New mayor, city council and municipal judge to be inaugurated during ceremony
ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) -- The City of St. Joseph will hold an inauguration ceremony for its newly elected officials Monday.
The ceremony is set to take place at noon in the Council Chamber at City Hall and is open to the public. The City Charter establishes noon on the third Monday of April as the date for the inauguration ceremony.
The mayor, judge and eight councilmembers elected on Tuesday will be sworn in and the mayor will give an inaugural address.
Municipal Court Judge Laura Chavez will take oaths administered by the Honorable Kate Schafer, presiding judge of the 5th Judicial Circuit of Missouri, and City Clerk Kaycee Garton.
Chavez ran unopposed and was elected for Municipal Court Judge after being appointed last April, following the death of Ted Elo.
Garton will also administer the oath to Mayor Larry Miller, who will be serving his firsrt term.
The elected City Council members will also receive the oath from Garton as one group. Council members Madison Davis, District 1; Jason Eslinger, District 2; Andrew Trout, District 3; Russell Moore, District 4; and Collin Clibn, Marty Novak, Randy Schultz and Gary Wilkinson, at-large, will be sworn in.
This is the last inauguration that will include the swearing-in of all eight council members following a voter-approved change to the City Charter. Council terms will be staggered moving forward, with elections for district council members and at-large council members being held two years apart.
The district council members being sworn in on April 20 will be serving for two years and will be for election again in 2028, after which their terms will revert to four-year increments.
The at-large council members sworn in on April 20 are serving four-year terms and will be up for election again in 2030.
The new mayor and council will hold a brief first meeting following the inauguration ceremony, where they will also select a deputy mayor. The groups first council meeting will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, April 27.
The regularly scheduled City Council meeting on Monday, April 13 will be the last conducted by members of the outgoing council.
