SAUGUS — The five members of the town’s Board of Selectmen were officially sworn back into office Wednesday night, a day after winning reelection.
Jeffrey Cicolini, Anthony Cogliano, Debra Panetta, Corinne Riley, and Michael Serino retained their seats Tuesday night after receiving the highest number of votes in a crowded field of 10 candidates running for five seats on the board.
After board members took their oath of office at Town Hall, it was right back to business, with a regular Board of Selectmen meeting starting immediately after the ceremony.
There, it was decided that Cogliano would remain chairman of the board. However, there was a bit of a shakeup, with members voting for Panetta to replace Riley as vice chair.
Town Manager Scott Crabtree congratulated the Board of Selectmen winners and shared his excitement for this upcoming term.
“I want to say congratulations to all five of you,” said Crabtree. “For someone in my position as a manager, I am really thrilled to have the same board return.”
Cogliano received the most votes Tuesday, with 2,439. Panetta was second with 2,116 votes, Cicolini (1,755) was third, Riley (1,710) came in fourth, and Serino was not far behind, with 1,709 votes.
Cogliano thanked his family and supporters for their hard work and dedication during his campaign. He also shared his gratitude for the other competitors, explaining that running against friends is extremely difficult.
“Thank you, everyone in town who put me back in,” said Cogliano. “As I said before, this is not my seat. This is the people’s seat and I felt that I deserved to be (here), I wanted to be here and I love being here.”
Panetta expressed her gratitude to her family and friends as well. While this was her 13th election, she said, she was met with a new task and learned an immense amount this time around.
“Hopefully more people will get involved because that is what Saugus is all about,” said Panetta. “It is about caring for other people, doing the right thing, and just education, learning what we can do better as a community.”
She added that she was excited to work with other boards and committees during this term.
“We are so much better working together,” said Panetta. “In unity, we can get everything done that Saugus needs to get done.”
Cicolini thanked Cogliano for pressuring him to run for another term. He said he looked forward to working with his fellow board members and Crabtree for another two years. He also commended his competitors for keeping this a very civil and professional race, and for the sacrifices they made in order to run for public office.
“It is not easy seeing negativity and putting your name out there, and it’s unfortunate what can transpire, but we didn’t give up and we kept professionalism,” said Cicolini. “(It) is not an easy thing, putting your name out there.”
Serino also thanked residents for voting him back into office and shared his excitement about moving forward and staying with the same board.
“To the people of Saugus, I want to thank you so much for voting me back into office,” said Serino. “I’ve been here for the last 30 years. I was on the Board of Selectmen back in 1999.”
Riley expressed her enthusiasm for this coming term and reminisced back to the last term when COVID-19 was impacting everyday life in so many ways.
“One thing I did find is that two years fly by, and as much as we wanted to do so much (last term), it took so much away with COVID,” said Riley. “(Time) does go by quickly and I look forward to serving the next two more years.”
The School Committee swearing-in ceremony will be held separately, on Thursday, Nov. 4 at 6 p.m.
