Donna Reardon was sworn-in as Saint John's 79th Mayor Monday evening. (Photo: Ben Burnett)
Saint John’s new mayor and most of its new councillors have now been sworn in.
Donna Reardon became the city’s 79th mayor during a ceremony Monday night.
“I’m really proud to be your mayor, it’s a real honour,” she told a small audience. “I’m looking forward to four successful, busy years. … Buckle your seatbelt because this team is about to take off.”
Joining Reardon’s team will be councillors-at-large Brent Harris and Gary Sullivan, Greg Norton and Joanna Killen in Ward 1, Barry Ogden and John MacKenzie representing Ward 2, and Gerry Lowe and David Hickey in Ward 3.
Both Greg Stewart and Paula Radwan, the councillor-elects in Ward 4, were not sworn in on Monday. Their race went to a recount, and they are still within the 10-day window for challengers to contest the results. They’ll be sworn in next Monday instead.
Radwan is familiar to councillors after dutifully attending council meetings for many years. She says she’s keen to be on the other side of the horseshoe.
Looking ahead, she sees following the city’s 10-year financial plan among the new council’s most important tasks.
“It’s very easy to get away from, we’ve seen that in the past and that’s what got us into the (financial) mess that we’re in,” Radwan said.
In Ward 3, Hickey and Lowe agreed they’ll be focused on helping their constituents who live in some of the city’s priority neighbourhoods.
“We’re home to three of our five priority neighbourhoods in our city, we have a 50 per cent childhood poverty rate,” Hickey said. “Changing those numbers and changing those dynamics matter, and I think you’re going to see a lot of that definition come out of this council.”
Lowe said in addition to poverty and getting a new school in the central peninsula, he wants to see city services rebound from COVID-era cutbacks.
“We’ve got to have a reason for people to want to move here and stay here,” he said. “I believe the grass should be cut, we have to get back to the basics we had before.”
Norton in Ward 1 said he’s excited to get back to work with the new council members. He said there’s lots of optimism in the community right now.
During the next term, he wants to see continued development on the west side, but he said seeing investments for Dominion Park is his biggest focus.
“It’s a destination, it’s not a community park, it’s not a neighbourhood park, it really is a key piece to our recreation repertoire,” he said.
