CARIBOU, Maine — The Caribou City Council swore in three members during their Jan. 4 organizational meeting and elected Jody Smith as the mayor and Thomas Ayer as the deputy mayor.
Neither Smith nor Ayer are new to the council, and were unanimously elected by their fellow councilors.
Newly elected councilors Lou Willey and Courtney Boma were sworn in along with former mayor Mark Goughan, who briefly resigned last year due to missed meetings and was also elected for an additional three-year term in November.
In addition to selecting a mayor and deputy mayor, the council appointed administrative officers and members of community and advisory boards.
Smith, later in the meeting, thanked his fellow councilors for their support and said that the city will receive a new sound system for their meetings in addition to a timer that can be placed on the wall for public forum. He clarified that, for future meetings, he would like to limit each public commenter to five minutes in which they make their statements, adding that he does not want public forum to turn into a debate between the council and citizens.
“I’d just like to thank you all for giving me the opportunity to serve as the mayor this year,” he said. “I’ll continue to move forward in a very similar fashion to how we were presenting the agenda last year.”
