NORTHAMPTON — New faces and experienced officials gathered on Monday evening to begin or continue their tenures as representatives of city residents.
Elected officials from the City Council, School Committee, Community Preservation Committee, the city clerk, and trustees of Smith Vocational and Agricultural School and Forbes Library took the oath of office before a packed house at the Northampton Community Arts Trust, where audience members included Northampton Mayor David Narkewicz, state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa and former Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins.
The inauguration saw a wave of new city councilors sworn in — five out of nine councilors who took the oath of office were beginning their first terms.
“It’s humbling to think about the people who have put their trust in me,” Ward 2 City Councilor Karen Foster, who was among the five new councilors to be sworn in, said after the inauguration.
“There’s a lot of change coming onto the City Council … and it’s exciting to be part of that wave of energy,” she added.
Foster said she was attracted to her role as a city councilor because it allows her to be a part of Northampton while “also serving the city and trying to make it more inclusive for everyone who lives here.”
The new cohort of elected officials also marks advances in racial and gender diversity, with elected officials including John Thorpe, who is possibly the first African-American person elected for City Council, and Gina-Louise Sciarra, the first woman to win an at-large council seat in over 25 years.
Additionally, master of ceremonies Gail L. Perlman, a retired first justice of the Hampshire Probate and Family Court, highlighted the elected officials as a group encompassing multiple generations and encouraged the representatives to understand, challenge and respect the views of others.
“One of your great challenges will be to learn how to learn from each other’s lived experiences,” Perlman said, “not to dismiss anyone’s life experience because it’s too out of date, or because it’s not experienced enough.”
But this diversity of age is not only a challenge, Perlman said — it’s an opportunity.
“I hope that you’ll learn to make that cross-generational exploration a hallmark of your work together,” Perlman told the elected officials, who she said “have a chance to teach us … how to capitalize on the lived experience of each generation.”
The ceremony also included an invocation by the Rev. Andrea Ayvazian of Alden Baptist Church in Springfield and a benediction by Rabbi Justin David of Congregation B’nai Israel in Northampton.
Susan Voss, an at-large member of the School Committee entering her second term, agreed with Perlman’s emphasis on intergenerational communication, calling the inauguration “a really special swearing in.
“All the speakers really brought home how important it is to listen to all opinions and collaborate with each other,” Voss said.
Jacquelyn Voghel can be reached at jvoghel@gazettenet.com.