Anne McEnerny-Ogle started off the new year Monday by taking the oath of office as mayor of Vancouver.
However, the late-afternoon swearing-in at the Vancouver Firefighters Union Hall was just the first of two ceremonies marking the ascent of Vancouver’s first female mayor. McEnerny-Ogle will take the oath again Monday at the first Vancouver City Council meeting of the year.
McEnerny-Ogle said she didn’t want to wait eight days to officially take office. Former Mayor Tim Leavitt’s term ended Sunday.
“With Jan. 8 being so late, I didn’t want to go a full week without the city having a mayor,” she said. “With our luck, something would happen and the city wouldn’t have an official mayor here.”
State Supreme Court Justice Susan Owens performed the first ceremony.
“(She) was down here visiting her family, so we grabbed her and we did a quick ceremony,” McEnerny-Ogle said.
The ceremony location wasn’t a coincidence — the Union Hall is the same spot where McEnerny-Ogle announced her mayoral candidacy in January 2017.
“It seemed like a full circle to complete it and thank all the folks who were with us a year ago,” she said.
McEnerny-Ogle could have scheduled her oath at the last council meeting in 2017, or up to 10 days before Jan. 1.
Those rules also apply to Councilor Alishia Topper and Linda Glover. Topper and Glover will join McEnerny-Ogle at the Monday meeting for an official swearing-in ceremony.
