MIDWAY — Even before they’ve started taking their courses on how to be city council members, the four new members of Midway’s governing body were studious Thursday evening.

Newly sworn-in Mayor Malcolm Williams, who had been a city council member, and Liberty County officials outlined the ins and outs of their new roles as council members.

Williams will preside over a council with four newcomers to city government — Vernon Donovan, Annie Foskey, Janet Bryant Jones and Rhonda Thomas — and he set up a roundtable to get acclimated to what they do, and what they may get asked to do, as council members.

“A lot of great things are about to happen, a lot of things I can’t even imagine,” Williams said. “We will have some disagreements but we are not going to argue at the end of the day. The citizens picked you. They were looking for change. We’re not going to disagree to where we can’t talk to each other.”

Midway City Council held its first meeting with Williams as mayor and with the new members seated Monday night, with council member selecting Foskey as mayor pro tem and also choosing which departments to be a liaison for with the council.

One change to the city’s council meetings Williams has enacted is a public comment period. Residents are limited to three minutes to bring topics of concern or something they wish council members to address.

Williams also swore in city clerk Lynette Cook-Osborne for another term in the position, marking 41 years she has performed that task for the city.

Liberty County Commissioner Marion Stevens, whose district includes Midway, advised the new council members to heed the city clerk.

“Lynette is going to be very valuable to you,” he said.

Stevens also urged the new council members to listen to their constituents and hold forums and town halls. Doing so helps to build relationships and trust, he added.

“Be accessible,” he said. “Community engagement is key.”

A county commissioner for 27 years, Stevens admitted he is still learning.

“When it comes to a point where you can’t learn,” he said, “you can’t listen, and it’s time to go home.”

Stevens also conceded he can be a thorn in the side to his fellow commissioners on occasion.

“I can be aggravating,” he said. “But at the end of the day, I think they see what I was talking about.”

Stevens also cautioned the new council members that they can’t do the job by themselves — and also told them the county can’t come in and tell them how to do their job and neither can another city.

County Administrator Joseph Mosley and county commission Chairman Donald Lovette addressed the areas where the county works in conjunction with the cities, including intergovernmental agreements for services.

Mosley went over ethics and what can be and can’t be discussed and done in executive session meetings. He also discussed quorums — and advised council members to be careful of how many of them are gathered in one location at the same time — open records and open meetings laws and how the city can craft development agreements.

“There is a lot to learn,” Lovette said.

Lovette also counseled council members not to be swayed by a packed meeting room.

“Be sincere about your actions and be sincere about your votes,” he said. “Don’t vote to impress people.”

Lovette also reminded council members of the road work that was done to accommodate the McDonald’s at exit 76 in Midway, where the county, the city and the developer worked together. He said that exit and its future — a Love’s travel center and a Jones Petroleum site at the interchange are still in the works — were topics of a community-wide retreat several years ago.

Liberty County Chamber of Commerce and Convention and Visitors Bureau CEO Leah Poole also encouraged Midway council members to consider CVB membership, especially once hotels are built at the interchange.

“As hotels come online, it is important the city of Midway has representation in that governance structure,” she said.

Hotel-motel tax revenues, Poole added, have a specific use under state law. Hotel-motel tax revenues can be used for tourism development and tourism promotion and must be spent through a designated marketing organization, such as the CVB.

“Which is why you want your seat on the governance board,” she said.

Liberty County Development Authority CEO Brynn Grant detailed the partnership the organization has had with the city over the years, including the Midway Industrial Park and Tradeport East, just east of exit 76 on Islands Highway. “I am excited about the future of this community,” she said. “I-95 is a unique asset and you are the front door. Midway has always been special to us and I feel there is an opportunity to maximize the assets. We’re eager to be a partner in that.”

Grant, a Liberty County native who had been vice president at the Savannah Economic Development Authority and CEO of the United Way of the Coastal Empire, returned to Liberty to lead the LCDA two years ago. The LCDA has completed a new strategic plan and an incentives package.

“Our goal is to increase the standard of living and expand the tax base, so there is a higher quality of life for the people who live here,” she told council members. “The entire product, the entire county, requires partnership. We want to do it strategically, in places where it makes sense. I live here, too. This is my home, too. I want to see greater opportunity for our kids to work. We are selling the entire product and all of it matters — from the litter on the side of the roads and what that looks like.”

Since Highway 84 is designated as a gateway, there are limitations on what businesses can look like and the city council gets review and approval in that gateway design overlay district, Liberty Consolidated Planning Commission executive director Jeff Ricketson told council member.

Williams also expressed his interest in making Midway a stop for more tourists.

“The city of Savannah did $5 billion in tourism last year. We are 30 minutes from there and we have all these good things here. We can‘t get half a percent of that?” he said.