GRAND RAPIDS, MI - With an over-capacity crowd gathered in City Hall's newly renovated meeting room, Rosalynn Bliss was sworn-in tonight as the 59th mayor of Grand Rapids.

After taking the oath of office, Bliss embraced her predecessor, George Heartwell.

Sound bites from the swearing-in

Mayor Rosalynn Bliss, three city commissioners and three library commissioners took oaths of office

• "I am standing on the shoulders of many great leaders who came before me," Bliss said.

• "Can we have decorum in the chambers?" said Heartwell, in a mock gruff tone, in response to a standing ovation from the audience for his 12 years of service. "We don't allow applause here."

• "There were people in Grand Rapids that trusted me enough to write my name on that ballot," said Sophia Brewer, who a seat on the city's library board as a write-in candidate. "Nowhere else but in America can a nobody represent everybody."

"I was thinking in my head 'Don't cry,'" Bliss said after the ceremony.

She didn't cry. Heartwell did.

"Oh, that was so satisfying," said the veteran mayor, who remarked earlier that "you'll excuse me, I'm the happiest guy in the room tonight."

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The Thursday, Dec. 17, ceremony featured a pledge of allegiance sung by Police Officer Walter Tett, a poem and a performance by the Grand Rapids Public Schools Girls Chorus. There also were comments from Bliss and other newly elected city leaders and remarks from Heartwell.

"This ceremony stands as an important symbol of transition of power in this country," Heartwell said. "The transition from one leader to the next in our country is done without violence, without bloodshed, without rancor and, I can say tonight, with real delight."

Mayor Bliss officially succeeds Heartwell in the new year. She'll be joined on the commission by newcomers Jon O'Connor and David Allen, both former school board members. Ruth Kelly, re-elected in November, also was sworn-in Wednesday, as were library commissioners Rachel Anderson, James Botts and Sophia Brewer.

Matt Vande Bunte covers government for MLive/Grand Rapids Press. Email him at mvandebu@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter and Facebook.