On February 17, 2014 at 9:00 a.m., I attended a New Hanover County Board of Commissioners meeting. The regular meetings are held twice a month at the New Hanover County Historic Courthouse, Assembly Room 301, at 24 North Third Street in Wilmington North Carolina. Commissioners in attendance were Woody White, Chairman, Beth Dawson, Vice Chair, Jonathan Barfield Jr., Thomas Wolfe, and Brian Berger was absent. Also in attendance was Chris Coudriet, County Manager, Wanda Copley, County Attorney, Shelia Schult, Clerk to the Board, and community members who were there to present and/or observe. The meeting started promptly at 9:00 am with the meeting called to order by the Chairman. Following was a moment of silence, the pledge of allegiance, which was recited by all, and approval of consent agenda items of business that were agreed upon by all commissioners present.
The first item on the agenda was presented by District Attorney Ben David for a funding request of $30,000 for continued employment for a federal prosecutor, which was originally funded through the Governor’s Crime Commission. Through his presentation, he repeated numerous times that he would not come before the board again in the future with this request. He used the number of convictions, which was 260, and the amount of money seized totaling four million dollars. He stressed that the money seized was distributed to local law enforcement and none was retained by his office, although they are allowed to keep fifteen percent. I agree that his numbers are compelling but my concern lies within the mention that a conversation had taken place prior to the meeting with Commissioner White regarding the need and possible outcome. I was somewhat satisfied when the firs...
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...idual speaking, the speaker’s back is to the audience. In addition, time is allowed for each agenda item, but I do not believe the speakers are made aware of how much time they are allotted which increase the length of the meeting. I do not agree with all the aspects of how the meeting was conducted or how funds are allocated.
The short time spent observing the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners helped me to see how funding is allocated within the community. Money is spent in my opinion frivolously. Money can be used in a more productive manner, for instance with the homeless individuals within the community. My recommendations would to be to reevaluate the allocation of money and change the set-up of the room. I believe these changes would be adopted if the suggestion were brought to the attention of the community and the Board of Commissioners.
Typically, the Deer Crossing Homeowners’ Association board will meet once a quarter to solve community problems and disputes that arose during the past few months, but has never organized a separate council to conduct surveys to gain a better insight on other homeowner’s. Without this needed insight, decisions are being made without some of the homeowners’ knowledge or input. This is primarily due to the lack of interested citizens in the association. The assessment in the following pages identifies issues that have occurred, regarding delinquencies, disputes, and community involvement, with no true action taken to collect or interpret information and implement guidance on some of the local community agenda items that occur.
If I were Holbrook my initial goal would be to correct the water and sanitary sewer systems problem. I believe it is the community responsibility to pay for the up-keep and maintenance of the two facilities, because it is the community who is reaping the benefits of these facilities. I would recommend the council to combine the sewer (330,800) and water (158,090) expenditures to the sewer (113,000) and water (379,350) capital program expenditures, and incorporate the two as one revenue fee. This would allow the revenue fees to pay for the operating cost and the reconstruction cost of the two facilities. Making them one fee would give the council more leeway in increasing total revenue cost for these services. In general, people tend to see one bill instead of two as a deal instead of a problem. This is almost like the buy one get one free philosophy; you know the store has raise the price of the item you are purchasing so that you are paying for the item you’re getting free. The propose revenue fee would total 648,170. The 700 water customers and the 3000 sewer customers would pay for this fee. Assuming that the 700 water customers were already included in the 3000 sewer customers, the total customer for the two services would equal 2300. I would divide the total re...
The Committee to Stop Mahwah Mall, a grassroots group of citizens concerned over this perceived miscarriage of justice, formed in response to the rezoning. The Committee worked over the next few months to collect signatures for a petition requesting the Township place a nonbinding referendum on the November ballot. In addition, the Committee raised enough fund in order to retain an attorney, Michael Kates, who filed a lawsuit against the Council on the Committee’s behalf.
Herman H. “Local consultant readers opinion on Sandusky jury.” Reading Eagle (PA) June 21, 2012: Available from: Newspaper Source, Ipswich, MA, Accessed April 24, 2014
The Meeting is a play written by Jeff Stetson that portrays the theoretical meeting of Malcom X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The play’s opening scene shows both men on opposite sides of the stage with spotlights on them. They take turns speaking to make it seem as if these interactions are happening at separate locations and at different points in time. We can assume they’re being interviewed because we hear a voice offstage asking the men questions. However, in these interviews, neither man is known by the public for accomplishing anything, almost as if the revolution they created had never happened. Directly following, Malcom wakes up from his nightmare, which is what the audience just witnessed. Based on
One of the issues that were brought up was an upset parent who mentioned that his child suffers from narcolepsy. He was addressing that he wants the school board to help him because he feels as if the principal is penalizing his daughter. He mentioned that the principal mentioned that he will penalize the girl because of her lateness. He also mentioned that the principal refused to acknowledge his daughter’s sickness and how the principal bullied him. Following this one of the members from the board address this issue by mentioning that this issue that the parent has addressed is a personal issue that really should not be mentioned in this meeting. The school board member also mentioned that this should not be acceptable from a principal to be uninvolved. And how no child should be treated like this. He would also mention that this issue will be
It is near the end of September and you are a relatively new judge advocate working as an Administrative Law attorney. The Deputy Staff Judge Advocate calls and states that he will need you to cover down on the Garrison Commander’s weekly command and staff meeting. At the start of the meeting, the Garrison Commander mentions that prior to leaving her office, she noticed on the news that Congress passed a continuing resolution after failing, yet again, to pass a regular appropriation for the new fiscal year. She adds that as partisanship seems to be at an all-time high in both Houses of Congress, there is uncertainty over how long it will be before a regular appropriation bill is passed for the Department of Defense (DoD).
Those disclosures effectively put the city's entire political leadership on the spot. Most directly, they demonstrate that the LAPD ignored some calls for reform and created an atmosphere ripe for corruption. At the same time, they also suggest that Riordan and City Council members backed policies...
Goodman, B. & Dewan, S. (2007, April 27). Prosecutors Say Corruption in Atlanta Police Dept. Is Widespread. The New York Times. Retrieved December 18, 2013, from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/us/27atlanta.html
...evision. I feel there are several simple things could be done that would make the meeting more accessible to not only first time attendees but also citizens in general. First of all by giving a very brief introduction to who the Council members are and why they are on the Council, as well as the who the people on the side bars are and what their purpose for being there. Just a brief background, five minutes at the tops, would give a background enough for newcomers to have a basic understanding of what is going on. Another thing that could be done to make it more accessible would be to explain the purpose of the meeting or to give out an agenda at the beginning. By attending this public meeting, I was able to see that the grandeur that is portrayed on television is very fake, but the importance is vastly downplayed.
The group I chose to attend was an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in the city of Van Nuys, California. I heard about this group through my agency as the meeting was located a few blocks away from my job, therefore, it was not difficult to locate. I decided to pay an initial visit before the scheduled group meeting in order to inform the group facilitator that I was a social work student and that my intention was to attend one meeting in order to observe group dynamics. The group facilitator agreed to let me attend the group with the discretion of not using recording devices or breaking any confidentiality rules. The group facilitator seemed very welcoming despite the fact that I did not share in the group’s
"Constitution Menu: Constitutional Convention Overview." James Madison University - Home. Web. 03 June 2010. .
He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have. Don't remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly, nor with greater distrust of ability, than on this day. A feeling has crept over, quite unfavorable to the exercise of limited powers of speech. The task is one which requires much previous thought and study for
From the beginning, where we were unfamiliar with each other and became a team, my team and I had started to learn each other name and getting to know each other. Throughout each meeting, we slowly start to feel more comfortable and open minded with each other. Not only are we getting familiar with each other, each meeting that was held we progress of becoming an effective team member, we learn our strengths and weaknesses of everyone. During the meetings, we learn many concepts from the textbook, “Communicating in Small Groups: Principles and Practices” by Steven A. Beebe and John T. Masterson. We were able to learn different types of concept in the textbook and utilized it as a team to complete certain tasks. The three concepts that impacted my team and I are human
According to the article “Fraud and Misconduct Cost Chicago Schools” dated January 11, 2012 from the Education Week, one of the reason that lead to a great loss to the budget to schools and cause damage to CPS leadership is the troubling fraud and employee misconduct. The damage include $1.3 million in “improper benefits paid to retired teachers, systemic abuse of the federal free lunch program at West Side high school, and a scheme by a central-office employee to use school fund to buy items he later exchange for cash”. Most recently, Beatrice Staff, in her article “Corruption in Chicago Public Schools: Former Chief Admits To Fraud” on 13 Oct. 2015 reported that the former head of the CPS Barbara Byrd-Bennett had accepted bribes from multiple companies with amount worth $2.3 million. Accordingly, Barbara Byrd-Bennett was accused of accepting the brides from Gary Soloman and Thomas Vranas, the company owners, to arrange $127,000 into the two accounts setup under her relatives’ names. Additional benefits she received included tickets to multiple sporting events. The investigation proved the evidence found in the email discussions between Solomon and Vranas about the payments arranged for Byrd-Bennett. In particular, Vranas wrote “Everyone sucks and is greedy”. Worst, in the email sent to Solomon on September 10, 2012, Byrd-Bennett wrote “I have tuition to pay and casinos to visit”. One of the executives wrote other email to Byrd-Bennett about the bonus “If you only join for the day, you will be the highest paid person on the planet for that day” (Beatrice 2). As a result, the evidence found during the investigation of twenty mails and wire fraud counts cost Byrd-Bennett twenty years’ jail for each count and up to 400 years in total. Mayor Rahm Emanuel expresses his feeling in the statement saying that he was “saddened and disappointed to learn about the