Fourteen Students from Loveland High School received a hands-on lesson in leadership on April 24 when City Council members and staff stepped aside and let the students debate agenda items, vote on issues, and listen to resident concerns.
City Council members and staff meet with their students prior to the April 24 meeting to help them learn about the issues, see what was involved in decision making, and learn what questions were important for local government officials to have answered before the vote. During the meeting, City Council members and staff did not speak, so all the deliberation and debating of agenda items took place among the students. The agenda included several important issues: a NatureWorks Grant application to improve the Nisbet Park restrooms, the sale of a 1990 backhoe, leasing police vehicles, a residential occupancy inspection program, and a partnership that would allow the Loveland Police Department to monitor security videos uploaded to Ring’s doorbell security system’s neighbor portal.
This year, Mayor Bailey was paired with Sam Greenberg. Sam’s father, Judge Brad Greenberg, served as Loveland’s Mayor from 2003 to 2005. Mayor Bailey said, “This is a great learning experience for Sam and his classmates. They get to see first-hand what it takes to govern a community.” Daniel Zamagias also had a previous connection to City Council as his father, Steve Zamagias, served on City Council from 2016 to 2017.
The students and their counterparts were:
Sam Greenberg (Mayor Kathy Bailey)
Emerson Monks (Vice Mayor Weisgerber)
Simon Grome (Councilman Kent Blair)
Rosa Karl-Chocon (Councilman Tim Butler)
Joey Jeffcott (Councilman Neal Oury)
Daniel Zamagias (Councilman Ted Phelps)
Anna Hou (Councilwoman Angela Settell)
Keller Walls (City Manager David Kennedy)
Daniel Hinrichsen (Assistant City Manger Tom Smith)
Jett Stevens (Clerk of Council Misty Cheshire)
Erin Dickman (Finance Director Michelle Byrde)
Jake Higgins (City Solicitor Joseph Braun)
Zoe DeWitt (Police Chief Sean Rahe and Lt. Kevin Corbett)
Anna Svitkovich (Chief Otto Huber & Captain Bruce Hawk) |