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The role of local government
Economic role of local government
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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 what to expect. Hermosa Beach and Culver City were awfully similar in their structure, and the topics discussed were tedious and difficult to fully comprehend without prior knowledge. Also, both meetings had people coming before the council and airing their grievances in regards to what some individuals considered unfair ordinances. At this meeting in particular, a couple of men in their early 60s were upset about an ordinance relating to rose bushes, and they let the mayor know that he could shove that section of the municipal code “back into the recesses of mayor Malsin’s mind”. The mayor, probably having heard his distaste before, just nodded his head and thanked the upset man. His friend clapped, and an older gentleman sitting in the back row snickered. After witnessing the older gentleman give a piece of his mind to the mayor, I was hoping for more residents to stand up and demand action from their local government. I wanted people to step up and tell the local government that some of ... ... middle of paper ... ...an try to comprehend the ins and outs of creating budgeting contracts with consultants. At times, I noticed that the mayor would have probably been more attentive hearing from irate citizens than listen to Armenta trying to get clarifications to C-5. Unexciting as the council meeting agenda items might have been, it was still fascinating to see local government at work in such an orderly, proper fashion. We may disagree on particular ordinances or agenda items, but we will do so in an appropriate way that does not disrupt the city at large, and even though the topics of discussion were mostly mundane, students should still at one point or another witness their local governments at work. Doing so leads to a greater understanding for how day-to-day city improvements take affect and how important it can be to voice your opinion and be a leader within your community.
The fourth chapter of City Politics by Dennis R. Judd & Todd Swanstrom covers the rise of "Reform Politics" with many local governments during the first half of the 1900s as a way to combat the entrenched political machines that took control of many large city governments in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Over the course of the chapter, Judd & Swanstrom quickly cover the history of the "reform movement" with different examples of how the reform movement affected city politics in different areas.
The issue of purchasing the Reformed Church of Palos Heights exemplified that the citizens are the ones who run the city. The citizens made their presence known in the City Council meetings as well as in the media. The Aldermen attempted to first bribe the Al Salam Mosque Foundation of Chicago with $200,000, and then to purchase the Reformed Church of Palos Heights. The Mayor sided with the people and vetoed the idea of paying $200,000 to the Al Salam Mosque Foundation of Chicago. In the end, the democratic policies on which our country was founded prevailed. The voices of the citizens were heard with a vote AGAINST: 2,856.
The Phoenix City Council meeting stood packed with attendees ranging from council men and women, lawyers, (basically elderly) interested citizens, neighborhood representatives, owners of businesses, and many others firm on playing a undeviating role in the due process of local government. The meeting began with an invocation from the pastor of a local church invited to pray by the Mayor Stanton. Then following was a pledge to the flag and then the mayor carries the motion. The Mayor reads for the council while passing them several agendas. This series of formalities set the tone for the arrangement and flow of the summit as a whole. Things steered quickly and professionally thanks to the succinct language of both the City Clerk and the Mayor, who led the agenda of the assembly. In general, each agenda entry was introduced by the Clerk, and then led through the agenda by Mayor, who asked for each item’s approval by the Council. The executive order of the agenda acted mostly as a general guideline, as the meeting swerved from the stated order with relative occurrence. Instead of a stringent order, the items seemed to be litigated first, in terms of how straightforwardly they might be permitted. Entire swathes of application were approved if the Council did not obtain any requests for dialogue concerning the item, and if the Council was expected to endorse the item unanimously. In theory, most of these items had already been hashed out in the various other committees through which any agenda item must pass before reaching the City Council.
Adrian Fenty’s tenure as mayor of Washington D.C. is a perfect example of the impact of black elite displacement. For one thing, the difficulties faced by a political entrepreneur are the direct result of running a deracialized campaign. A deracialized candidate cannot ignore the black vote and the ideal of linked fate especially if African-Americans comprise a majority of the electorate. Additionally, elite displacement can be observed in an open race where the incumbent has picked a successor.
The city’s budget crisis was not a surprise, the City Manager had forecasted the shortfall and brought it to the attention of the city council. Based on the organizational structure, the City Manager clearly had more knowledge and information about the city’s budget, which was his source of power. However, the city council actually controls the resources (money in this case) and how and where to distribute the resource. Both, the City Manager and city council possess authority and power that neither want to relinquish; as a result, the employees suffered. Smithville city leaders needed to come together at the onset of the budget crisis and work together in a direct democratic fashion. When leaders come together and synthesize facts and resources, organizational members can increase the power they exert within an organization (Morgan, 2006). The budget crisis could potentially have been avoided had city leaders made an appeal to the public, explained the situation and offered a reasonable solution to the problem. Moreover, the transparency would have relieved some tension between the City Manager, city council, and the three labor unions. Because the city was not transparent and forthcoming with union leaders, the city negotiators enter the negotiation process giving members false hope of receiving salary and benefit increases when there were none to give. In summary, given the current situation, the City Manager needed to exert his expert power on the budget issue, join alliance with the union leaders, and push the city council to change city charter to implement the sales tax, which would have potentially off-set the budget
By having school board meetings, it helps to see what the school’s needs. This is very important for the reason that this may be the only time that a concern parent or person voice might be heard. From this meeting, it was learned that the school board members are willing to help people that have concerns. An example, of this, was when the concern Pre-K parent was worried that she heard that Pre-K has been just a daycare. However, someone from the board mentioned to her that she would personally go with the parent the next day and show her how Pre-K is running during the day. This made the parent so happy because her concerns were being met. I have learned that school board members look out for the students and that they are the number one source that community members should go to if they have a concern or a suggestion to better their children’s
Similar to a well oiled machine, a political system is concerned with processing the demands of a society to then provide the goods and services demanded while ensuring its own establishment (Berg 1). However, considering that the idea of a political system is a social construct, its form is subject to a myriad of complex and conflicting forces. The most palpable force is that of a city’s financial needs. Any locale has the burden of satisfying the demands of its constituents with limited resources. In addition to having limited resources, urban cities are also usually comprised of many diverse ethnic backgrounds with different demands and needs. Equitable distribution of limited resources to different ethnic and social backgrounds could have
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 apparently I was not the only one who shared this feeling. After a solid forty-five minutes of talking about parking laws and if there was a parking problem in the city, the mayor stood up and thanked everyone for coming. Most people took this as a sign that the meeting was over and started to pack up and leave. However this was just the meetings call to order. Following a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance the City Council meeting began.
I chose the October 27th board meeting. Right away I could tell that the members on the board were clearly articulate educators at various schools in Fayette County. I couldn’t unfortunately hear the names of the individual members on the board. There was 2 people who ended up addressing the board. One a reverend who had issue with the math scores that the district had which were novice. He was also unhappy that 40% of students in the district made a novice in reading. He didn’t like that 2/3rds of the African American students couldn’t read on grade level. He had a lot of support from the crowd as he got a lot of applause and he even had some people on the school board nodding in agreement.
I had never realized all the dealings that had to occur for things to get fixed and dealt with in the school district. It’s shocking how much money and skill in presentation it took to get an agenda passed by the board. During this meeting I heard of two agenda task attempt to be passed. The presenter of the Budget Amendments had amazing presentation skills and the ability to clearly present the amendments and was able to get their amendment accepted by the board. While the presenter for the Local District Update, affecting local policies had a much weaker presentation and was unable to get the board members to understand the purpose of the proposal and got their decision suspended until the next meeting. These two presentations made me understand the importance of being able to present you materials to a group of people. If you can’t properly explain your purpose and goal of your agenda to someone they are less likely to support whatever it is that is being presented to them. It makes it seem as if you are not entirely sure of your proposal, yet even if you are not sure in it confidence sales. The meeting was interesting enough that I would go to a second meeting if I had nothing else to do. Something interesting I saw while in the meeting was that most of the people in attendance weren’t paying attention to the items being presented. One guy was playing a baseball game on his phone and one of the presenters was doodling the entire
The city council cares about citizens and their view of the government to maintain society. However, while it has certainly played a major role it was not necessarily the goal of the initial protestors. Politicians could recognize, not only civil/political rights being violated, but the socio-economic/cultural rights being violated. The construction of Dakota Pipeline intruded on their right to water and sacred ground. There was anger over the bank’s role as one of the lenders helping finance pipeline. Additionally, there was anger regarding Trump’s way of greenlighting. While citizens weren’t directly affected with these injustices it was clear that change needed to
The superintendent and principal are stymied in their efforts to reach a compromise as Mrs. Durnitz refuses to change her position that the policy must be followed to the letter. She appealed to the teachers’ association for support when it appeared that the administration and board might not uphold her position. The local newspap...
I feel like Public School #23 has a character of its own. In fact it's like a tree, it has roots of strong administrators who make sure we stay grounded. It has a strong trunk of teachers who wish to support us in whatever we decide to do. We have wonderful subjects the branches that make us interested and fill our brains with knowledge and we the students are the leaves. As freshman we start to bud, as sophomores we begin to get full shape and color, as juniors we begin are full shape and size and by senior year we are tired and wish to leave the tree and adventure the world. The shadow that our tree forms is a very respectable one. I am ______ and I want to be your Class President.
Unfortunately, the topic I was most interested in was going to be the last one on the docket. The meeting itself started early in the afternoon at 15:00. There was one woman who was upset that the clocks in the council room were not set properly to the internet time on her Apple phone. She even interrupted the Mayor when he was opening the meeting and had to be reminded to stay quite until her turn to speak. The familiar way that Mayor Bailey had addressed her led me to assume that she is a regular attendee of the meetings and has had similar outbursts in the past. Afterwards, there was an opportunity for public comment in which a couple people made their opinions known about the council in
Illinois and most notably Chicago are best known for their corrupt public officials. From the days of Cermak and the Daley political machine, corruption has become second nature to these “public servants”. From rigging elections to accepting ‘dirty’ donations to the alderman’s campaigns, corruption can be found from the very top of the political layer, down to the lowest government position. Those involved in the corruption have benefited greatly from their dirty deeds. Public residents aren’t directly aware of this corruption since they aren’t public officials, but most can attest to corruption when it involves the local police officers and the exploitation of the public.