New mayor, council sworn into city office
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on December 8, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/ETHAN SMITH
Chuck Allen is sworn in as mayor of Goldsboro at Monday night's City Council meeting as his wife, Lori, holds the Bible on which he placed his hand while taking his oath of office.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
A standing room only crowd gathers at City Hall Monday night as the new mayor and City Council are sworn in.
More than 120 people came to the Goldsboro City Council meeting Monday night to witness four new members of the Council be sworn in by Judge Charles Gaylor III.
Former Mayor Al King, who was replaced by new Mayor Chuck Allen, gave a heartfelt valediction to the standing room only crowd.
King thanked several organizations and people that supported him during his 14 years as mayor.
He also gave a special brand of thanks to the city staff members he worked with during his tenure.
"There's so many, many things that I have to be thankful for, and I want to thank our hardworking staff," King said. "I can tell you, I would go to war with this group. (Fourth Fighter Wing Commander) Col. (Mark) Slocum knows what I'm talking about. I often say I spent a year in Vietnam as a squadron commander. And that group of people were the most dedicated, most fearless group of people I've ever seen, but they were in combat. They had my back, they would have taken a bullet for me and I would for them. This group of people who are leading our city right now, they'll do the same thing."
Bevan Foster, David Ham, Mark Stevens and Antonio Williams stepped into the City Council seats for Districts 4, 5, 3 and 1, respectively.
Former council members Michael Headen, William Goodman and Charles Williams were not in attendance to see their replacements officially take office.
Following the swearing in of the entirety of the new council, Allen gave a speech to the packed room in which he laid out his vision for what he would like to accomplish over the next four years as mayor.
He said he wants to lower the crime rate, move gangs out of Goldsboro, fix blight in the city, improve the quality of life in the city, improve race relations, address problems in the public education system and more.
"I guess my last thing, and this is probably the most sentimental to me, but as a new mayor if I don't talk about this then I think I'm making a mistake -- but I'll tell you the biggest challenge, the biggest problem we have in this city in my opinion, is our school system and our inner-city school system. Specifically, I'm talking about the Goldsboro High School attendance area," Allen said, who graduated from Goldsboro High School. "Let me tell you those schools: School Street, North Drive, Carver Heights, Dillard Middle and Goldsboro High School. Contains 2,000 kids, 90 percent black, mostly low-wealth and all the schools are performing at D or F levels."
Allen said he planned for his approach to tackling these problems to take the shape of a hexagon, with the six points of the shape being the city, the county, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, Wayne County Public Schools, Goldsboro Housing Authority and the residents of Goldsboro.
"I really, for once, have some hope that we're going to make some changes, and they (the school system) are going to make some changes, that are going to be positive," Allen said.
Allen was the District 5 City Council member, a seat in which Ham will now serve.
He also served as mayor pro-tem under King.
The council voted unanimously to postpone appointing a new mayor pro-tem.
Each member of the council ended the meeting by providing individual comments about what they look forward to in the future and the primary issues they would like to tackle during the next four years.
The council also presented resolutions honoring Headen, Goodman and Williams for their services to the city during their tenure on the council.
Charles Williams was honored for 20 years of service, Goodman was honored for 19 years of service, Headen was honored for eight years of service and former mayor King was honored for 14 years of service as mayor.