Arijhan Yee

Period 5 Mr. Hawkins

US Government
18 September 2015
City Council Meeting Evaluation
I attended the Vacaville Planning Commissioners Meeting on September 15, 2015. They
went through steps for the meeting. They did a roll call making sure all of the commissioners
were present. Next, we stood up to do the Pledge of Allegiance. Then it was communications and
approval of the agenda. After was the most important part which was the Public Hearings. It was
interesting to encounter how things are planned in the city.
The first public hearing was for the Word of Life Ministries. They wanted to establish a
membership organization at 815 Davis Street, which is the old Vacaville Ballet Studio. The issue
at hand was the parking space and how it wouldnt interfere with the other businesss parking. It
was explained that the church only has twenty to thirty members. We were also informed that the
church would only be open on Wednesdays and Sundays on hours where the other businesses
were closed. I found this interesting because the pastor had to think out how he would solve this
big issue before he put it in front of the Commissioners. I feel as if the parking is going to be a
problem when their population in the church grows. The Chairman, Joe Niccoli asked the public
if they had any questions and he asked the fellow commissioners the same thing. They were all
in favor of the church so It was decided in a democratic way.

The second issue was the Merchant Street ADA Sidewalk Improvements. The cause was
to provide people with disabilities safety improvements on sidewalks. The improvements would
be performed on Lovers Lane and extend to West Street. They felt like the lanes caused more
danger for accidents and other things. They also wanted to widen the sidewalk. They wanted to
start construction by the summer of the next year. Some of the questions were if the construction
would interfere with fiesta days. The guy had to explain that they would work around that time
so that it didnt interfere. Im all for making the roads of Vacaville better and safer to drive on. It
was a relief to know that other people think about how to make dangerous intersections and
streets better to drive on.
I think that these meetings are positive because theres more than one opinion on how to
plan things out and what steps that should be taken. The negative for me is that not a lot of the
public come to these meetings so the opinions among the people are very little. I believe they do
allow people to express their opinions and express how they want to go about their ideas. I
thought the process of the meeting itself was very interesting. I had no idea how the city came up
with the ideas for construction or building until I attended this meeting. It was like people were
voting but within their own community. It gives citizens a chance to make their personal
improvements on the city.
City council meetings are a good way for people of the community to democratically be
involved in their city. It is just one more way for people to be able to share ideas and opinions. I
feel that they are important because not only chairmen are making decisions. Regular people are
able to decide how to improve where they live.