NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city's new government will be sworn in on Thursday, Jan. 1, at 11 a.m. in Council Chambers. 

 

The inauguration and organization of government is open to the public and may be broadcast on Northern Berkshire Community Television. 

 

City Clerk Tina Leonesio will be in charge, calling the council to order and administering the oath of office until the new president is elected and sworn in. Once the council is issued its committee and liaison assignment, the School Committee members and McCann School Committee representatives will be sworn in. 

 

The president will select two councilors to draw seat numbers for the next term and two to escort Mayor Jennifer Macksey to council chambers, where she will be sworn in and will address the city. 

 

This ceremony has become something of a recent New Year's Day tradition, though the adoption in 1965 of the Plan A form of government has the mayor take office on the first Monday in January. However, the council takes office on Jan. 1.

 

As far back as 1913, the swearing in was a Monday in council chambers. The first mayor elected under Plan A, James Cleary, took the oath along with the nine councilors on Monday, Jan. 1, 1968. This continued through Mayors Francis Floriani, Joseph Bianco and Richard Lamb. 

 

The date was shifted for the first inauguration of John Barrett III in 1984. The ceremony was moved to Drury High School on a Sunday night, Jan. 1, to allow for the event to be open to the public. It was the first time it had been broadcast on radio (WMNB) and television (cable Channel 7). (Macksey also held her first inauguration at Drury in 2022 because of expected attendance.)

 

The inaugurations continued to be held in the evenings. The only other change was in 2000, when Barrett had the ceremony held in the Hunter Center on Monday, Jan. 3, to celebrate the newly opened Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

 

Prior inaugurations had had limited public participation — they were often in the morning on weekdays and in council chambers not conducive to an audience, particularly before the current City Hall was built. When Cleary was sworn in at old City Hall, the crowd spilled into the judge's chamber and hallway.

 

It was Richard Alcombright, who took office in 2010, who opted for New Year's Day, saying it would allow for more people to attend. While mainly ceremonial for the mayor, it would line up with the date the City Council takes office. 

 

This has continued through his four terms and those of his successors Thomas Bernard and now Macksey, who will take the oath on Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026.