EASTHAMPTON — On the same night that voters ushered in a new era in city government by selecting a new mayor for the first time in eight years, they also tapped four newcomers to join the council — a significant influx of voices who will join a group of experienced councilors in guiding the city over the next two years.

While four new faces may seem like a lot on the council, Precinct 1’s James “JP” Kwiecinski, the current council president and now the body’s longest-serving member after Salem Derby was elected mayor on Tuesday, said that larger turnovers have occurred in the past. In fact, in the 2003 election when he and Derby were first elected, they were two of six new members to join the council, according to previous editions of the Gazette.

“Typically we have lots of introductions,” Kwiecinski said. “There’s a lot to learn but we have a good group of people (coming in) that’ll look at the issues and evaluate the entire impact of the city, and make good decisions in the process that are well balanced.”

He said in order to bring a city together a council needs to have the right balance, and he feels the mix of incumbents and new candidates for the 2026-2027 term will work together to face the “challenges facing our city.”

The new elected councilors include three at-large members, Nathan Markee, Jonathan Schmidt and Kiam Jamrog-McQuaid, and new Precinct 4 Councilor Amanda Newton.

They’ll join Kwiecinski and four other incumbents, including at-large member Koni Denham and Precinct 5’s Tamara Smith, who won their seats on Tuesday by a comfortable margin. Kwiecinski, Felicia Jadczak of Precinct 2 and Thomas Peake of Precinct 3 are also returning to the council after facing no challengers.

All of the elected councilors stopped by Luthier’s Co-op after the election results were announced to celebrate their victories and talk about their future time on the council.

“I am excited to have reached the finish line here. It has been a long season …” Schmidt said after results were announced. “I’m really pleased to have had so many people turn out to support me as a first-time councilor and I’m excited to get to work. We have really important stuff ahead of us and I think a challenging couple of years.”

Denham got the most votes out of the at-large candidates with 3,729, followed by Schmidt with 3,249, Jamrog-McQuaid with 2,911 and Markee with 2,635. At-large candidate, Karl Prahl, was the one out of the five that was not elected, receiving 1,918 votes.

In the race for Precinct 4, Newton received 573 votes, edging out Robert “Bob” Peirent with 533 votes. In the race for Precinct 5, the incumbent Smith received 762 votes, defeating Cathy Wauczinski who had 431 votes.

Schmidt is the only at-large elect with prior experience working in Easthampton’s government. A pillar of Schmidt’s campaign centered on public education, having been elected to the School Committee twice, serving from 2018 to 2021. Currently, he works at Easthampton’s Public Library in the youth department.

When first elected to the School Committee, Schmidt said only two incumbents were reelected, so this transition to the council feels similar in many ways. Even with the turnover, the incumbents have been through transitions before and will act as a guiding light.

“What’s key is you still have, even with that turnover, folks who have been in this, who know how it works, who can provide guidance to the other people,” Schmidt said. “For myself personally, I feel like my work on the School Committee really informs my work here. I know how a meeting runs and I know how a governing body can collaborate together.”

Since at-large member of the council Peg Conniff is filling an interim role, the council’s Nov. 5 meeting on Wednesday was her last. Before stepping into her interim at-large seat, Conniff previously served on the council for six years and ended her last term in 2021.

At the meeting, she gave a speech, saying this interim role reminded her that being a councilor is not for “the faint of heart,” and said she is more certain than ever it is time for fresh voices to join.

“Thank you Easthampton for the opportunity to serve you, it’s been truly one of the great honors of my life,” Conniff said emotionally while receiving a standing ovation.

As recommended by the city attorney referring the city charter, Schmidt will replace Conniff because he was the at-large candidate to receive the most votes who was not an incumbent. Schmidt will be sworn in at the Nov. 19 meeting, after results are officially confirmed. Per Massachusetts General Law, results are not official due to a 10-day period when recounts can be requested and due to a ballot adjudication process.

Since Derby was elected mayor, the charter states that the council must decide who will fill the vacant Precinct 4 seat between now and when the new term begins on Jan. 1. The council will hold a special meeting to deliberate who that will be, although at its Nov. 5 meeting, Kwiecinski said he’s going to recommend swearing in Newton at the same time as Schmidt.

Many of the new councilors, echoing Schmidt, said they are prepared to collaborate with each other.

“I want to be a good mentor as a returning councilor,” said Denham, the only reelected at-large councilor. “I have a responsibility to welcome them … I’m very excited for the retuning folks and the new folks that are coming onto the council. I work to be collaborative and I welcome opportunities to work with the new councilors and discuss their ideas.”

Denham is entering her third term as a councilor and currently serves on the finance and ordinance subcommittees. Denham works as the director of student success at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and has been an educator for the last 30 years.

“My commitment to Easthampton remains the same and doing the work for residents to address their concerns and needs, to move Easthampton in a direction that makes it affordable for people and welcoming for folks,” she said.

The other incumbent that was reelected is Smith of Precinct 5. She looked back to when she started her first term and hopes to help guide the new councilors.

“I really spent that whole time kind of learning what the council was, the language, the rules,” Smith said of her first term. “Everything was so new to me and anything that I could do that would create less of such a mountain for a newcomer to overcome, I’m very happy, willing and hopeful that I can help.”

Smith is entering her fourth term on the council and works as a professor at Westfield State University. She said this election showed her there is room for improvement to support her precinct.

“One thing that I learned this election season is that I can always be more transparent in my practices,” she said. “So that’s really going to be my focus of this upcoming term is how can I make sure that I’m being reflective, that I’ve heard every voice in my precinct,” even when there are disagreements.

Newtown said she’s excited to get to work representing Precinct 4.

“I’m super excited,” she said at Luthier’s on election night. “I’m really looking forward to getting to work and talk with all the people I will be working with. I’m really proud of myself for stepping out there and running.”

Newton, a lifelong Easthampton resident, graduated as valedictorian of her EHS class and currently works as a third-grade teacher at the Smith College Laboratory School.

“The voters of Easthampton have spoken clearly, they’re ready for four new city councilors,” Markee said at Luthier’s. “I’m very happy that Tamara Smith won her race and I’m looking forward to working with my fellow councilor-elects Kiam Jamrog-McQuaid, Koni Denham and Jonathan Schmidt.”

Markee has lived in Easthampton for more than six years and is the chair of the Easthampton Democratic Committee, while serving on the board of directors for Easthampton Media. He said some of his priorities moving forward will be rent stabilization, food insecurity and making Easthampton more walkable and accessible to pedestrians.

Jamrog-McQuaid is a lifelong Easthampton resident, an economic and public policy researcher at the UMass Donahue Institute. Entering his first term on the council, one of the pillars of Jamrog-McQuaid’s campaign is his advocacy for affordable housing.

“I have really good relationships specifically with councilor Denham and Councilor Smith who is my precinct councilor,” he said at Luthier’s. “So I’m really excited to continue some of the housing work we’ve been doing, some of the zoning work and on council, I think I’ll have a little bit more to say in the conversation.”