The most fun I have had on City Council is to conduct a city hall tour and kids’ council meeting for elementary school kids. Kids can be from Kindergarten to 5th or 6th Grade and they never fail to both amuse and astound me. It is also a blast to run into a teenager who remembers you from their class visit.
We start in the lobby and go down to the Mayor’s office where I talk about a few things there: The photo of downtown from the 1920s. “Wow, a hundred years, that’s a long time.” The guitar statues used to raise money for when Mayor Shinn gathered up thousands of them, called it Concordstock, to set a World Record of people playing a single song on a guitar.
Then we walk down the hall toward the legal offices’ wing, the Ansel Adams photos and the map of the city from 1911, stopping off at the councilmembers office where the four desks are that are used by the Councilmembers. The desks always display a great range of organization, from just piles of papers in disarray with boxes of files by the chair, to pristine clean desktops. I ask which desk looks like their room?
In the legal conference room, which is lined with law books, I talk about the Internet and the way people do research with actual books.
Back down the main hall we travel to the Garden Conference room where the collection of artifacts from our Sister City in Japan: Kitikami. The Samurai Helmet and the masks that they wear in their world-famous sword dance is always a hit.
We finish off the Admin building with a visit to the clerk’s wing where they can see the Vault: a room where we keep original documents going back to 1905. Here, the peculiar rolling shelves are compacted on one side of the room but then can be rolled out to allow for one aisle in the room to get access to them.
Then off to the City Council Chambers we go where they do a council meeting. The scenario for the elementary kids is to pick a mascot for the city since we do not have one.
I ask the teacher to select five students to sit as council members on the Dias. One becomes the Mayor, another the Vice Mayor, and the other three are councilmembers. Their job is to listen to the suggestions of the kids and then the recommendations of the three kids picked to be the Staff.
The Treasurer explains which one costs the most and which cost the least. The Attorney comments on what the dangers are, legally or otherwise. And the City Manager states where they are going to keep it or display the image.
The other kids then take turns coming to the podium, giving their names and what they recommend and why. The actual city clerk keeps the record of the mascots suggested.
Some of the recent recommendations were:
“A shark, because it swims in water.”
“A monkey because they are funny.”
“A parrot, I have a parrot.”
“A dinosaur, because everyone likes dinosaurs.”
“An American Flag because it is our country.”
“A lion because that is the mascot of our school.”
Some fun comments from those playing the staff were:
“Parrots don’t eat much, but elephants do.”
“Lions eat people!”
“We could put the koala bear in the trees outside.”
The five-member council then has to pick one of the suggested mascots and say why they like it. Then comes a vote in which it takes three votes to pass. In all the years, only once did they pick one on the first try.
The city clerk narrows it down to two or three options and we go to the next round and finally a third round. It has never taken more than three rounds. The Mayor uses the gavel, (they all love banging it to start and stop) and the council members vote one at a time from left to right, then the Vice Mayor and finally the Mayor.
There has never been a case in the last 12 years of the kids picking the same mascot, some of which were: Bunny Rabbit, Dog, Cat, Parrot, Giraffe, Unicorn, Dragon, Panther, Cougar, Koala Bear, Lion and Eagle. This year, they picked the monkey.
I always end with a strong reminder that they are learning in school the most important basic skills of writing and speaking since “Government is either listening to you, or to someone else. So, speak up, write, act and vote.”
The views here are not related to any school curriculum, which is unfortunate since all schools should bring their kids to city hall. Suggestions on mascots can go to EdiBirsan@Gmail.com