COLUMBIA, S.C. — Daniel Rickenmann will officially become the new Mayor of Columbia when he's sworn in Tuesday afternoon in downtown Columbia.
Rickenmann will take the oath of office along with three newly elected councilmembers, a reality that represents a significant shakeup for the city's governing body.
The ceremony takes place at 3 p.m. in the 1700 block of Main Street and the public is invited to come.
Rickenmann won the race to lead the city in November, getting the most votes in the municipal election and then the runoff election two weeks later to secure the seat. But Rickenmann is no stranger to city government having been a member of city council off and on for the last 17 years. He's also a business owner.
A day before he's sworn in, Rickenmann sat down with News19's J.R. Berry for a one-on-one interview where he looked ahead to his term in office.
Berry: Let's talk about you in this election now. Are you excited about officially becoming mayor?
Rickenmann: Yeah, I'm excited to get there, having one foot in the door, one foot out the door has been kind of hard over the last month. But really excited about the opportunity. Just the outpouring from people wanting to be engaged and be part of the process and a lot of ideas and a lot of great things that can happen here.
Berry: What are some of your priorities for this coming year? Here we are brand new year 2022. What are some of the things at the top of your list that you would like to see done in the City of Columbia?
Rickenmann: Well, you know, I mean, I think we're open for business. We're open at the City of Columbia. That's going to be our theme is we're open we're open to ideas. We're open arms, we're open for investment, we're open to everything, collaboration. There is that our priority is to get people engaged and be part of it. You know, we want to focus obviously on the things that got us here: public safety, talking about business recruitment, and retention and in dealing with our tax structure. But you know also opening up opportunities making sure we're staying focused on affordable housing, making sure that our streets are in good order, and get rid of the steel plates and orange cones, and that we truly have a customer service based city.
Berry: We have a new city council some new members coming on board as well with you during that swearing in ceremony. Looking forward to working with this council and you get some old friends on council as well. So have you guys had a chance to talk and look ahead to the New Year as far as working together as a team?
Rickenmann: We have. We've had several conversations excited about the ideas that they have and all of us coming together to put a strategic plan together that has not only milestones and timelines, but accountability and goals, so that we're all working to it. We can hold each other to those goals and that accountability but also our partners and our staff and working really hard to improve our city.
Berry: We're going now into year three of this pandemic. When it started, nobody could foresee it lasting this long. Any idea as far as say the City of Columbia is concerned, or any possible mask mandates on the table in the coming days or weeks?
Rickenmann: I don't think we see that at this point. I think right now we are encouraging people to get vaccinated that aren't, we encourage those who can be boostered to go ahead and get boostered and then if you've got a sniffle or cold or you don't feel well just stay at home if you can, mask up when you have the opportunity. I think you're seeing our community they're doing it because they want to make sure they protect each other. At least for me when I've been to the grocery store everybody else is kind of doing what they see. I think we've got another 30 days or so based on what has happened in other cities and other countries with this variant. And so we just we've got to move forward. Luckily, our hospitals are not filled, which is good. And I think that's a trigger point for us, as continue to keep in constant contact with our health officials, monitoring that testing sites or open vaccination sites or anything so you know, let's do the smart thing. We've been here now let's let's work together.
Berry: What is the biggest challenge moving forward in the 2022 that you see right now for the city of Columbia?
Rickenmann: You know, I think our biggest challenge in it will always be to try to move us forward in parallel paths not only by taking focus on recruitment and retention, you know, making sure that we're filling those public safety needs as which is really important, but at the same time attracting businesses to help grow because having a safe, clean community with vibrant investment really helps keep our neighborhoods healthy keeps our our cultural community healthy, helps us continue to attract more people here. Columbia's got such a great story to tell and we haven't told it. I mean, we knocked on 28,000 doors my team and I and there's a story behind every door and we need to tell those stories because I think the more people hear about Columbia, the more they realize but we have to offer and come.
Berry: Talking about stories behind every door. How about an open door policy? Will people be able to call Mayor Rickenmann that they've got an issue if they've got a problem with something?
Rickenmann: Yeah, I just changed my email address here and there at Columbiasc.gov to make it easier for people so they don't have to spell my 11 letter last name. But also, we're going to do open houses like I did when I was [at-large councilman.] We're going to have open house we're going to have messages going out to not only the constituents in our community, but the press every week kind of updating and we want as much information to get out so people know what's going on. They can be part of the process. They can contribute. They can get their questions answered. So you'll see a lot of that throughout this year.