B-Roll, Video, Audio & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Attends a Swearing-In Ceremony for Local Elected Officials

Earlier this morning, Governor Hochul attended a swearing-in ceremony for local elected officials.

B-ROLL: The Governor swearing in elected officials is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr has photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Good morning, and welcome to 2026. I love the enthusiasm in Peekskill, that's got to be better than 2025, right? Just saying. I'm so happy to be here, but first of all to our reverend, tell your father I took you very seriously. Despite the glasses, I thought you really hit on our moral responsibility to each other and to lift up not our own good, but the public good, right. So I want to thank her for reminding us of why many of us are drawn to public service.

Thank you to our administrator, but I also you'll be hearing me as I swear in our Mayor, but what an extraordinary leader you have in your Mayor. I just want to say, and I've been to a lot of cities and towns and across the State since I've been elected. I was on a town board in 1994, I was elected to a town board, and I've seen everybody. But she really stands up, stands out. She loves her work, she loves her community. She has a common sensibility about how to solve today's problems, but is forward thinking and has a vision for the future. And that's what gravitates me to where I wanted to be here today to officially swear her in along with our other council members. So let's give another round of applause to our Mayor Vivian Mackenzie.

Senator Pete Harckham, let's offer him congratulations on getting married - wonderful. I remember coming around when he was first running for office. Kind of a long shot back then, but we did a lot of campaigning together, and I so appreciate and look forward to a big win again this year. And our council members Jim Creighton and Brian Fassett.

Patricia Riley. Guess she didn't have to run this time, but you only have two year terms. Is it four year terms? Four. okay can you get your mayor for like a four year term? Why does she have to do it every two, and you get four? I just saying - Mayor, are you okay with me saying that?

And also to our newly elected Darren Rigger, who helped me get elected to Congress in a race that people said I could never win, because it was the most Republican district in the State of New York, way off in red country before it was even as red as it is now. And Darren believed in me, and he was there for me way back. And I want to thank him and welcome him back to public service.

And Beverly Chang. Beverly, thank you for stepping up once again, and Charles DiGruccio, I want to thank him. But also we have a new chief of police, Adam Renwick, and I want to thank you - you know how important public safety is to me as well. And I want to also welcome our mayors and our council members who are here from other areas. As I mentioned, you have a mayor who's a tireless fighter, and I know what that means. And you get knocked around a lot. And sometimes women have to stand together too.

She reflected on how when I was Lieutenant Governor, I came and announced your $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative. And so she is overseeing this project, of course I always say how far along are we? Like 90% - that's better than most communities, so congratulations on that. But she served on the city council for years before she ascended to mayor and has really been a driver of the change here.

But also what I really appreciate is her desire to overcome all the obstacles that exist in places like Westchester and Long Island and some others - about building more housing. It should not be as difficult as it has been. People want to live here, your children that you're raising, they want to be able to raise their kids near grandma and grandpa because that's free babysitting, right? I'm happy to be a free babysitter anytime. And I'm fortunate my daughter-in-law has joined us as well, Christina Hochul has joined us. She gets a little break from being a mom to a three-year-old granddaughter of mine. So we took her out of the house and let her come up to see the beautiful parts of the State that I cherish as well.

But she knows how important housing is, and we have to build more housing - and I'll be your partner. Don't lose that ambition, don't take note for an answer and don't say, "we've always done it this way, therefore we will." You must build more housing. And that's the only thing that's holding back our State and beautiful regions like the Hudson Valley.

And I'm just pleading with all of you to support the mayor and the city council to get the job done. Can I count on all of you? Let's pull together as a community, let's get that done. And how about the transformation for the waterfront? You wonder how would this take so long in the first place?

That's like the most incredible part of any community, and it's a unique asset. Any community along the Hudson should be vibrant magnets for tourism and living, and people to be able to have the calming effect of being on one of the most beautiful waterways in our nation. I love the Hudson River, and I'm so glad to see the development there, and let's get the hotel and get the sewer and the housing and everything we talked about her vision there too. But I will say, as I say, go ahead and do all these things. Having served 14 years in local government, I know there are a lot of challenges. And again, I just give such high praise and admiration to everyone who does say I'm going to step up and serve because I know how hard it can be.

I sat in rooms like this, our council meetings where we had unlimited public speaking. I don't know why, but we'd go till like two, three in the morning because everybody had a chance to speak for 20 minutes, then come back again at maybe midnight if they wanted to say some more. Okay and that's democracy, God love it. But this is where communities make a real difference in the lives of their constituents and their residents. You don't have to go through getting something passed in the legislature, passed in Congress. You can sit here and make a decision and say, this is going to be good for our community and therefore we're doing it.

That's what I sometimes miss about the flexibility and the agility of local government. You don't have to win over a lot of people, you've got the residents on your side, your colleagues, and you just do it. And that's extraordinary. Don't take for granted that power. In your terms, and I look at, always look at every one of my terms as this could be the last you don't know and make it be the best it can be.

And that's what I encourage you to look at, like the difference - what will be your legacy at the end of your four years? What will people look back and say about your time, how you made a difference and did we work hard together on improving the quality of life? People know that they've mattered - every person, especially those who are down in their luck and suffering the throes of mental health problems and maybe unsheltered or their kids are struggling - and they're just trying to figure out how to make ends meet when prices keep going up. I mean, show your empathy and compassion for these people and they'll appreciate the fact that they have a government that is actually relevant in their lives because people don't always feel that. Solve their problems, and they'll understand why you ran for office - why you stepped up, and that's what drives so much satisfaction despite getting knocked around every once in a while. I don't mind, I don't mind because I'm as tough as you can get -I'm from Buffalo.

People are talking about snow. Like what snow? I don't see any snow here. Like walking around in shorts and T-shirt - not really. But there's an inner toughness to run for office that you have to have. And number one advice I have is don't read the comments, just don't read the comments - don't read the comments.

You'll feel better about yourself in life, and it goes way back to before there was social media, there was our local newspaper. The Hamburg Sun, when I ran for office, the editor was the wife of the Republican county chair. Okay, so I wasn't getting a fair shot. They called me a housewife from Hamburg and I had been counsel to Senator Moynihan, helped start a couple of businesses, been a lawyer, been coming to town board meetings, served on lots of boards. I'd done a few things and my husband said he goes "Honey, you're a lot of things, but I would never call you a housewife because you're not even home and like, what the heck?" But he used to cut out the negative articles about me. I'd open up the local paper on Thursday and someone wrote a nasty letter to the editor, I never knew because he literally cut it out so I wouldn't see it.

So spouses protect your loved ones too because it could be a little harsh out there. But my point is you get through it, you get through it. There's nothing that can stop you when you have a dream and a belief that's going to be good for the people that you are elected to represent and seize that power, embrace it and put it to fantastic use. And I know you will be here in this fantastic city that I cherish, the City of Peekskill.

So I'm looking forward to swearing everybody in. Again, gratitude to our chief of police because it's all about public safety. If you can't walk the streets and feel safe, nothing else matters. And I have such gratitude for those in law enforcement and our first responders who were in their home here today, and I'm so grateful for that.

And we've made a real difference in driving crime down. And I've supported law enforcement locally with $3.9 billion, no one has ever spent that much money. But making sure you have the technology you need, the resources you need, and we'll keep doing that. So I'm going to congratulate everybody and also look forward to the swearing in. Let's get everybody up here to get started on that.

Contact the Governor's Press Office