Dr. Joe Pat Hatem sworn in for 3rd term as Southport’s mayor
SOUTHPORT, NC (WWAY) — The City of Southport has a change in leadership as Dr. Joe Pat Hatem took his oath of office Thursday night.
Hatem has served as mayor for two terms before losing in 2023 to Rich Alt.
Hatem said he’s ready to pick up where he left off.
“We’re building on the things that many of these board members have been working on and that I was a part of,” Hatem said. “And I look forward to continuing to build on the foundation of these past two years.”
He ran on a promise to bring back civility and respect to the city’s government, a promise Hatem plans to keep.
“I have no ill feelings towards Mr. Alt at all and I wanted to show the citizens that we will come together. And I think that’s one of the main reasons I won was to bring back civility, to bring peace. We can also have progress and prosperity, but we need to have peace first.”
Alt said he is proud of what he accomplished as mayor, moving progress forward on a wide variety of projects to improve the city.
“We had at one point $100 million in infrastructure projects that needed to be done,” Alt said. “Well, we’re never gonna get $100 million. So, we’ve been able to work on grants, we’ve been able to work on a whole bunch of different projects and chisel at a whole bunch of them. If you want somebody to look at $100 million of projects and get them, try to get them done for you, then that’s my forte.”
Despite being sworn in just a few months after a mass shooting at American Fish Company claimed 3 lives, Hatem said what happened won’t hurt how he leads the city forward as the community continues to heal.
“I think it’ll have an effect in terms of we’re more aware of public safety, more aware of how to keep our citizens safe. And every mayor, every city has to think of this.”
Now out of office, Alt will take on two new jobs: a contract with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and a contract with the State Department to teach overseas on law enforcement issues.
