By Mark Woolsey

District 2 Cobb County Commissioner Erick Allen touched on familiar themes Monday during his ceremonial swearing-in ceremony at the Cobb Civic Center.

Allen sought to emphasize collaboration and downplay divisiveness as he spoke a crowd of local Democratic Party and elected officials, plus other supporters.

“We have all the tools we need to be successful, but we must work together,” Allen said following his swearing-in by  Superior Court Judge Sonja Brown.

Allen promised to “lead with empathy” and named several issues as key, including housing affordability, growing the tax base, transit mobility and the environment.

And, in what seemed an oblique reference to a commission whose members have sharply disagreed at times, he said he wanted to set an example that “different doesn’t mean wrong, and disagreement. doesn’t require hatred.”

Democrat Allen won the seat in the reconfigured District 2 April 29, beating Republican Alicia Adams.