florence Gatton.

They kept me on track.

They kept me on message.

And I learned so much from both of them.

To my partners at Law Firm Carolinas, thank you for giving me the space to do this.

More than you will know.

And to the former council, thank you for all the work that you have done.

But I especially want to thank Nancy Hoffman.

Nancy represented District 4 for 14 years.

I did so with distinction.

I have some very big little shoes to fill.

Thank you for your guidance and your friendship.

I'm so excited to serve this community.

Greensboro has so much promise and so much to offer.

We've seen some real successes, and we are set up to experience so many more.

And we must ensure that those successes are felt across all of our communities and across all of our neighborhoods.

And I can promise you this, we all want the absolute best for Greensboro and our citizens, and we will do everything we can to keep this city moving forward.

This is our moment, and I'm excited to serve.

Thank you.

The Mayor Pro Tim is the one who will fill in for the mayor if she is unable to be at a speaking commitment, who assists them the mayor on the dais, who also is kind of someone who uh helps the mayor, guides them along, uh, keeps them on track sometimes because a lot of times I don't think a lot of people understand, and and Mayor Vaughn did it very well, but there's some times when you might lose your place in the script, or you might forget to call a speaker.

And I know that uh Mrs.

Thurm on my right and and Denise on my left will certainly keep me on track, but the Mayor Pro Tim is the one from the at-large who is tasked with that.

So you know, I've got some great incumbents up here who will always guide and help me along, and I just can't wait to hear everything from the new council when we start getting into meetings and everything.

But now if someone would like, I would like to take a motion for the mayor pro Tim.

Madam Mayor?

Yes.

It is my honor to nominate Denise Roth as the Mayor Pro Tim.

Thank you.

And I and I have a second from Mrs.

Thurm, so that is properly motioned by Mr.

Holston and seconded by Mrs.

Thurm.

I will need to do a voice vote on this.

So, Ms.

Black, your first vote.

Yes, I'll vote for you.

Mr.

Mrs.

Roth.

Thank you.

Yes.

Mr.

Holston?

Yes.

Mrs.

Thurm?

Yes.

Ms.

Parker?

Yes.

Mr.

Marshall?

Yes.

Ms.

Crawford?

Yes.

And Ms.

Rob.

Yes.

Okay, and I am a yes.

So that passes unanimously.

Now, if uh judge would come up and give her the oath of office for Mayor Pro Town.

I believe all.

The duties of the mom and mayor votes of the city of Reevesboro.

Of the city of the City Council of the City of Reignsburg.

So Mrs.

Roth would like to say a few brief words, and then I will say a few brief words, and then I will ask for a motion to adjourn after that.

Ms.

Roth?

Mayor Potem.

Thank you.

And I I appreciate it.

I really just wanted to have a moment to acknowledge the fact that it's very few moments in life that you get to pause and recognize the people that are around you and the strength that is there.

And it's a full circle moment, and I is my honor to support you.

Um I want to thank Mr.

Halston, uh, who has just served um uh honorably and uh continues to uh serve as such, and thank you for the nomination and thank you for to my council members here and trusting me, and I will do my best to support all of you.

Um and I also just wanted to have a moment to say thank you to Yvonne Johnson, and I know her name has come up many times, but as a young woman uh coming into leadership ten years ago, I can't um begin to tell you what it means to follow in the footsteps of that woman and to learn from her, and I know we all share that sentiment, and I it just means the world to me that uh Lisa that you are here with us tonight, and I will do my best to live in her shadow.

Thank you.

And knowing what Denise was going to say, I want to kind of follow up because Mayor Vaughn, Yvonne Johnson, and I were the three at large, uh actually when Miss Roth was our city manager, so we have come full circle, and you know, um getting to know um Mayor Vaughn then and I'd already known Yvonne for quite a while, but you know, we were kind of the three amigos or amigas, and you know, we just it it was amazing how much they taught me, and I you know that's what you do is you learn from the others.

So um I kind of want to leave that because Lisa, your mom is so proud of you.

I just know it.

And um, you know, she's someone that that we all admire, and she is leaving a legacy through us.

So thank you.

And this is your new council.

Now we can do a big round of applause.

Now the moment.

Who is going to make the motion to adjourn?

So moved.

Motion to adjourn.

Moved by Mr.

Holston, who is my second.

Second.

Seconded by Mayor Pro Tim.

All in favor.

All right, John, thank you guys so much.