4:14 Berkshire County state representatives are reacting to signs that long-serving Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo is preparing to step down after over a decade. DeLeo, 70, represents the 19th Suffolk District, and became speaker in 2009. Mid-December news that he is in talks for a job at Northeastern University – his alma mater – made shockwaves in the state. “Well, it was a surprise, people have been saying these rumors really since my first year in office back in 2011. So to hear it actually has a lot of validity and is, I think now likely to happen was surprising to me, especially where we're in a unique session," said 2nd Berkshire District State Representative Paul Mark, a fellow Democrat. “We’re in a session that has had formal sessions all the way through, probably right to the last minute on January 5th, and a new session is going to begin on January 6th. So it's a time where there's obviously a state of emergency, there's a lot going on, we're finishing a budget still for Fiscal Year ‘21. So to have a changeover now is definitely not what I was expecting.”