New Calgary city council sworn in Monday afternoon

Calgary's new city council was sworn into office Monday afternoon.

The largely symbolic affair took place in the atrium of the municipal building instead of council chambers, as it has in past years, after the previous council voted to give greater public access to the event.

Four new members were sworn in along with 11 returning members of council.

One of those new faces, Jyoti Gondek from Ward 3, said she feels Calgarians sent a message during the election and council would be wise to deliver.

"That we need to practise better money management," she said. "There's a lot of concern about the vacancies downtown and how we're going to get those filled and how we're going to keep generating the type of revenue we need to run a great city."

Getting up to speed

Earlier in the day, Gondek told the Calgary Eyeopener that one of the biggest learning curves will be getting up to speed on things like procedure as council will have a number of important files to tackle early on.

"Budget will be top of mind," she said. "Process, procedure, that sort of thing, and just interacting with all of our colleagues to make sure we can find ways to collaborate well."

Fresh off of taking the oath, new Coun. Jeromy Farkas isn't backing down on his criticism of the past council's penchant for closed-door meetings.

"Whenever any discussions do have to happen in-camera that a clear legal reason is provided and that an explanation is given with each of the councillors and the mayor being held to account for that decision," he said. 

Event held in 'Calgary's living room'

Mayor Naheed Nenshi took the oath of office for the third time after winning last week's municipal election.

Prior to the event he said he's glad council decided to open up the ceremony by moving it to the atrium.

"I've often called this great public space 'Calgary's living room,' so it's so fitting to host this event here. This is a special moment for many people. It's worth celebrating together as citizens," said Nenshi.

The orientation program for the new council members starts Tuesday and council will hold its annual organizational meeting next Monday.

The new group will get down to work at its first regular meeting on Nov. 5. 

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