Newport News swears in new mayor, council members
With four new members sworn in, the City Council will be very different this year.
Mayor Phillip Jones and newly elected council members Curtis Bethany III, John Eley III and Cleon Long took oaths of office Tuesday morning before a judge at City Hall. About 200 people gathered in the council chambers to witness the ceremony, with some spilling into the hallway.
“I’m really excited to work with this council. It’s going to be a good time,” said Jones. “We’re not always going to agree on everything but we have an amazing council, we have an amazing staff.”
The council also voted 6-1 to elect Bethany as Vice Mayor, with Jones, Eley, Long, Tina Vick and Marcellus Harris supporting him. Councilwoman Pat Woodbury was the sole dissenting vote. After the ceremony, Woodbury said her decision was for “personal reasons” but declined to elaborate.
After the ceremony, Bethany called chosen as vice mayor by his fellow council members “a great honor” that he “does not take lightly.” In response to Woodbury voting against him, he said, “I’ve always had nothing but love and respect for Councilwoman Woodbury, and that’s it.”
During the ceremony, most council members addressed what Jones described as “the elephant in the room” — Friday’s shooting at Richneck Elementary. The council commended the efforts of the police to contain the situation and wished a speedy recovery for teacher Abby Zwerner.
Bethany said the top priority is meeting with the school board and coming up with a solution together. He said the relationship between the council and school board has been contentious in the past, but he believes that will change.
“If ever there was a time I was optimistic that we can truly repair the relationship, it’s right now because you have four brand new people that haven’t been around,” Bethany said.
All four council members thanked their friends, family, and significant others for supporting them in their campaigns.
“I’m looking forward to working with this great council here,” Long said. “We’ve seen this past week we have a lot of work to do. And we’re already prepared to do that.
Eley, who served on the school board for six years, said choosing to help the Newport News community was “the best thing I could have ever done in life,” and he looked forward to serving the city four more years as a council member.
Josh Janney, joshua.janney@virginiamedia.com
