Nixon swears in new mayor and council members

The city of Nixon saw a changing of the guard Monday, May 13, with outgoing Mayor Dorothy Riojas presiding over her last City Council meeting and newly elected Mayor Ellie Dominguez being sworn into office after the May 4 election results were canvassed.

Newly elected City Councilmembers Jack Rogers and Shannon Smith were sworn in by Dominguez after she was sworn in by Nixon Municipal Judge Deidra Voigt, who also gave the new council members information about the Open Meetings Act and urged them to familiarize themselves with state  law and local ordinances.

Dominguez also gave plaques of appreciation to outgoing City Councilwoman Maggie Gaytan, who served on the council for six years, and to Riojas, who served as mayor for six years and on the council before that for eight years.

Gaytan implored her successors to “please read and get on the website and learn.”

“That's the only way that you're going to learn because this is not an easy job,” Gaytan said. “I wish there was more people here. I want to let everybody know that everybody should try to at least run one time for city council and sit in this hot seat.

“It is not fun. There's some good times, but there's also some very troubling times when we have very hard decisions to make. I think the two gentlemen that have been chosen for this opportunity — I think they're going to do great. We have a great council. I feel that in my six years, we've done some great things, and we made some mistakes, but you learn from those mistakes.”

Gaytan said she wants citizens to take to hear that “the best thing this Council could have done is place Mr. (Darryl) Becker in as acting city manager right now.”

“He has done a great job and continues to do a great job and I feel he's leading us down a path that is very promising for the city of Nixon,” Gaytan said.

Riojas said the best advice she could give to the council is “when you vote, vote what you feel is the right thing.”

“It's not what somebody else tells you,” Riojas said. “You were put here by the citizens. And I'm sure there's plenty of them that will tell you what we should have done this or we should have done that. We all make mistakes. There is no perfect person.”

Riojas said she had a “wonderful time” during her 14 years of service to the city.

“I was on council, and that's a tough position to cover,” Riojas said. “The mayor is a little bit more sitting back, but the council men, the aldermen, the council women, they're the ones that make the choices. So good luck to you all. I commend you all.”