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New leadership elected to lead Petersburg

Posted at 3:19 PM, Jan 03, 2017
and last updated 2017-01-03 17:57:45-05

PETERSBURG, Va. -- Petersburg City Council elected a new mayor and vice mayor to lead to the city. Council members voted 4-3 to elect Sam Parham as the city's next mayor. John Hart was elected vice mayor in a 7-0 vote.

Former Petersburg mayor Howard Myers was not nominated for re-election.

In Petersburg, the mayor is selected among sitting city council members.

"I represent the people in Ward 3 who elected me, and that’s who I serve," Mayor Parham said. "We need to get away from the Mayor-Vice Mayor feeling like they’re in each others pockets, so that’s why I said, I was going to take a step back and let the council decide, who would be their vice mayor, instead of me nominating who should be the vice mayor."

Vice-mayor Jon Hart and Mayor Sam Parham

Vice-mayor Jon Hart and Mayor Sam Parham

Parham called on Petersburg city leaders to work together to help the city which has been dealing with serious money management issues.

"We’ve got to come together and work as a Council, along with this Management Team we have here," he said. "In the past we’ve had so much divide between Council people."

Vice Mayor Hart echoed Parham's sentiments.

"Sam and I will be able to work well together, we’ve worked well these last two years and it’s about bring the seven [city council members] together, sitting down, and doing the things we need to do to be progressive and moving the city forward," he said. "We have to come out of some shadows, but I think it will be done, hopefully it’s going to be a new day here in Petersburg as we do the things we need to do."

Watch Wayne Covil's full report beginning on CBS 6 News at 5.

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