Public Event Report.

A week ago, I attended one of the regular sessions of my City Council. Accordingly, I learned that every week, the council holds regular sessions at around nine in the morning on Wednesdays, and in some occasions on Thursday around two in the afternoon when there is sufficient business. The sessions are held inside the Council Chambers of the City hall,  which such sessions are only limited to a few public  spectators. Fortunately, I was one of the few people who were allowed to witness that weeks session.
    

The flow of the session basically included (1) Pledge of Allegiance (2) the Chairs reminder to the public (3) approval of minutes (4) submissions of documents and agenda revision (5) committee reports (6) special presentations and reports (7) public invitation to be heard (8) public hearings on any matter and ordinances on second reading (9) introduction and reading by title of ordinances for first reading (10) general business (11) comments (12) remarks (13) recording of the meeting and (14) adjournment. The items discussed in the session I attended included budgets, committee proposals, and reading and assessment of policies.
    

During my observation and discussions with some of the regular spectators, I learned that every week a list of items is gathered before the City Council. These items will accordingly compose the Council Agenda, which will be taken up for the following weeks sessions. In addition, I observed that each Council member acts as the Citys liaison or representative to several organizations and committees. For that reason, I was able to understand that the city is governed through a commission form of government seeing that there is no city manager, but only a commissioner-in-charge for each of the committee available in the city.
    

In sum, attending city council meetings is very interesting and informative as it provides information, answers to questions and clarifies important issues not only to the public, but also to the City Council. This type of public event indeed provides a setting for discussions between the leaders of the city and the public regarding specific policies, projects and programs, which are very important in a democratic government.

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