What exactly goes on in your local city council meeting? On October 22nd, I visited the Moraine City Council, located in the Moraine Municipal Court Building, to find out. The meeting started at 6 p.m. and lasted about thirty minutes and they are held the second and fourth Thursday of every month. The agenda, which was found at the entrance of the meeting room, listed all the topics that would be covered. In this essay, I will cover the people in attendance/process, the items discussed, and what I learned from this experience. The process involved is fairly simple and there are a few important people who play a large role. The meeting kicked off with the Clerk of Council, Ms. Werbrich, doing roll call. She called each member’s name to make sure they were present. The Clerk of Council then began addressing the issues listed on the agenda and the mayor, Ms. Allison, would then ask for the issue to be motioned, which seemed to be her main job. The council members would then say either yes or no on whether to discuss the topic. If the a majority said yes, the …show more content…
I was able to learn about many issues which our city is faced with, issues of which they and the city must solve. There were more issues than I would have ever imagined. I believe this meeting covered almost ten issues, even though not all issues were resolved this meeting; a lot of thinking goes into the solution of each issue. Also, prior to this, I had no clue how our local police departments paid for replacement equipment. I mean, I figured the taxpayers provided the funding, but I had no clue it went through the council. This also applies to many things. I had no clue our local government had such a large impact on the community. I always thought it was the federal government that had the largest impact and influence on the community. It was definitely a unique experience, which was as interesting as any teenager would imagine it to
On Monday, April 13th, 2009, I visited the Culver City city council meeting, and found that they operate using a council-manager form of government. For a city with a population of about 38,000, this type of governmental structure is fairly common, and I was not surprised to see it in action in a community where the median household income is around $56,000 a year. Culver City is also a culturally rich community with a 60 percent Caucasian population, and a quarter of the residents are either of African American or Asian decent. The mayor, D. Scott Malsin, is one of five members on the council, and his term as mayor is on a rotating basis. Having been to a Hermosa Beach city council meeting with a similar council-manager structure, I knew
One thing of significance that I learned about at the city council meeting was meeting procedure. When I first arrived a pre-meeting workshop about annexation was occurring. After the regular meeting began we started with the Pledge of Allegiance. Next roll call of the council members was taken. Dallas Center has five council members: Mike Kidd, David Bagby, Kurt Pion,. Following roll call was an action to approve the agenda, which was approved. Next up was public communications and concerns. I was surprised that each person only has two minutes to talk about all the issues they
elected separately from the council, and is often a full-time and paid position with a significant administrative and budgetary authority. This form of government, the elected City Council sets policies for the operation of the City. The City Council enacts Ordinances, the laws of the City, adopts Resolutions authorizing actions on behalf of the City, reviews plan for development, and establishes the policies by which the City is governed. The City Council consists of seven members a Mayor and two Councilmember 's elected citywide and four additional Councilmember 's elected by individual districts. The administrative responsibility of the City rests with the City Manager, who is appointed by the City Council upon recommendation of the Mayor. Each Councilmember is
The governing core of South San Francisco is the city council, which creates municipal laws and the overall policy, decides how to expend treasury, assigns members to all consultative local businesses and represents the city officially. The city council`s members are Richard A. Garbarino as a mayor, Mark N. Addiego as a vice mayor, Pradeep Gupta, Karyl Matsumoto and Liza Normandy.
Each town had a council, usually made up of a religious leader and elders. The council discussed important matters such as going to war against an enemy tribe. The council members and people of the town debated an issue until they agreed on what to do.
Nevada league of cities and municipalities met in Henderson NV January 23, 2015 for the Local government summit. Leaders from local governments from urban to rural communities met together and discussed local issues and priorities. The summits agenda is a brief presentation of bills and local fiscal matters. Leaders coming together like allows for leaders to speak and voice concerns with in their communities. This is a good example of local governments coming together to accomplish a greater good
As the daughter of the Mayor of Buffalo, I was born into a family with strong political identities. My mother’s name is Teri Lachermeier. Buffalo has been her home for most of her life. My father's name is David Grage and they raised me and my two other siblings in the town of Buffalo.
On September 9, 2014 I attended the Glendale City Council meeting which was held at the Council Chamber which is located on the 2nd floor of the Glendale City Hall, Room 200, 613 East Broadway, Glendale, California. The meeting commenced at 6 p.m. and lasted for approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes. Several policy proposals were made and discussed in this particular meeting. This paper is aimed at discussing the various policy proposals made and debated at this meeting with a view to establishing whether they are acceptable or unacceptable to the Glendale electorate. It is, however, essential to provide a brief background of the City of Glendale before embarking on a discussion of policy proposals.
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
With regard to a mayor-council form, the system itself is based upon the presence of numerous factors which lead to the creation of a range of types which share one basic foundation. As suggested by the premise of this form of local government, the primary actors which come together to continue the sustenance of this framework include the mayor and the council, both of which must be elected (Center for Governmental Research 1). Consequently, the presence of these two parties within the wider framework entails the extent to which each actor holds a certain degree or extent of authority in managing the affairs of the city, this notion implies that the distribution of power and authority maybe classified as relative or absolute wherein it may favor the elected mayor or the elected council in terms of possession of power on the basis of the chosen variation of the mayor-council form of government.
One way to see public administration in action is by attending a city council meeting, whether it be in an urban or rural area, public administration still has a part in each event. As Kettl (2018; p. 244) referenced in his book, there is not a civil system that would be sustainable without strong leadership. This paper will discuss the author’s description, observation, and reflection during a city council meeting.
The Dahlonega City Hall was crowded on the evening of March 1st 2010. The seats were full, except for at the very front, and the standing room was filled almost out the door. The crowd, mostly made up of students, leaned in to hear as the voices of the City Council members faded in and out of the faltering sound system. The six City Council members and the mayor sat along a bench as if they were the judges at a hearing. Because of the ongoing discussions and the crowd, I thought I had arrived a few minutes late; but I was able to find a seat in the front two rows. Despite how packed the small room was there were plenty of empty seats in the front. I had thought the meeting was well on its way by the way conversation was going and
I attended the regular monthly meeting and public hearing for the City of New York Community Board No. 1, Queens that was held at the Astoria World Manor, located at 25-22 Astoria Blvd., Astoria on Tuesday, February 16, 2016, at 7pm. According to NYC (2014), the purpose of each New York City Community Board is to encourage the citizens to participate and get involved within their communities, and resourceful organizations of agencies that deliver public services in local communities and boroughs. Furthermore, the specific purposes of the board meeting were to obtain the license to operate an Unenclosed Sidewalk Café, approval for
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 chose to attend a city council meeting for this assignment and was very surprised at what I witnessed. The city council served an important purpose and the meeting actually accomplished many important goals. Among the interesting things that I saw at the council meeting were the people who attended, the people who presented, the people who sat on the council, and the subjects that were being voted upon in the meeting.