Sean C. Morgan
Mayor Tim McQueary appointed city councilmen Bob McIntire, Jim Gourley and Craig Fentiman to help City Manager Craig Martin develop a youth advisory council last week.
Jim Bean was appointed as an alternate.
“They’ll help me interact with the youth and develop the actual structure and framework for how the youth advisory council will function,” Martin said.
The City Council has been supportive and interested in forming a youth advisory council, Martin said. It is a priority among the council’s goals.
“It’s been talked about for many years,” Martin said. “I think it’s a great opportunity for the youth. There’s a lot of energy there. To me, the opportunity to tap that energy is just really, really great.”
Three members of Nancy Ellis’ high school civics class attended the council meeting and told the council they were interested in starting the youth council. Discussion about the youth council started between Martin, Ellis and her class last month.
The youth in Sweet Home have issues and concerns of their own, Martin said. Among the ones identified at last week’s council meeting were the proposed skate park and underage tobacco use.
There are a variety of ways to structure the advisory council, Martin said. The youth council could form as a “shadow council” with a mayor and a total of seven members or it could be a diverse, 15-member council aimed at reflecting the ideas of middle school and high school students.
He would like to make sure interested youths, the council and he are all looking at the same outcomes.
The group, including 14 students, met for the first time on Wednesday at City Hall and talked about what happened at the city council meeting on Tuesday night.
They talked about the expectations of the advisory council, including bringing a youth perspective to issues that affect the community, giving feedback to the council and considering issues raised by the council.
The youth advisory council may also develop community service projects of its own, Martin said. He provided a cursory explanation of the budgeting process and how the youth council would secure a budget of its own.
“I would envision that some sort of support would be there just like we support the other committees we have,” Martin said.
They also received copies of the city’s charter and ordinances dictating City Council procedures and responsibilities.
“They did talk about making efforts to have diverse representation in the group,” Martin said. The students though allowing members ages 12 and up would be good representation of the community’s youth.
Tuesday night’s council meeting presented what Martin called a “teachable moment,” he said. The three youths there saw a representative of Oregon Crafted talk about its efforts to develop an “art trails system.”
Oregon Crafted is a system to cooperatively market artists, artist studios and galleries in Linn, Lane, Benton and Lincoln counties. The organization will produce a booklet that highlights art studios, galleries and other venues that feature local artists’ works to make it easy for travelers to locate local crafts people.
Oregon Crafted presented its program to the council just to introduce itself to the community, but it raised a point for the youth present.
“How do you make a decision whether it’s something you should pursue?” Martin said. Visitors sometimes seek council support or funding for projects.
In this case, the group was simply introducing itself, Martin said, but it raised the idea of decision making.
The youths were scheduled to visit City Hall again this week, and Martin anticipated meeting with Ellis’ class again to formalize the new advisory council.
To complete the establishment of the youth advisory council, the City Council will need to pass a resolution.