4 New City Councilors, Elected Officials to Take Oath of Office This Week

Mayor Ted Bettencourt will be sworn in for his second term Monday during the city's inaugural ceremonies and will make brief remarks, outlining key goals for the next two years of his administration.

Among the other elected officials to take the oath of office Jan. 6 will be a handful of new city councilors and library trustees.

Peter McGinn, Jim Moutsoulas, Joel Saslaw and Tom Walsh won their respective election bids in November and will join the seven other councilors who were returned to office -- Barry Osborne, Bob Driscoll, Barry Sinewitz, Dave Gravel, Anne Manning-Martin, Mike Garabedian and Tom Gould.

Moutsoulas, the new Ward 3 representative, and Walsh, in an at-large seat, are returning to the council after several years of being out of city politics. Moutsoulas has made a couple other unsuccessful bids for office in recent years though, but this fall defeated Tom Serino for the open seat.

McGinn defeated incumbent Arthur Athas in Ward 2 while Joel Saslaw defeated Bob Croce for the Ward 5 seat.

Paul Misci and Stephanie Najjar enter the political arena via the Board of Library Trustees, joining trustees Don McAllister and Jean Ahearn, who both won re-election.

School Committee members Beverley Griffin Dunne, Jarrod Hochman and Tom Rossignoll, along with Light Commissioner Charles Bonfanti, all ran unopposed this year and will also be sworn in to new terms. Bettencourt was likewise unopposed.

One other highlight of the inaugural ceremony is the selection of a new City Council President for 2014. Treadwell's Ice Cream owner Tom Gould, who was just elected to his second term, served as president this past year.

The ceremony will be held in Wiggin Auditorium at City Hall on Jan. 6 at 7 p.m.