Montgomery Mayor Steven L. Reed and nine city council members took the oath of office on November 14th. The Council then elected District 5 City Council member C.C. Calhoun as council president and District 8 Councilor Glen Pruitt as president pro tem. 
 
Starting his second term as mayor, Mayor Reed delivered a speech outlining his beliefs about the City and its people. He called on all members of the Council and the community to “pull together,” “towards the same goal,” and “build the Montgomery we all know is possible.”
 
A full copy of Mayor Reed’s swearing-in remarks is below. 
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2023 Mayoral & City Council Swearing-In Ceremony
Remarks by Montgomery Mayor Steven L. Reed 

Mr. President, council members, friends, family, and the people of Montgomery. Thank you for once again for giving me the privilege to serve as mayor of this great city.

To Councilors Grimes, Johnson, Calhoun, Mitchell, Pruitt, and Jinright: It's been an honor to serve alongside you over the last four years, and I look forward to building on the progress we started over the next four years.

To Councilors Beard, Riley, and Szymanski: Welcome to our council. Thank you for taking on the responsibility to lead our great city into the future. I look forward to getting to know you and working with you to better our hometown.

All of us shoulder an important burden as city leaders.

The term inauguration dates back to the 16th century. It comes from a Latin word, “inaugurare,” meaning consecration. For hundreds of years it was used to commemorate the ascension of new leaders.

It's not just our responsibility after the inauguration to pass laws and be thoughtful leaders and be thoughtful stewards of taxpayer dollars. It's not just our responsibility to establish policies and procedures to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of city services. No. It is our responsibility to show what Montgomery can be. Needs to be. And will be.

Leadership is a choice, not a title. Too many people, at all levels of government, confuse getting in front with getting out front. We know that progress does not compel us to settle all of the debates about the role of government all at once. But it requires us to take actions in our time.

When we think about leadership, the first tenet of leadership is to listen. The second is to focus on the challenge at hand. Both of these tenets apply to all of us. Whether you're the CEO or the company's newest hire. It doesn't matter if you're the Montgomery School Superintendent or the 22-year-old school teacher who's just getting started. We're all in this together, and we must all focus on the challenge at hand. Not to exploit it for our own personal politics and ambitions, but to solve it, to improve it.

We must take what President Obama said in his 2012 inaugural address: “We believe that America’s prosperity must rest upon the broad shoulders of a rising middle class. We know that America thrives when every person can find independence and pride in their work; when the wages of honest labor liberate families from the brink of hardship.

We are true to our creed when a little girl born into the bleakest poverty knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else. Not just in the eyes of God but also in our own.”

And so, when we look to improve where we are, we must look to make things just a little bit better for the least of these.

Just this past weekend, I met with many of our community's veterans. In talking with these heroes and sheroes, I was reminded of a phrase “esprit de corps”— a French phrase that means union is strength. It was quickly adopted by the military to develop pride in your unit— you are training, hurting, and sweating, not just for your success but the success of the person to your left, your right, and behind you. It’s not just me succeeding; it's the team. It's the unit that's succeeding. Montgomerians should find inspiration in the phrase “esprit de corps.” It should guide our sense of pride, fellowship, and common loyalty.

Now, we all have that sense of pride and fellowship inside our own group or unit. But sometimes we forget that other groups have it also. I'm here to say, yes, they do have it. And further, we are all the same group. We are all the same unit. To paraphrase the great poet George Clinton of the Parliament-Funkadelic — if you and your folks love me and my folks, and me and my folks love you and your folks, we would be the same folk.

We all want safer streets. We all want better schools. Better jobs. Better prospects for our city and certainly our neighborhoods and our residents. We all want to see less blight. We all want to see fewer gun deaths, and fewer people injured of violent crime. But this vision of Montgomery has to be more than a dream.

Four years ago, I stood upon this stage with an ambitious agenda and broad plans. COVID had other plans. But not only did we come out of COVID better than most cities, we never stopped planning. We never stopped working. Now, because of the plans we've made. The work we have done. The support you have given us. We can move forward with a better understanding of the needs of our city and the people who live here. But more than that, with this common vision and this common loyalty to each other, the plan is for every corner of the city, every neighborhood, and every street to be a great place to live, learn, and earn.

I can stand here, and I can talk about job numbers. I can talk about the growth of various economic sectors. But we're not here just to produce a job number, but rather to change lives. Not to just grow a business, but to support a child. Not to put a person in jail, but to make Montgomery safe for all of us.

It is my job and the job of every person who took the oath of office today to lead the city. But it's everyone's responsibility to be a part of the success of the city. Whether it be through your church, your synagogue, your mosque, your civic organization, your fraternity, your sorority, your volunteer group, or just you giving back and helping your neighbor. We all have a role to play.

Since we're all going the same way for the same goal, let's do it together. Let's build a city of Montgomery that we all know is possible. One that is full of opportunity. One that is full of pride. One that embodies “esprit de corps.”

We started this work in 2019. It continues in 2023.

In closing, this is what I believe about the City of Montgomery and all of us. Montgomerians are like Joseph. We are dreamers. We are like Esther. We are not afraid. We are like Nehemiah. We are builders. That is what Montgomery is. That is why we have succeeded in the past. Through the worst hardships. The worst calamities. The worst things that one human can do to another. We have not only survived. We have thrived. And now we are all here together to create a city we can be proud of.

God bless the City of Montgomery. God bless the city council. God bless our residents, neighbors, and friends. God bless each and every one of you, who may be right here in this city or may not be from this city, watching from somewhere else, wondering about our progress and praying for our success. We thank you. We ask for those continued prayers. We ask for those continued positive thoughts. And we ask for that continued positive action.

God bless our active service members and our veterans, and God bless each and every one of you.

Thank you so much.