NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city's government for the next two years will be sworn in on Monday, Jan. 1, at 11 a.m. 

 

The organization of government is held on the first day of the year following a general election. The swearing in will be held in City Council Chambers and streamed by Northern Berkshire Community Television. 

 

It is open to the public. 

 

The City Council will elect a president and vice president after being sworn in by City Clerk Tina Leonesio, who will open the meeting. The new president will give some remarks, announce committee and liaison assignments and present the rules of order for the council. 

 

The council will also draw for seats for the next year. 

 

The new members of the School Committee and McCann School Committee will also be sworn in and then the mayor will be invited into the chamber to be sworn into a two-year term and give her inaugural speech. 

 

Mayor Jennifer Macksey will be starting her second term in the corner office after winning a landslide re-election in November. 

 

Incumbents councilors returned to office are Lisa Blackmer, Keith Bona, Peter Oleskiewicz, Bryan Sapienza, Ashley Shade and Wayne Wilkinson. 

 

Incumbents Jennifer Barbeau, Marie T. Harpin and Michael Obasohan declined to run for re-election. Barbeau and Obasohan have served one term; Harpin was first elected in 2017, quit briefly in 2021 but was re-elected that same year and served out her term. 

 

New to the council are Peter Breen, Andrew Fitch and Deanna Morrow. The three were among the top nine vote-getters of the 11 candidates running for City Council in November. 

 

Both Fitch and Morrow are newcomers to elected office; Breen will be sworn in to two offices as he has been a member of the McCann School Committee and was re-elected to continue representing the city on the regional vocational committee.

 

Breen's colleagues on the McCann committee, George Canales and William Diamond, both incumbents, will also be sworn in. 

 

The School Committee has two returning faces and one new one. Tara Jacobs was re-elected to a third four-year term; Alyssa Tomkowicz was elected to her first four-year term but ran as an incumbent, as she was elected earlier this year by city and school officials to complete a term ending this year. Cody Chamberlain, who had also applied to fill that vacant seat, was elected to a four-term term in November. Incumbent Karen Bond stepped back after serving two terms.