After a series of resignations, Philly City Council is back to its normal size. For now.

Four Democrats who won special elections were sworn into their seats on Philadelphia City Council Monday, filling positions that were left vacant by members who resigned to run for mayor and bringing the legislative body back to its full complement of 17 members.

Quetcy Lozada, a former Council aide, now represents the city’s Kensington-based 7th District, and Anthony Phillips, a nonprofit leader, will serve the 9th District in Northeast and Northwest Philadelphia. Jimmy Harrity, the political director of the state Democratic Party, and Sharon Vaughn, a ward leader and longtime Council aide, are now at-large members representing the entire city.

All four were sworn in Monday during a ceremony in Council’s chambers in City Hall, where elected officials from across the city sat alongside the new members’ families and allies. The ceremony drew more than 150 spectators, and was the first time the chambers were standing-room only in nearly three years, since the start of the pandemic.

The quartet will serve out the remaining 13 months of the current term. Harrity, Lozada, and Phillips have said they intend to run for a full term next year when all 17 seats are up for election, but Vaughn has said she does not plan to run again.

» READ MORE: Philly City Council results: Democrats sweep four open seats in special elections

Their swearing-in comes amid an unusual Council session in which the body was operating on thin margins. Despite Council’s having just 13 members, legislation still required nine votes to pass and mayoral veto overrides required 12 votes. Council President Darrell L. Clarke called for the special elections to fill the two at-large seats only after the mayor vetoed a zoning bill.

The vacancies also made moving legislation challenging, with members having to take on more assignments than is typical just to fill committees and hold hearings.

“I’m more than excited,” Clarke said Monday with a laugh, “because we have four more people to spread the work around to.”

But additional vacancies are likely. At-large Councilmember Helen Gym is expected to resign imminently to launch a run for mayor, and Republican Councilmember David Oh, who also serves at-large, is also eyeing the mayoral race. Philadelphia law requires city officeholders to quit their posts before seeking another office.

The seating of four new members also represents significant turnover, with nine members now in their first term. Majority Leader Curtis Jones Jr. pointed out that three of the four new members have worked as aides in the offices of elected officials and are familiar with the legislative process.

Lozada is the former chief of staff to ex-Councilmember Maria Quiñones Sánchez, Vaughn was the top aide to former Councilmember Derek Green, and Harrity worked for State Sen. Sharif Street.

“They’re going to have to get used to being the guy or gal for their respective offices,” Jones said, “but that will come naturally.”

» READ MORE: Philly City Council is having an unusual fall session. Here’s why.

Harrity, 50, who lives in Kensington, said he also already knows most of Council’s 17 members — as the executive director of the Democratic City Committee, he helped get many of them elected. He said while he can easily maneuver in the body and within municipal government, he’s still a former construction worker who struggled with addiction and is humbled to have won a seat.

“This is a room that I never thought I’d be in,” he said. “I’m just glad that the leaders of the party and the people of Philadelphia see fit to make me a Council member.”

Vaughn, 58, who lives in Feltonville, said she similarly has existing relationships on Council, having spent more than three decades working as an aide. But she said that while she’s filling the seat once held by Green, a technocrat, Philadelphians shouldn’t expect her to govern as he did.

“Green is more reserved than me, haven’t you noticed?” she said. “I am not that reserved type of person.”

Each of the new members consider themselves to be political centrists and will reliably vote alongside the Democratic leadership of the body, but they’ll surely bring new perspectives.

Phillips, 33, is the founder of the nonprofit Youth Action and is now the youngest member of City Council. He’ll represent the 9th District, which includes Mount Airy, East and West Oak Lane, Olney, and several neighborhoods in the lower Northeast, including Lawndale and Oxford Circle.

He said Monday that young people his nonprofit served encouraged him to run for Council.

“A lot of them relied on me as a part of their village,” Phillips said. “But I believe that we as City Council have an opportunity to build a village, with all the resources and systems we that have in the city, for many, many more young people.”

Lozada, 52, is now Council’s only Latina member. She lives in Northwood, and will represent a predominantly Latino community that includes parts of Kensington, Juniata, Feltonville, and Frankford.

In remarks she made in Council chambers Monday, she pledged to work with city and public safety officials to improve quality of life in the district, which is one of the most economically challenged in the city.

“I get emotional, because I take the responsibility very seriously,” Lozada said. “And sometimes I feel like, ’Can I do this? Am I really the right person?’ I think I am. I’m present. I’m there. I was born and raised in the 7th Council District. So I understand the challenges.”