Just minutes into her new role as Kalispell’s mayor, Tammi Fisher marked her intended path for the next four years.

It began with her opening comments Monday night.

She looks forward to working with the council in restoring fiscal health to city government, she told a standing-room-only crowd packed into City Hall chambers at the first council meeting of 2010.

Then, presiding over her first order of business as mayor, she called for an open vote to elect the council president.

Kalispell’s city code, she pointed out, provides for a secret ballot when council members elect their president, “but that does not comply with the Montana Sunshine Laws so I will revert to Robert’s Rules of Order” and ask for nominations.

Duane Larson, current council president, won the unanimous nod from his colleagues to retain the post.

Earlier, outgoing Mayor Pam Kennedy Carbonari had called her final meeting to order. City Manager Jane Howington presented appreciation plaques to her and outgoing council member Hank Olson for their service from 2002 to 2010.

Carbonari thanked the community for allowing her to serve as mayor the past eight years, noted council accomplishments in establishing Kidsports, rebuilding Meridian Road, carrying out major sewer plant upgrades, bringing the city to the doorstep of a consolidated 911 emergency dispatch center and much more during that time.

She welcomed Fisher. “I hope you will inspire the youth to work with the city and that you are determined to work with the council” for the betterment of Kalispell, Carbonari said.

And she took a look back on what it meant to be mayor.

“It has been a blessing and a great honor,” she said.

Her final duty was to administer the oath of office to Fisher; newly elected council member Jeff Zauner; returning council members Tim Kluesner, Jim Atkinson and Bob Hafferman; and Municipal Judge Heidi Ulbricht.

During public comment later, Rich DeJana paid tribute to a cadre of elected officials who served the city well. He ended his listing with “Mayor Kennedy … nobody can deny that lady gave everything she had to the city,” DeJana said. Fisher has “big shoes to fill,” he said, emotion rising in his voice, “and I’m sure you will.”

In an unusual development Monday night, several young people spoke during the public comment portion reserved for student issues.

They addressed snowplowing at Flathead High School, winter maintenance for ice skating at the Woodland Park pond and a stoplight to ease traffic congestion near St. Matthew’s School.

Later, two more spoke during the regular public comment period, asking for a lower speed limit on Montana 82 in respect for the late Somers Middle School teacher Dawn Bowker who was killed in a head-on crash on the Somers cut-across.

At the end of the meeting, Howington pledged to research those issues and report back at the next council meeting in two weeks.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com