Reflection Paper On City Council Meeting

Local school board meetings are a venue that allows the public to attend and be a part of the educational process. These meetings provide community members with important information about upcoming events so that they are able to be well informed of the happenings that are taking place within the school system in which their child attends. Along with being able to learn about what is taking place within the school, it also allows parents and parent groups the opportunity to express their opinions and concerns about matters that could likely affect their children. Monthly school board meetings are a way to help establish and maintain open lines of communication between the school and community members. By allowing the community members the opportunity to be heard, it further enhances the relationship between the school and the community.

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

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

The meeting agenda included a call to order, roll call, reading of the call, pledge of allegiance, some recognition of county members for service, announcements, and a time for public comment. This happened all within the first twenty minutes of the beginning of the meeting. Then the meeting switched over into having a few appearances, talking about department reports, resolutions in the county, ordinances, annual

The Hallsville Independent School District board meeting was very conductive. An agenda was handed out to everyone present, and it had every point to be made at the meeting neat and organized for everyone to follow. The meeting is mostly open to the public which provides a great way for everyone to feel up to date with what is going on in the school district, and be able to help in any way they can when problems arise. Once the superintendent had finished speaking about who was being recognized, the updated itinerary, and the HISD Education Foundation Report, he closed the meeting from the public. School board meetings benefit the community by letting the people not associated with a job through the school know what is going on in the district.

The common council is a legislature that consists of seven-members. Each representative reflects a districts in the city. In the common council, the community is able to attend and get their views across. Often, you will see the residents attend the meetings to ask questions, and make request on what they want done to their city. Thus, the common council is the voice of the people.

The meeting had preplanned agendas concerning the planning staff and services to citizens. The types of services are residential, commercial, and industrial land use development ordinances. The meeting opened with a prayer followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, call to order, determination of a quorum, to ensure all board members are present and adoption of minutes. The Chairman, Mr. Keith Williams, was the moderator and he was very polite and efficient, by giving citizens and local official the opportunity to speak. The atmosphere was very static, because there were great number of residents there awaiting their chance to speak about a certain zoning agenda (City of Gulfport,

On September 6th, I attended the Cleveland County school board meeting. I grew up in a nontraditional schooling environment; therefore, attending a school board meeting was a new experience for me. On the agenda, the board covered subjects such as nominating in new board members, honoring new teachers in the county schools, getting approval for a new basketball court, and asking for approval for a high school trip to Germany in the summer of 2017.

On November 9th 2015, a town hall meeting took place in my political science class. This meeting was a chance for students of the school to bring up concerns, or issues regarding there education. For their voice to be heard directly to the faculty that runs the school, the students could finally have a chance to get a valid answer. There was questions about safety, mathematics, community college education, and typical student issues.

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

I was very surprised at how many people actually attended the city hall meeting. Normally when you think of government, you assume that the people are less interested in attending meetings. This was especially what I thought would happen given the average amount of people who vote for local laws and political offices. Instead, I was surprised to see many people attending. While most of those who attended were older, there were some younger people as well. In general, the attendees where men between the ages of 40 and 70. Some were dressed professionally for the meeting, while others were obviously arriving straight from work and were dressed in work clothes. There were even a few construction workers present who were still in their day clothes. Most of the women who were present were older. My best guess is that the younger women stay at home with their children while their husbands attend the meeting. There were no children present, which was expected given that city council meetings are meant for adults.

For the service learning project, I teamed up with three of my classmates to volunteer at a lady’s conference at Imani Restoration Centre church (IRCC) on the 16th of September, 2017. IRCC is a non-profit organization which is a Kenyan community founded that focuses on bringing African immigrants together to support and learn the things of God. Samuel Mwangi, the senior pastor of IRCC, said that through the counseling sessions that he holds at the church every Thursday, he discovered that most ladies go through the same challenges. Therefore, he thought it would be great for him to organize a lady’s conference, so that ladies could come together to share and support each other (Personal communication, September, 16, 2017)