Susan Luond is now the mayor of Centralia.
Newly elected and re-elected Centralia City Councilors were sworn in at Tuesday night’s council meeting — the first of 2020.
Councilors Kelly Smith Johnston, position 2 at-large, Elizabeth Cameron, position 1 at-large, and Peter Abbarno, position 3 at-large were sworn in by City Clerk Deena Bilodeau. Councilor Abbarno served the previous term on the council and ran unopposed in the election.
Councilor Susan Luond was elected by the council to serve as mayor after being nominated by Abbarno. Councilor Rebecca Staebler nominated Councilor Max Vogt for mayor as well. The council votes in the order of nomination and Luond received the majority vote — five votes out of seven.
“I’m really looking forward to it. It’s not something I ever thought I would want to do but the more I thought about it I thought ‘yes I’d love to represent our council,’ ” Luond said.
Centralia’s previous mayor, Lee Coumbs, lost his bid for reelection to Smith Johnston.
Abbarno was elected by the council to serve as mayor pro-tem after a nomination from Luond. Vogt nominated Staebler and Cameron nominated Vogt. Abbarno was nominated first so he received the council’s first vote and received the majority — four votes out of seven.
The mayor and mayor pro-tem positions are composed of two-year terms.
Luond told the council and citizens at the meeting that she has the free time to dedicate the completing the tasks of the mayor and will do so to the best of her abilities.
In other business, the council came to the consensus that they would all like to see more input on the design plans from citizens on a streetscape project, coordinated by SCJ Alliance. City clerk Deena Bilodeau said that if anyone has an interest in being on a “design team” they can contact her by calling city hall.
