By Nathan Yan
Friday, April 21, 2006 1:04 PM

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Over the past two months, the city of Daly City and government students from Westmoor and Jefferson high schools have participated in the "Students in Local Government" Mock City Council program. During this time, students took several trips to city facilities each week, including city hall to meet with Daly City council members and other city employees, and tours around public departments such as the Department of Water & Wastewater treatment, the Parks & Recreation Department, and the Fire Department, among others.

The goal of the project was for students to learn about the workings of municipal government. To that end, each of the participating students was given a role as an official city employee - mayor, council members, fire department chief, library director, city attorney, etc, and paired up with their respective real-life counterparts. The students were tasked with a budget scenario - this year, the city experienced a $4 million surplus in unexpected revenue, and students planned and drafted out budget proposals on how to appropriate the $4 million. Each of the department heads drafted proposals for spending from their own department, and the city council members discussed and ultimately decided to approve or disaprove the proposals.

On Wednesday, April 5th, students and many of their city counterparts and teachers arrived at the Daly City city hall to conduct the city council meeting. Each of the department heads presented their budget proposals, while the city council members asked questions, discussed
issues, made some motions for changes or revisions, and ultimately made a final decision at the end of the meeting.

Video of the Mock City Council Meeting (.wmv, 220mb)

Note: The article is a bit undone/unpolished. My main intent was to get the video up; I'll see if I can expand the article later on.

The Westmoor News Blog is a weblog which updates on current events and news going on at Westmoor. It is written entirely by students, and thus any and all views, ideas, and witticisms expressed here do not necessarily correlate to those of Westmoor High School or JUHSD. You can submit feedback by emailing us at westmoorgoldenram@yahoo.com

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