The City of Sweet Home hosted its first-ever “Citizen’s Academy” on Wednesday, July 24.
The “academy” gives residents an opportunity to learn exactly how the city operates, its structure and what authority it has over matters of local concern.
The class was given a detailed view of government roles and authorities, a general overview of how the city gets money and costs for certain projects, emergency management plans, how to find information, the roles of administrative services staff, how to influence policy direction, how zoning and planning works, city boards and committees, community court, and an overview of the work performed by the police department, public library and public works department.
Interesting takeaways include the following facts: the city only receives .379% (less than half of one percent) of property taxes equal to $49-73 per tax-paying entity or resident, the police department and city get zero dollars from traffic tickets it issues, and the police department will not exist without a voter-supported levy.
The idea for Citizen’s Academy originated from City Manager Kelcey Young, who in her two years here realized many community members are interested in understanding this kind of information.
For example, during her presentation on government roles, Young addressed a question a resident had posed recently about why the city was painting stripes on roads and building parks instead of fixing roads. She explained that the painting project cost a few hundred dollars and building a park costs between $25,000 to $180,000, whereas the cost to fix one mile of road starts at $200,000.
“If we start building parks, we’re increasing our livability,” she said. “When we increase our livability, we have developers who want to come in. When we have developers wanting to come in, we have additional housing. Those houses pay additional property taxes, rates, support our businesses, SDCs and all of the things that have to happen in order to have a healthy infrastructure.”
She further detailed the costs for one mile of road work: $1.5-2.5 million for full depth reclamation, two to three hundred thousand dollars for overlay, and speed tables cost $10,000 each.
The city also took advantage of Citizen’s Academy to inform people about volunteer opportunities through the library, police department, and several city committees and boards.
Melissa Kruzel attended the class because she saw it as an opportunity to get more information about the city.
“I think it’s an amazing idea,” she said. “I’ve never heard of a city doing something like this.”
While she found the nearly three-hour class to be very informative, Kruzel already understood most of the information presented because she actively stays on top of city and local news.
A fresh takeaway for her, she said, was learning more about the Public Works department and how it operates.
Another “student,” Charlie Hawkins, said he wanted to “find out more about what’s going on” and he got out of the academy just about what he expected.
“I got a good look at what city government does,” he said. “City government isn’t what I thought. There’s a lot more complication to it and they don’t really get to do as much as I figured they did.”
More opportunities to attend Citizen’s Academy will be scheduled in the future, and staff expect they will offer more in-depth looks into the depths of city work. People interested in attending the next Citizen’s Academy can stay informed about upcoming classes by watching the city’s Facebook posts or contacting staff at 541.367.8969. The first academy can be watched on the city’s YouTube page at https://bit.ly/SHacad.