Hector C. Laura sworn in for third term as Passaic mayor; council names Scherer president, passes routine ordinances

Mayor Hector C. Laura was sworn in Tuesday during the City of Passaic’s reorganization meeting, and members of the City Council selected a council president and approved multiple routine resolutions and ordinances.

The municipal clerk read the official certification of the May 13, 2025 election results before Assemblyman Shear administered the oath to Hector C. Laura, who pledged to support the U.S. and New Jersey constitutions and to faithfully perform the duties of the office. The council then administered oaths to three re-elected and newly elected at-large council members.

Mayor Laura used his remarks to recount projects and priorities from his prior terms and to outline a third-term agenda that emphasized affordability, sustainability, public safety, and infrastructure — including potential funding for a downtown parking deck, expanded electric-vehicle chargers, a state-funded new high school described in the meeting as a roughly $328,000,000 School Development Authority project, a downtown riverfront walk, and a special-needs–inclusive junior police and fire academy. “We decided not to go very big. We wanted to make it a much more intimate ceremony,” Mayor Laura said of the swearing-in event.

Council members nominated and voted to appoint…