SALEM — City council reorganized at its meeting Tuesday.

In its first meeting of the new year, council completed its annual reorganizational procedures. Each year council must appoint the clerk of council, clerk pro-tempore and president pro-tempore during its reorganizational proceedings.

Council President Evan Newman nominated Councilwoman Sara Baer to serve as president pro-tempore, with Councilman Ron Zellers providing the official motion seconded by Councilwoman Jayne Bricker, and council unanimously approved it. Baer served as the clerk pro-tempore in 2025, and will succeed 2025 president pro-tempore Andrew Null, who elected not to seek re-election to city council in November. As president pro-tempore, Baer will serve as the chair of the committee of the whole and will be responsible to run council meetings if Newman is unable to attend.

Baer will be succeeded as clerk pro-tempore in 2026 by Bricker, who was also nominated by Newman with Councilman Jeff Stockman providing the motion which was seconded by Baer and unanimously approved. The clerk of council will remain unchanged, with long-serving clerk Debbie Bricker unanimously reappointed to the position.

During the approval of council rules, Zellers questioned if the council members should consider codifying the council’s typical recess during the month of August, which it did not take in 2025, as part of its formal procedures going forward. Stockman suggested that the decision to hold a recess could instead be decided on “a council-by-council basis” depending on whether there was still unfinished business that needed to be addressed.

Mayor Cyndi Baronzzi Dickey said that in the past the council had taken a recess in August and called special meetings to address any pressing business. She also said that during her own service on city council she had found having a designated time where council would not be meeting had improved attendance overall.

“What I found in all the years I’ve been here since 2010 is that when we knew that [August] was going to be a time when we would not have council meetings, people tended to schedule the things they wanted to do, vacations, visits, things like that around August so they didn’t miss other times,” said Dickey.

While Zellers made a motion to officially codify the recess as part of the council’s rules it ultimately died for lack of a second.

The city council will meet next at 7 p.m. Jan. 13.