Example Of Report On Policy Proposals And Actions

Introduction

On February 17th, I visited the city of Costa Mesa which is located in California. The city has a population of 110000 and covers an area of approximately 16 square miles. The city’s local government operations are headed by the City Council of Costa Mesa. The city council is headed by Mayor Stephen Mensinger and other members including Katrina, Gary, Sandra, and Righeimer. Mayor Stephen was elected as a council member on 2012 but became a mayor in 2014. Prior to his elective position, Stephen worked in various public and, private organizations. Currently, he is an active member of organizations and committees in Costa Mesa City such as the Investment Oversight and the Newport-Mesa Unified School.
Righeimer was also elected as a member of the council in 2010 but currently serves as the mayor pro tem. Some of his roles at the organization include streamlining the city council’s operations for purposes of ensuring the residents get quality services from the local government. Righeimer has also served as Costa Mesa’s mayor for between 2012 and 2014. Righeimer is credited with launching several reforms and enhancing transparency in the council’s operations. During his tenure as Mayor, Righeimer regularly received media attention from the country’s popular newspapers such as Washington and LA Times for his active role in championing for openness in government operations. Apart from coordinating the council affairs, Righeimer runs a private real estate firm that deals with both offices and, rental services in Southern California. Reinheimer current and final term will end on November 2018.
Katrina Foley is also a member of the council. Katrina was firstly elected to the council on 2004 but reelected to for the 3rd time in 2014. Katrina is also involved in various community empowerment projects and her term in the council will end on 2018.Moreover, Gary and Sandra terms will expire on 2016.According to the council’s bylaws, a member of the council serves for a 4-year term. A member is elected after a city-wide election in Costa Mesa city.
My purpose of the 17th February, visit was to explore how the council conducts its meetings. I learned that the council holds its meetings on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays over every month. The meetings usually take place at 6 p.m. though there are study sessions on the 2nd Tuesday of each month. The meetings are also conducted in the council’s chambers along city hall, 77 Fair Drive. This paper intends to reflect on what happened during the meeting. The paper will discuss various policy proposals that were discussed during the meeting with the solutions. Finally, the paper will review the impact of the meeting as a learning experience.

During the meeting, the council members discussed various policy proposals. Firstly, the members discussed the city council role in participating in the league of Cities conference. Each of the council members had divergent views on the role of the annual conference. For instance, Genis believed it was important for the council to have a representative at the conference, and she recommended the mayor to attend the conference. Mayor Mensinger agreed to attend the conference. He said the conference was important for the council because it will provide an avenue for discussing policies that improve cooperation with other cities of California. The mayor even promised to foot his trip to the conference. All the other members agreed to representation in the conference and, the council made a formal approval to allow the Manager and, CEO of the city to attend the meeting. I believe this move was appropriate because it will help foster cooperation with other cities of California. Attendance at the conference will help the council gain insights on how other cities are solving their societal issues or, they are improving serving delivery to the residents.
The council meeting also discussed on approving street sweeping services. The meeting members discussed various benefits of outsourcing the street sweeping services. For instance, Director of Public services explained how outsourcing will help the council save money and improve services. However, Member Monahan suggested the council should adopt GPS technology to monitor the movement of the street sweeping vehicles as well as coordinating the ticketing issues. Member Foley suggested a reduction of the contract period from 8 to 5 years and recommended a close monitoring of the sweeping project. However, Mayor Mensinger suggested a plan of outsourcing workers to execute the street cleaning service. Despite varying opinions, all the members unanimously agreed to award the cleaning contract to Clean Street Company. I believe the responsibility of cleaning the streets, and the environment is the sole duty of the city council because they collect taxes and obtain other revenues that should be used in improving public services. Approving the tender was thus important for the Costa Mesa residents.
The meeting members also discussed on the utilization of community development grant funds that were provided to repair two streets namely; Harbor Boulevard and Bernard Street Alley. All the meeting members agreed to release funds to pay Kalban Incorporation because it had done good job in executing the repair projects. The members further authorized the city clerk to write a notice of project completion so that Kaplan could receive their services funds. The move to compensate executioners of a public project shows that the council wants to improve the services of the Costa Mesa residents. Besides that, allowing each member to share their opinions in the meeting illustrates an aspect of democracy. The council member exercises the principles of democracy where all members can provide their varying suggestion on any social issue that affects the residents.

Conclusion

As seen in the paper, Costa City operates an organized city council. The council board incorporates people with vast knowledge in handling public sector programs. All the council members have engaged in community empowerment projects prior to their joining of the council. This means they know how to manage the council projects and, they always put the affairs of the citizens first. Through the meeting, I have come to learn that transparency is critical for public institutions. Any person who has been given the responsibility for overseeing or implementing a public project should act in an honest manner. Gaining public confidence is essential because it convinces the electorate to re-elect the member back to the council. For instance, majority of the members of the Mesa City have been reelected on various occasions to the council and, this is because they act in a transparent manner. I have also learned that the council allows members to provide their opinions during debates. This is a democratic move that helps in evaluating the viability of each policy proposal.
Works Cited