Broward County Community Observation Report

This case study will assess the government of Florida, a state government. It will touch on several important issues such as providing a general overview of how the government functions and what resources it provides, as well as some current issues the State of Florida is facing in government administration. Because the State of Florida is a state government, it tends to “resemble the national government in composition and organization of their executive branch agencies” (Milakovich, 2013, p. 21).

held at the call of the mayor, there are 6 district commissioners. District Commissioner 1-

In this type of system, the County Commission stands as the executive leader of the county. The Commission is made up of three commissioners that are elected every six years. One member is elected, by the body, as President of the Commission during the first meeting of the year in January. The current commissioners are Agnes Queen, Patrick Boyle, and Thomas Fealy, with each representing a different magisterial district of the county (lewiscountywv.org). Their powers and duties consist of but are not limited to having jurisdiction in all matters of probate, custody of all deeds and any other paper presented for record in the county, and having the superintendence and administration of the internal police and fiscal affairs of the county

Miami Dade College, as many other educational institutions in the country, has an international presence. More than 1,000 out of its 170,000 students represent different countries and speak 41 different languages. Among the different international affiliations, Miami Dade is a member of the Community College Initiative Program, which provides citizens from other countries the opportunity to study at a college in the United States. The program helps students develop their leadership and professional skills, and proficiency in English.

Florida became United States territory in the year of 1821 and it consisted of just two counties known as Escamba to the West and St. Johns to the East divided by the Suwanee River and all other counties were created from those two original counties. Although Florida was United States territory it wasn’t until the year of 1845 that it became the 27th state. Florida currently has a total of 67 counties. The last county was introduced in 1925 which is Gilchrist County which was named after Florida’s governor Albert W. Gilchrist who served from 1909 to 1913. Florida counties are subdivisions of the state government. All of Florida’s counties are incorporated

Many concerns and objections have been filed in opposition to the Department of Health (which includes Social Services, Fire and Emergency Management, and Human Services) administrator by departments, citizens, and so on. The City Manager has contracted me regarding: unethical practices, unprofessional leadership, poor fire and emergency response time, unethical practices, insufficient customer and patient care, and much more concerning various governmental departments and external stakeholders. In regards to the latest questions of the City Manager a thorough search into the accusations will be put into play. Supplementary to the issues already being presented, the school board have made concerns to the capability to conduct daily transactions.The school board has a collaborative association with an assortment of government departments and they have levied department directors with non fulfillment to work together on a number of efforts that will be revealed later within this report. This report will provide an underlying support for the City Manager to discourse and perform leadership techniques that outline the actions that should be carried out in order to prevail over the previously mentioned complaints.

During the city commission meeting votes were taken. The voting would occur verbally. All those in favor would have to say the word “I” right after they asked if they were in favor. It occurred often during the whole meeting. Most of the time there was one of the council members approving and second as well and they would move on to another subject right after they finished voting. There was one time where one of the commissioners neglected himself from saying any comments or being involved with the issue in any type of way. I did not understand what his reasons were for this

At the beginning of the meeting the board members had to vote on the school districts’ participation of different activities. They all had to vote on whether they agreed to have Red Ribbon Week on October 23, 2017 through October 31, 2017, they also voted on whether the entire school district was going to partake in the Great California ShakeOut

The members on the board of supervisors and planning commission, all seemed to be in agreement with each other on most matters. On the other hand, I noticed great deal of discord amongst the Gulfport City Council members, particularly between Councilwoman Ella Holmes-Hines and Councilman F.B. ‘Rusty’ Walker, IV. They both voiced disparities regarding the pay rate amongst police officers and firefighters. Although they did disagree, at the end of the meeting, Councilman F.B. ‘Rusty’ Walker, IV, did clarify that even though they disagree, they collectively think of themselves as a team; this showed great strength and maturity to

The city council of Atlanta, Georgia servers as a local legislative government branch. The council is made of the president, Ceasar Mitchell and fifteen members elected from district within the city. The city of Atlanta is broken up into twelve different districts and three post, each councilmen is responsible for representing the needs and wants for their district. The members of the council are elected by the citizens, and they work together to pass laws, make general policies, supervise city government, and appropriate funds for various needs. Usually, council meetings are open to the public, and public input is welcomed. The majority the councils work is done in committees. In the committees proposed legislation is debated and the members of other government branches and the public are given a chance to comment. Each council member serves on at least three of the council's standing committees, and select committees and panels. This week the author had the chance to attend a City of Atlanta council committee meeting and view how the meeting was conducted and went.

A major influence on health in a community is the availability of services and opportunities within the neighborhood. Public health can be further influenced by the social environments. Accessibility to health care along with education and employment opportunities are fundamental factors to be considered (Riegelman & Kirkwood, 2015). These elements create both advantages and disadvantages for those living within the neighborhood. If we want to improve public health outcomes, we must consider and evaluate these along with many other contributing factors.

Discussion of local government is a subject where eyes glaze over and information floats in one ear and right out the other. Most citizens know in greater depth about national politics rather than local, even if the city government has a greater influence and impact on daily life. With the permission of Professor Duckworth, I watched Frisco Independent School District’s board meeting online (link provided, pg. 4). The school board meeting explained a lot about the process, organization, and the structure of local politics.

For the purpose of this assignment I sat in on a school board meeting for Central Dauphin School District. This board meeting was held on April 10th, 2017. This district holds school board meetings two times per month. Every meeting has an agenda that they follow along with a guided script. There were nine different sections for this meeting. The order is as follows, call to order, roll call, flag salute, additions, deletions, or modifications to the agenda, review and approval of meeting minutes, information and proposals, unfinished business, new business and adjournment.

The meeting continued with the Joint Consent Calendar, the consent calendar is a grouping of routine matters to be acted on in one motion. There were six items considered and recommended actions taken anywhere from issues related to utilities to professional services. At the end of this presentation it was open to public hearing providing any concerned resident an opportunity to speak. This was followed by consent ordinances which city staff members began to speak about Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and its draft citizen participation plan for years 2015-2019. This was followed by an ordinance for the Civic Plaza which would limit the use of skateboards, bicycles, and leashed animals during special events held at this location. Following these issues the council would make a decision which would be placed on record for public view. New business was proposed where an approval of long ranged property management was projected, but they motioned to push this event forward to the next meeting due to the absence of a council member who was more familiar with the issue.

I have never attended a community meeting or any meeting regarding my community therefore, attending this meeting for the first time was a great first experience. I was able to see how a meeting is ran and how the organization works in order to help make improvements in my community. When I went into the office the meeting was being held, I was offered an agenda and other informational forms regarding the meeting. The agenda provided information of how the organization of the meeting would be and who will be going over what topics. The meeting was a timed meeting where Richard Hernandez and Bill Houtt managed on recording to keep data. The issues that were discussed were citizen’s request for city improvements, a short review of the 2016 Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report (CAPER) Accomplishments, which is a grant that helps build homes for low income families and was reviewed by Rhonda Haynes a community developer. Lastly, the Sidewalk at Divisadero and Rinaldi, North Visalia citizen report were also discussed by Bill Houtt a member of the committee, and construction issues in N. Visalia discussed by Lt. Brent Abbott.