Good morning. I am Mayor Carter, uh, mayor of the city of St. Paul. I want to thank you all for joining us this morning as we swear in Mr. Matt Potsky as the interim city council member for W [Applause] 4. Matt, I want to say thank you uh for stepping forward to lead. I want to say thank you uh for your care uh for our neighbors, not just in Ward 4, but all across the city. Um, and I want to thank you say thank you for taking on such an important role at such an important time. uh you've expressed excitement at the chance to represent uh what you have jokingly called just a corner of St. Paul. Uh we know the word for is more than just a corner. Word for as a critical part of our community of our entire kind of city fabric. Um I want to thank you to uh council president Nre uh council member uh Bowie, Council Member Jose and Council Member Johnson for joining us here this morning. Uh we appreciate all of the work that you all have put in uh to filling this seat. Uh and I know I speak on behalf of all of us when I say uh that we extend an incredible thank you uh not just to the finalists uh but to every single individual who stepped forward uh to apply uh to fill this seat. We in this building um have had a major challenge uh over the past uh month or so of uh working through uh all of the incredible uh gifted, talented, quality candidates uh who have stepped forward from W 4. uh that bodess well uh for word four and that bodess well for our city. Uh so we say a big heartfelt thank you uh to every single one of those folks who stepped forward, put your name forward and indicated your willingness uh to serve in our community. Uh city clerk Sherry Moore, thank you for being willing to presside over this morning's swearing in uh ceremony. Um, and I also want to thank all of the city employees, staff, uh, city council staff, uh, who are in the space right now, uh, because, uh, we all know, uh, that none of this work happens, uh, without all of the work that you all do, um, every single day. Um, we set out, uh, to identify a candidate who um could could could step in to work for in an important moment. Uh, we have critical votes awaiting. Um, and we needed a candidate who um uh had uh both an extensive set of u of of of history of community activity uh in Ward 4 uh and networks uh to be able to uh kind of carry the work forward. Uh we needed a candidate who uh understood the way city hall operates uh and could hit the ground running uh as we jump straight into important conversations in just a matter of hours. Um, and we wanted to acknowledge uh the the the the statement that voters made just a couple of years ago when they sent former uh council president Mitra Jalali into this space. Uh Matt uh Pvatzky does all of those things. Uh your history of service in the community, your history of service in this building, uh and your values-based alignment uh with uh with former council member Jalali uh make you the perfect choice to serve and we appreciate you being willing to step up. Uh it's a great responsibility uh to select the leader who will help shape policies and guide decisions uh that affect our entire community. It's an even greater responsibility to serve on the team that works together, learns from one another, and works on behalf of all of us. Uh so this is a moment uh that we celebrate. Uh and it's also a moment uh that uh marks uh the the next chapter in a whole lot of hard work that I know that we are all um up to together. So I want to just thank you for sharing our commitment to St. Paul and I want to thank you for investing in this city. I want to say congratulations and welcome to the team. And with without further ado, I'll ask uh city clerk Sherry Moore to join us and administer the oath of office. We can all just sort of you raise your right hand and repeat after me. I state your name. I, Matt Perzky, do solemnly swear do solemnly swear to support the Constitutions to support the Constitutions of the United States of America of the United States of America and the state of Minnesota and the state of Minnesota and that I will discharge faithfully and that I will discharge faithfully the duties devolving upon me the duties devolving upon me as a city council member as a city council member of the city of St. Paul of the city of St. Paul to the best of my judgment and ability to the best of my judgment and abilities. Congratulations. Thank you. [Applause] Yeah. Yeah. Speech. Uh, thank you to the city council, to Mayor Carter for the opportunity to serve in this role. Um particularly folks like council president Rebecca Nre has had to deal with me as a random advocate for bike lanes and parking meters and then as a you know staff uh staff member during her term and now as a colleague and so many of these new council members I was proud to see run and win last year and serve the city. So really excited about the opportunity. Um so many of the staff in this building uh are the reason you know the city works the way it does and I proudly was one of them uh years ago. So happy to be able to serve in this role. Happy to be helpful for W 4. Um and really proud to be able to continue the term of my former boss, former council president Mitra Jalali, and have the chance to come in and work for the residents of W 4. Thanks. Thank you so much. And I think with that we are complete. We have a new city council member. Congratulations, sir. Absolutely. Thank you.