Reflection Paper About Walnut Creek City Council Meeting
Garber 1 Max Garber
Professor Debbie Mazzone
Political Science 121
12/4/17
The Incredibly Entertaining and Wonderfully Invigorating Walnut Creek City Council Meeting When I attended the Walnut Creek City Council meeting, I was quite surprised to discover that people still do the pledge of allegiance. Not since my illustrious elementary school career have I heard the harmony of the pledge resound throughout a room, and I indeed thought the song was now dead. Yet to my surprise, there it was, being spoken in unison at the beginning of a city council meeting. I was even more surprised that I still remembered the words. As I stood and placed my hand over my heart, a smile ran across my face, as I remembered innocent years filled with …show more content…
Today, my perspective on government, local or otherwise, is unfortunately jaded. Between the current white house administration and the state of our voting system, I have found that my political efficacy is constantly being diminished. However, when I attended my local city council meeting, I was pleasantly surprised at how people I know were actually involved in shaping the legislation for our city. I even knew one of the city council members. His son swam on the same swim team as I did growing up. I even cut his lawn. The simple experience of seeing someone I considered a regular citizen be seated in a position to directly effect change invigorated my political outlook. And once we got through the doldrums of the meeting, I was pleasantly dismayed that I was actually enjoying …show more content…
All city council members were present, and consisted of Mayor Pro Tempore Justin Wedel, Loella Haskew, Cindy Silva, Kevin Wilk, and, of course, Mayor Rich Carlson. Afterwards, it took ten minutes just to approve the minutes from the previous meeting. Then, they adopted ordinances from the previous meeting and approved the December calendar, which took a striking 30 minutes. However, after all that (most of which, I must admit, I didn’t pay attention to) and after the mandatory request for reports from the councilors (of which there were none), the meeting started picking up
Professor Debbie Mazzone
Political Science 121
12/4/17
The Incredibly Entertaining and Wonderfully Invigorating Walnut Creek City Council Meeting When I attended the Walnut Creek City Council meeting, I was quite surprised to discover that people still do the pledge of allegiance. Not since my illustrious elementary school career have I heard the harmony of the pledge resound throughout a room, and I indeed thought the song was now dead. Yet to my surprise, there it was, being spoken in unison at the beginning of a city council meeting. I was even more surprised that I still remembered the words. As I stood and placed my hand over my heart, a smile ran across my face, as I remembered innocent years filled with …show more content…
Today, my perspective on government, local or otherwise, is unfortunately jaded. Between the current white house administration and the state of our voting system, I have found that my political efficacy is constantly being diminished. However, when I attended my local city council meeting, I was pleasantly surprised at how people I know were actually involved in shaping the legislation for our city. I even knew one of the city council members. His son swam on the same swim team as I did growing up. I even cut his lawn. The simple experience of seeing someone I considered a regular citizen be seated in a position to directly effect change invigorated my political outlook. And once we got through the doldrums of the meeting, I was pleasantly dismayed that I was actually enjoying …show more content…
All city council members were present, and consisted of Mayor Pro Tempore Justin Wedel, Loella Haskew, Cindy Silva, Kevin Wilk, and, of course, Mayor Rich Carlson. Afterwards, it took ten minutes just to approve the minutes from the previous meeting. Then, they adopted ordinances from the previous meeting and approved the December calendar, which took a striking 30 minutes. However, after all that (most of which, I must admit, I didn’t pay attention to) and after the mandatory request for reports from the councilors (of which there were none), the meeting started picking up