Jan Kaplan Sworn In As New Mayor For Newport

The Newport City Council met to conduct interviews on Monday 8/14/2023 with those who had applied for the interim position of Mayor. There were three who applied, current council president and acting Mayor Jan Kaplan, former Mayor Sandra Roumagoux and Mark Phillips. Roumagoux served on the Newport council from 2011-2013 she was elected as Mayor and served three terms from 2013-2019. Kaplan has been serving on the Newport Council for a year and a half. His prior experience has been working as the Lincoln County as the Mental Health/Public Health director. Phillips is a former attorney for over 30-years and judge.

After conducting interviews with the candidates Monday afternoon the council met and voted. 5 voted for Jan Kaplan to be interim Mayor and 1 voted for Sandy Roumagoux. A motion was made and Kaplan was unanimously approved to serve the balance of the Mayor's term to January 2025. Kaplan said "I am very honored and appreciative of councill and I will do my best to be worth that." With accepting the Mayor's position it does open up a vancancy on the Newport city council, which Kaplan enouraged the other Mayoral applicants to apply.