Organizational Meeting

Heat. Heat. [music]

[music]

Hey, hey, hey. Hey,

call to order the December 4th meeting of the Kerry Town Council. And at this time, I would ask that you join me in the pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag

of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

First order of business is to adopt the agenda. I would entertain a motion to do so.

So moved. Second.

Motion and a second. Discussion. All in favor, please say I. I.

Any oppose? Motion carries unanimously. That takes us into item number three. If you're following along, the swearing in of swearing in ceremony part of the agenda and we're honored to have a distinguished group of individuals here to affirm the oath of office to our candidates who are now going to be council members. The first oath of office is administered to Carissa Khan Johnson by Lori Bush.

Thank you.

You're up.

[snorts]

You ready?

Yes.

Great. Raise your right hand.

First off, this is a real honor.

Thank you for letting me do

Cararissa Con Johnson. Do you solemnly affirm that you will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina, not inconsistent therewith, and that you will faithfully discharge the duties of the office as town council member of the

town of Kerry.

I do.

Thank you.

Good hug. [applause]

[applause]

This is the most fun I've had in a meeting in a long time. [laughter] Our second oath office is for Bella Huang by the North Carolina representative Yalu, former council member here. So cute. [laughter]

[clears throat] [laughter]

Look [clears throat] at how she manages this big household. Fellow do solemnly affirm that you will support and maintain the constitution laws of the United States and the constitution laws of North Carolina not in consistent therewith and that you will faithfully discharge the duties of the office as town council member for the town of Kerry.

I do. [applause]

[applause]

It's a real honor to um to swear in um Bella and I just want to quickly acknowledge that this is a very very difficult time um for the immigrant community across this country. Uh but

Kerry is different. um one out of four car citizens was born outside this country. We have a very large immigrant community and to all the immigrants to all the children of immigrants and a lot of you are scared and you are anxious and you for the first time you may feel that you are not welcome uh you don't belong but I want to show you this moment how special this is a former immigrant council member swearing in another immigrant to the Kerry on council. Thank you, Carrie. [applause] Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much for uh whatever you do for our Chinese American community. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Um, I'm Bella and I'm deeply, deeply honored to stand here today and to have the opportunity to serve our town. And this campaign has been an incredible journey, one filled with hope, hard work, and with unwilling support of so many people I love. My heart is full tonight. I have a very long list of thank you list. Please give me a few minutes. First to my dear husband Hiwei, thank you for being my rock. Thank you for supporting our family, our business and our shared belief in giving back to our community. And Hiwei, I learned importance of giving back from you. NC State is what first brought us to North Carolina. And with the scholarship you received, we were able to build our

lives here and could start our business. I'm so proud of you, the first Chinese American alumnist to give back to North Carol NC State. We will continue this journey together, giving back to our beloved home, Carrie. And I also want to thank to my mom. Thank you. Thanks to her for taking care of our family and always being so helpful. And I want to also carry my dad in my heart. I hope he's watching this in heaven and feeling proud of me. And to my wonderful children, Albert, Charles, Harry, and Sophie. And you are my joy. Thank you so much for chemisting with mom after school on weekends in the heat and in the rain and wearing mom's campaign t-shirt to school every single day. [laughter] And thank you Charles even you are not listening all the time but uh you make sure that grade two knows that your mom is running for keratan council. [laughter] And to all the elected officials, everyone, thank you so much for your support, for your guidance, and um for mentoring me, especially our Chinese American community leaders because you know that our under reppresented community needs more voices and you have done so much to me and make me step up and run for this office. And I have some special people to thanks to. And first is an assistant professor uh Lean Shia, Professor Lean Shia. Um you flew 18 hours back to Kerry to cast a vote for me on November 1st.

Oh wow.

And flew away on November 4th for your business. And your commitment just makes me more than I can express. And your

vote is so expensive. Thank you. [laughter] Um, and also thanks to Professor Jao Bang. Thank you for the nurturing the civic engagement within the Chinese American community and inspiring so many of us believe that our voices matter and three Chinese American elected officials first fundraiser all hosted by you. Thank you, Professor Zone. [applause] And also we have other um NCC professors that are our role models. Our former senior vice provost professor Balen Lee and the current senior vice provost professor Helen Chen. Thank you so much. You have leading with wisdom, dignity and dedication. I'm learning from you. You are my examples. Thank you [applause] to our volunteers. Thanks to Wick Dams Bill O'Neal, are you here? Thank you. Thank you, Bill and Move and see Shinan Lee. Thank you, Shinan. Thank you. Thank you. I'm I'm just announcing one person, but I know a lot of people behind you and our uh Chinese American community. So many of you are here and so many of you are not here, but thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. You are the soul of this campaign. And next to our incredible youth team, I want to name your names. Vita, Jojo, Lucy, Sunny, Charlotte, Cecilia, Alexa, Freddy, Rosanna, Zachary, Katherine, Brady, Meredith, Michael, Ivy, Mia, Isabella, Daffing, and so many more because you gave me so much hope. You are the future leaders, and you remind me why this work matters. Thank you.

[applause] I also want to thanks to the council, Councilman Jack Smith and Councilwoman Jennifer Robinson, two remarkable two remarkable public servants whose dedication has shaped the Kerry we love today and is honored to follow in their footsteps. And to the people of Kerry, my neighbors, thank you so much for your trust, your encouragement, and for believing in me and our shared vision. Thank you. [applause] And last, I want to thank to the people who keep car running every single day. Our dedicated town staff, our police officers, our firefighters, and our hardworking public works teams. You are the quiet strength of this community. You keep us safe. You make carrot beautiful and you serve with professionalism and with heart. I look forward to working with you in the future. As I thank you [applause] as I began this journey, I held one simple commitment to listen, to learn, and to serve whatever I have. and I'm ready to bring energy, dedication, and love to this community to the work ahead. Together, we can build a better Kerry. Thank you, Carrie. And hello, council and mayor. [applause]

[laughter]

And last but not least, our final oath of office is for Britney Richards by North Carolina Representative Maria Cervania.

[applause]

Dad. [laughter]

Come on, Dad. Don't be shy. First, it's a tremendous honor to do this for you and and I have more to say later. [laughter] Britney Richards, do you solemnly affirm that you will support and maintain the Constitution and laws of the United States and the Constitution and laws of North Carolina, not inconsistent therewith, and that you will faithfully discharge the duties of the office as town council member of the town of Kerry?

I do.

Yes. Congratulations. [applause] group

[applause] [laughter]

crew hug.

You want me to stay, Maria?

Yeah, I do. And just briefly, [laughter] um, like I said, it's an honor to stand here today to square somebody who embodies the very best of all of us and the bestest public service and community leadership. And that's you, Britney Richards. I still remember, and I think hopefully you're out here, Vicky Welsh.

There you go. [laughter] And Pam Thompson. And you and I met.

And um we were very impressed by your background and the already energy and the commitment that you gave within our precinct and in the in our area in West Kerry. And as time went by, as time has gone by, we were just asking like someone not just to fill a role, but inviting a force of nature, you're such a force of nature to step up to represent us. And I might be a North Carolina representative, but you still represent me on that dice, right? So, and you didn't just step up, but you stepped in with all your heart and your soul and your commitment. And on the campaign trail, I I know Bao worked hard, too. [laughter] But morning, noon, and night, you put in so much and all of us volunteers saw that and we worked till the end to make sure that you crossed that finish line. So this is the kind of leadership that's not taught and you come with such character and integrity and really just a genuine person and you can tell if you ever meet her parents you know where this comes from. You meet her husband and her family you know you know that legacy comes with with the fruit of from your parents and your children. That's why we know you're the real deal. So, congratulations and I'm so proud of you. [applause]

I will just say thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you.

And while Miss Richard's being seated, we want to give Cararissa a chance

to say a few words.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. the the format

tonight was a little bit different. So, I didn't come prepared with remarks, but I do this is an opportunity with a lot of the folks sitting here to say thank you. Um, and I don't want to let that slip by without doing so. So, um, you know, I I I always said I ran because there's nothing in it for me. Um, and by that I mean I've lived in Kerry since the mid 90s. I came here with virtually nothing but an education that wasn't even done yet. and this community has given me absolutely everything a human being needs and a whole lot of what I want. So for me this is really important. It's a part of giving back and I don't see this as a stepping stone. I see this is absolutely the thing I should be doing. So I just want to share my heartfelt thanks. Um I'm sitting here you know the the saying standing on a bunch of shoulders. Hundreds of people hundreds of people put me in this seat and so I do feel a great deal of responsibility and as always welcome everybody. If you think I'm not doing what I should be doing or what I said I would do, you let me know um so I can correct course. Uh but there are a few specific thank yous I want to make sure that I extend. One is to our town staff. Um this job is difficult. There's a lot of things we swear in and we don't know. And so what we get is a significant amount of support, knowledge, and really expertise from our staff and they're dedicated and they work their tails off. And I just want to make sure that right at the top of my list of people to thank is that group of people that really do deliver the services that make people love this place so much. So, thank you to the staff. Um, yeah, [applause] and to our amazing nonprofit partners who like to start a round of applause. Thank you to them. [laughter] Um, additionally, Wake Dems and and those volunteers, these are folks that um, you know, running a a campaign. This is a pretty big campaign at large. There's a lot of people here in Kerry. It's a a big it's a big place. Um so without that support, this is virtually

impossible. So I just want to thank all of the folks that spent so much of their time and energy helping me get reelected. Um and um the local support system I have there's several local electeds who are um and several of them are here in this room and swearing people in and sitting on this stage. what they do is they share, they support. Um it's it's difficult sometimes to get a good sounding board because a lot of times folks don't understand sort of where you're coming from. Um and when you've got people that share the same experience you do here, uh making these decisions and and sort of facing the the pressures and the pushes and pulls, it's really incredible to have such a support system. And I've had it since before I was elected through the entire time. And I don't know what I would do without it. This job would be very difficult without that. Um, I call my local electeds. They're they're, you know, they're friends now. Of course, they're friends now. But, um, thank you to you to you and of course to my family, especially Donovan, who is the world's greatest campaign volunteer and who was apolitical till he met me. And now he gets Christmas cards from the president and the vice president. So, what what a difference seven or eight years makes. Um, and he is the king of the home mail room. So, if anybody ever needs any pointers, he's your guy when it comes to stuffing envelopes and applying stamps. Um, and my daughter and what my daughter's done, she's was at school through my first term, but what she does for me, I don't think she realizes how important it is to listen to me complain. And then, and then nobody in this world is better at redirecting me to be positive than my daughter, Bella. So, thank you for that, sweetheart, because sometimes I just want to complain to her and then I'm done. And it's an incredible service to me. Then it keeps me from doing it to 10 other people. So, thank you for that. [laughter] And Lori Bush. Lori Bush was um uh against her will. She was my she's been my mentor for the last five or six years whether she wanted to be or not. She has maintained now for four plus years she's maintained her um notary.

She's a notary public for the sole purpose of being able to swear me in here to be her council colleague. Um I'm sure that cost you a little bit of money. I should probably reimburse you for that. I'm sorry. But thank you for taking the class and doing this because it means a great deal to me because I know you know me really really well. So when you say you're proud of me, that really means something to me. So thank you for that. So I wanted to make sure to give you that shout out. And I think I don't think I forgot anybody, but if I did, I am so grateful. And I'll see you and go, "Oh god, I should have thought of you." And and and I thank you in advance. Okay. Thank you. [applause] Thanks to everyone for being here and congratulations to our returning and our new council members. Uh we're excited that you're here and we look forward to what you're going to do in the next four years. Um before we adjourn, we do have some business to take care of and uh the first order of business is to adopt the 2026 meeting schedule and I would entertain a motion to do so. So moved.

Second.

Motion and a second. Discussion. All in favor, please say I. I. Any

oppose? Motion carries unanimously. Now we move to the nomination. A motion to approve the mayor prom. And I know Miss Con Johnson wants to make a motion.

Um I would like to move that the mayor appoint um Lori Bush as our next mayor prom. Um I don't think I even need to make a case for that. I feel really good about that. her longevity. She's now um next to the mayor, the senior person on this board, and I think she'll do an absolutely fantastic job in the instance where she does need to step in um where you're busy.

Okay, there's a motion. Is there a

second?

Second.

A bunch of second. [laughter]

They're fighting over it. And a third. A second and a third.

Yeah. Uh discussion. All in favor, please say I.

Any oppose? Motion carries unanimously.

And now I have a whole list of appointments. I'm not going to read them all, but I think it's important to read the ones that have to do with what's going on in the town. So, I'll read these appointments, and you can find these online.

Clerk is saying yes. I'm not saying things that are not true. All right. Uh, economic development committee will have me and Miss Bonsel, Miss Wang. Uh, environmental advisory board liaison will be Miss Richards. Historic preservation commission, Miss Craig. Human Relations Inclusion and Diversity Board, Miss Bush. Information Services Advisory Board, Miss Bush. Parks Recreation Cultural Resources Advisory Board, Miss Bonsel. Planning and Zoning Board, Miss Richards. Public Art Advisory Board, Miss Colin Johnson. Senior Advisory Board, Miss Col Johnson. Zoning Board of Adjustment, Miss Wang. I'll skip those since even council members don't know what some of those committees are. [laughter] Uh, Greater Raleigh Convention Visitors Bureau Board of Directors. I will be the primary. Miss Bush will be the alternate there. I'm going to skip some more and move right to Go Triangle, Go Triangle Authority Board of Trustees, Miss Wong, uh, Sister Cities, uh, Miss Craig and Friends of the Page Walker, Miss Craig. Those are my appointments. And that concludes our agenda. If there's anything else from the council, now's the time to bring it up. If not, I declare this meeting ajourned. Thank you. [applause]

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