Reflection Paper On Regular Council Meeting

This week, I attended an Open Speaker session at a local AA meeting. There were about 30 participants in the meeting. They were mostly white with ages ranging from childhood to older adult. There were a even number of men and women, and they were some couples in the audience.

As I found a seat to sit in I had other conversations with people in the meeting, one being about how nursing students often attend the meetings and the man I was talking to telling me how often addicts who receive help are very grateful for the help and appreciate the work people are doing for them. I was extremely and pleasantly surprised by how nice and welcoming everybody at the meeting I talked to was. They all tried to make me feel comfortable and welcome and multiple times I was offered the coffee and cake they had set out for the meeting. Speaking of cake, the meeting had celebratory cake due to a man's 35 years of sobriety. I had been informed of this celebration by the discussion leader and again by the women I talked to right after. I thought that this was a great coincidence and that I had been very lucky to choose that meeting and that day to attend. Since it was a 35 year celebration the meeting was slightly different that a regular meeting would have been, with the man giving a speech and everybody in the meeting celebrating

The City of Whittier has two city meetings a month were the people of the community are welcome to attend. One of their city council meetings was held on April 26 at 6:30pm. The council members are Owner Newcomer, Cathy Warner and Bob Henderson. The Mayor Pro tem is Joe Vinatieri and the Mayor of Whittier is Fernando Dutra. There was a good amount of public attendance, but the attendance died out after recess. Public participation was not effective or really used throughout the meeting. The public comments part of the meeting was where the public’s voice was most heard.

The government meeting I attended was the Whittier City Council Meeting on April 26th. I found out about the meeting on the Whittier city's website. The meetings are open to any citizen who wants to participate and be informed about what is going on in the city. The Mayor of Whittier is Fernando Dutra. The council members are Bob Henderson, Owner Newcomer, and Cathy Warner. The meeting started off with a lot of public attendance, but a lot of people left after recess. There was not a lot of public participation because the part of the agenda to discuss issues and decisions wasn't discussed until after recess. This particular meeting wasn't really affected by public participation. This meeting was not very healthy in the terms of democracy.

What appeared most interesting was the lack of public peoples present, especially in an environment where they may have the greatest influence on public policy. In this present age, where political polarization is only growing, one would expect a greater public presence at the assembling of local governing bodies. Perhaps it is because people are too lazy, do not care, or think that their voice does not matter; at times a self-fulfilling prophecy. Whatever the case, if Americans wish for any type of favorable change to occur in their Governing bodies they must inform and involve themselves to champion said

As a public administrator, I learned the importance of showing people that you are serving that you care. For example, when the Vice Mayor took his time greet everyone that came for the meeting, it showed me that he was a career leader. Other commissioners were already at their seats. Also, I learned that it is important to do what you think it is important for the people that you are serving. For example, Commissioner Landman did not vote “yes” because she did not have enough time to review the proposal presented. I really admired this decision. I believe it is important to fully know the pros/cons of a proposal because voting on it, especially when you are a public servant. This goes along with what author Jered B. Carr (2015) mention about the responsibility of a public official, “Responsibility to the entire council is an essential characteristic of the council-manager form and helps to ensure both transparency and a focus on the public interest rather than the political interests of a single elected official,” (p. 674). Furthermore, I learned that it is important to recognize employees who are committed to their work. By giving awarding the employees during the meeting, I believe that their PSM will

RITTMAN — Because of Rittman’s charter, the clerk of courts must read every resolution and ordinance in its entirety when it is first introduced, not by title only which is the case for many governmental entities.

I went to the Carrollton City Council on Tuesday, March 7, 2017 at 1945 E. Jackson Road Carrollton, TX 75006 at 7pm. First, I thought it will be boring to go at the Council meeting but I was wrong. The reason is that everything is new for me and the people that I met they were new face to me. At the meeting, I saw a few Citizen couple, University and College Student like me, the speaker that who like to report what is happening around the city, Race trace company is requesting mayor to relocate their company around Surgeon Dr and Midway Road. This meeting does not take long because it just takes one hour.

Since normal people can’t be expected to understand every point of view, every law, and every aspect to a decision that needs to be made, they trust a group of people to make the decisions for them. This, in small scale, is how our government works. Normal people and our society, has realized that they can’t make these decisions for the community because they can’t understand everything in play. To answer to this challenge, they put their trust into a system of people, the government, to know the required information to make the decisions that have to be made to keep the community together. This meeting, and my own reflection on its debates, made me realize that everyone can criticize the government for the decisions they make, good or bad, but in the end, that normal people simply can’t understand every card in play in the society game. Society is made up of everyone, not just a single group of people with a set group of problems and influences. All must be accounted for when a decision is being made, or problems will arise. The meeting made me realize that society, good or bad and however I personally, or anyone, feels about it, has so much to account for when they work that error has to be expected. This what I drew from my time in that

For my assignment to observe local government I went to a Mauston Common Council meeting on September 08,2015. In this meeting all members were present and they covered many topics. The first topic as discussion and action regarding minutes for the August 25th meeting. This was approved and there were no discussion. Kaleigh A. Dallman was supposed to discuss and action regarding New Operator’s License. They skipped these and continued on to three actions regarding Class B retailer licenses. These licenses were all approved and given to St. Patrick's Church for their Fall Festival on September 13, the Mauston Lion’s Club for Festival Foods 50th Anniversary on September 19, Juneau County Agricultural Society for their JCAIRS Barn Dance on September 19.

Realizing that I live in the city of Madera, I, Cristal Salgado-Guzman, really injoy been able to have the opportunity to live here. The City of Madera is starting to grow as even more human beings are present in here. Madera City does not consist of many humans but it seems to grow in a rapid speed. Perhaps there are not much places to go but the citizens seem to like it this way. The community really tried to get the citizens of Madera involve to choose their decision because the individuals are the one taking over this City since it consist of them. This is very important since it gets individuals involved which makes the resident comfortable to live here. One example is that the City of Madera has a school board meeting that is opened for

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.

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.

On July 18, 2017, I attended the City of Gulfport’s City Council Meeting. The council is made up of elected members of the community whose focus is the city’s goals, major projects and infrastructure improvements. The council makes decisions that range from community growth to land use to finances and strategic planning. Competencies demonstrated during the meeting were Competencies 3 and 5. Competency number 3 focuses on Advanced Human Rights and Social, Economic, and Environmental Justice. The meeting demonstrated knowledge of the ideas and concepts related to the notions of social justice, advocacy, leadership, social change, social support, social networks, and social capital consistent with a MSLC perspective. This competency was demonstrated by addressing community concerns by incorporating ideas of citizens and community leaders. Community leaders such as council members and the mayor provided support and clarification of city policies. The citizens advocated for changes in their community by bringing their issues to the city council for resolutions. Competency 5 focuses on Engaging in Policy Practice. This was demonstrated by advanced skills in social work practice including the ability to link theory, policy-practice, and research/ evaluation, and to employ leadership skills to demonstrate and promote such a linkage. This competency was demonstrated by city council members and the citizens of Gulfport, MS. They worked together to ensure

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)