A closed caucus of the members-elect of next year’s City Council met Saturday, and when they came out they had reached unanimous agreement on the first decision they would make: Anthony Sinapi would be the council’s next president come January.

Sinapi, Ward 8’s representative, has been on the council since 2018. Those six years, he said, have prepared him to take the helm of a council that includes four freshmen.

As president, Sinapi said, he would look to make the body more efficient.

“I’m big on efficiency and getting things done,” Sinapi said. “I’ve been pushing the prior rule changes that we had when we cut everything down and made it more structured. I want to do more of the same and make things streamlined.”

Though he said he was still considering what changes to make, Sinapi said that among them would likely be is how City Council committees operate.

“I’m still working on figuring out some basics, like streamlining how our committees conduct themselves and the degree of the composition, because right now, three people on a committee, it makes it very complicated to actually discuss things amongst your fellow committee members,” he said.

Sinapi and current council President Stephen McAllister have talked about the role, and both men said they have plans for further discussions to help ease Sinapi’s transition to the presidential role.

McAllister, who was not part of the Saturday meeting, said that he called Sinapi after hearing the news to congratulate him and offer his advice.

“I’m very excited for him,” McAllister said. “I think it’s an excellent pick. There’s a lot of great talent on this council, so you couldn’t really go wrong. I think he’s going to slide right into that position.”

Sinapi said that he would be talking with McAllister and fellow outgoing Councilor Donna Travis about their experiences as council president, and will develop his own leadership style by determining what worked and what didn’t work during their tenures.

Ward 9 Councilman Vincent Gebhart, who sought the role of president, said making sure the council starts the new year united is important to each of the nine council members.

“It was a priority for us that we go into this year unified, as a solid group,” Gebhart said. “And in the interest of that, we all agreed to support Councilman Sinapi for council president.”

Ward 5 Councilman Ed Ladouceur likewise lobbied for the post and personally met with incoming councilmen and incumbents.

“Sometimes there are things in your our personal life [that are more important],” he said explaining his change of heart. He said he personally likes Sinapi’s “passion for research” and believes they would work well together and be an “asset to the council” should he be named finance committee chair.

“I’m confident that Anthony is going to do a good job,” he said.

Sinapi has his own take on unity, too, saying that he hopes to make sure that the council has a good working relationship with other city departments and the public as council president.

“I’m not a fan of the infighting or even fighting with external parties, whether it be the corner office, city employees, the public, any of that,” Sinapi said. “All of these parties and us should be working together, and if we’re not, that means I need to do something different. My goal is to make it so that there’s no reason for people to air out dirty laundry. Hopefully there won’t be any dirty laundry; instead, there’ll be people resolving things and getting things done.”