It was a fairly quick first meeting of the year for the Hood River City Council, highlighted by the swearing in of new Councilors Grant Polson and Doug Stepina along with Mayor Paul Blackburn.  Blackburn returns to the post he left four years ago when his family moved out of the area.  Outgoing Mayor Kate McBride continued what has become a Hood River tradition, giving Blackburn a book of Robert’s Rules of Order that former Mayor Arthur Babitz initially gave Blackburn ten years ago with small piece of advice written into it, who then gave it to McBride with another line when she took the gavel.  In returning to Blackburn, McBride said she wrote “diverse opinions make balanced government.”  Blackburn was initially mayor from 2014 to 2019.