Madison saw a historic changeover in leadership Tuesday when the city once again inaugurated Mayor Paul Soglin for his third stint in the office, ringing in a fresh series of challenges for the new set of City Council members to consider in the coming weeks.

After being recognized for his eight years of service as the city’s mayor, Dave Cieslewicz addressed a crowd of reflecting alders in a somewhat bittersweet moment, thanking them for their hard work throughout his tenure presiding over the council and encouraging them to work with Soglin.

“I want to wish Mayor Soglin well in his new administration,” Cieslewicz said in his parting words to the council. “If he succeeds, so does our city, so I want to wish him all good things.”

A number of council members, even some who opposed Cieslewicz’s re-election campaign, got emotional saying their goodbyes to the outgoing mayor.

Ald. Bridget Maniaci, District 2, said Cieslewicz gave her the tools necessary to succeed during her first term as the district’s alder and said the choice between the two candidates was incredibly tough. Soglin came out on top during the April election, taking the office by a mere 713 votes. 

“It’s like when parents get divorced and you have to choose who you love more and who you want to live with,” Manicai said.

Outgoing City Council President Mark Clear, District 19, said the projects Cieslewicz championed throughout his tenure would have beneficial impacts on the city for years to come, though in a press conference following Soglin’s oath, the new mayor addressed a number of Cieslewicz’s projects that might be impacted in the coming weeks under the city’s new leadership.

Soglin said he began meeting with city officials during his transition period to discuss his requirements and adjustments to projects such as the Overture Center and the renovations planned for the Central Library.

“We’ve had a series of meetings with all the members of the council, and I’ve met with some of the department and division heads to get briefings on some of the major conflict areas, but we have to double back and go through it all again,” Soglin said. “From the very beginning of all of these projects, they had to be planned out not just in regard to the construction timeline, but in funding. We’ll probably see some changes in how we do our planning here.”

Since the election earlier this month, Soglin has said he would require all $8 million in private funding for the Central Library renovations to be guaranteed before the project could break ground – a requirement library officials have said could push the construction back up to three years.

Soglin said the library renovations would be of first priority for his administration, but said he could not see any circumstances in which he would allow the city to sign contracts without knowing the city would be reimbursed when the building was complete. He said he knew the requirement could cause costly problems in the immediate future because of the deteriorating state of the building.

Soglin also said he was facing similar concerns with the proposals the City Council approved for the privatization of the Overture Center. He said he needed to have more of the “very fine details” of the transition before he could move forward.

The council’s leadership also changed hands. Ald. Lauren Cnare, District 3, was unanimously elected to serve as the new City Council president along with Ald. Shiva Bidar-Sielaff, District 5, who will serve as the council’s president pro tem for the next year. 

Soglin said he plans to have an active relationship with the council as a whole in addition to its leadership.

The new City Council met in its first meeting of the session Tuesday evening and passed a resolution to accept a study for a rooftop intensive community garden or a green roof as part of the renovations for the Central Library, although they acknowledged the possibility may be outside the realm of the budget.

The council also approved a resolution for the creation of an ordinance that would require landlords to provide contact information and create a “bail deposit” for the city to take from in the event of landlord policy violations.