Ashanti Hamilton Elected Milwaukee Common Council President

The Milwaukee Common Council voted unanimously to elect Alderman Ashanti Hamilton as president.

He replaced Ald Michael Murphy, the longest serving member of the council, who's had the job of president for the last two years.

Despite the shakeup there didn't seem to be any surprise today among council members about the change.

Monday night a group from the council released a statement that they would back Hamilton.

After, winning with 15 out of 15 votes, Hamilton received a large round of applause and happy handshakes as he accepted his new role.

He said the win felt surreal.

CBS 58 asked him his goal for the next four years.

Ald. Ashanti Hamilton/Common Council President I think most folks who concentrate on things we have common would realize that in order to move the city forward we need to concentrate on the things we all care about and not spend so much time fighting about the things that we all disagree on.

After the vote, Alderman Michael Murphy released a statement. It read in part:

"I am proud of the work we were able to accomplish in my two year term as president. I had a tremendous team working in my office, and it's really extraordinary to think of all the projects and legislation we saw through to execution."

Hamilton added that he has a great deal of admiration for Alderman Murphy and he looks forward to working with him and all council members over his term. Hamilton told us he believes he was elected to help prioritize the issues that are important to residents of Milwaukee.

During a live interview with the CBS 58 News at 4, President Hamilton said he felt he could build bridges when it comes to public safety issues in terms of building support for early intervention programs.

He also will work to allocate funds to north and south sides of Milwaukee where there are the biggest challenges related to the issues of poverty and employment.

We've attached the live interview to this story.