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St. Peterville City Case Study

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1. The meeting I attended was the city of St. Augustine’s special meeting to establish the city’s fiscal budget and millage rate for the upcoming year. It took place on September 22nd, at 5:05pm. The city of St. Augustine holds its city commission meetings every second and fourth Monday of the month in the Alcazar Room at City Hall, which is located at 75 King Street, St. Augustine, Florida. The meeting’s purpose was to establish the millage rate for the city and how allocate those funds into budget for next year. The new millage rate of 7.500 mills was approved for the fiscal year of 2016-2017, which is an increase of 5.47% from last year. Additionally, a new budget for the upcoming year was also approved.
2. All of the city commissioners …show more content…

The main issue discussed at the meeting was increasing the funds in the city’s budget for the purpose of restoring and paving roads in St. Augustine. Of the nine people who spoke, all shared the common sentiment that in previous years, the money allocated by the city’s budget for road repair had been incredibly insufficient. The deterioration of roads has had a negative impact on tourism, business, and everyday life for St. Augustine residents. There were tales of visitors scoffing at “pathetic” road repairs, as told by a resident and business owner, David Holliday, which were affirmed by Bernard DeRaal, owner of a popular tourist restaurant, Cap’s on the Water, who advocated improving roads for the benefit of tourists. Resident Delta Long, shared her story of losing her car to a flood while taking her son to school to demonstrate that the poorly maintained roads are prone to flooding and pose a safety threat. Ed Salvin of the Clean up the City of St. Augustine Initiative, brought up another example to express the frustration of citizens, in which he spoke about the time a pickup truck got stuck in a sinkhole. All of the commenters advocated an increase in city funds for road repair and a reduction in unnecessary expenditures. Susan Rathbone, a citizen of St. Augustine and President of the Davis Shores Neighborhood Association, pleaded with the commissioners to stop wasting money on luxury items for city hall such as iron gates and expensive draperies. She and several …show more content…

The first concept illustrated by this meeting was the concept of effective management and planning covered in module 6. By the accounts of residents, it is clear that the city has not been effective in previous years, in planning the restoration and preservation of local roads. The city has not been proactive in planning which streets should be repaired, when, or to what those repairs should be. A common complaint of residents was that the city appeared to be content on postponing repairs when it would be more convenient and cost-effective to handle the situation as soon as possible. I believe St. Augustine should practice a more adaptive style of management and respond to changing conditions. From listening to the meeting, it seems that the city originally underestimated the problems plaguing their roads and decided that certain areas could stand to wait for repairs. From the accounts of citizens, it is clear that philosophy is not going to stand anymore. In my opinion, I think the city needs to be more proactive and handle the deteriorating condition of their roads a lot sooner than later, and at the very least re-evaluate old plans. The second concept demonstrated was collective action. Collective action is defined as a coordinated effort of several individuals or groups, who cooperate to accomplish specific goals. What was originally just a basic meeting to approve a budget quickly turned into a discussion on a major public issue due to the words of several speakers.

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