Lum 1

Tiffany Lum
Mr. Buescher
American Government, Period 1
29 February 2015
Evaluating the Meeting
The meeting began with a moment of silence, followed by the pledge of allegiance, led by
local Boy scouts. The Mayor then held the approval of the last meetings agenda and minutes. He
then started the presentations and the discussions that went along with them.
Royce Cunningham led the first item of business about water conservation. It was the
monthly update. At the end of January 2016, we reduced our water use by 18.6%, which was
consistent with what happened statewide. Our cumulative water reductions are at 31.2%, which is
below the state mandated 32% reduction. It seems our cumulative reduction will end up at
approximately 30% at the end of February. Regulation will continue through October 2016
depending on amount of rainfall and snowpack in the Sierras. He announced that the new target
for Vacavilles cumulative reduction would be approximately between 28% and 29%. To me, it
seems that our cumulative water conservation percentile is rapidly dropping and we need to keep
up our water conservation efforts, especially since the warmer months arent too far away.
The next item of business was by the Vacaville Housing Authority. They were awarded a
certificate of recognition for outstanding performance in 2015 from the department of Housing
and Urban Development hood, specifically for program utilization.
The next item of business was business from the floor. A citizen brought attention to the
issue of lack of police response to personal property crimes. The mayor turned the citizen to meet
with the police chief. I believe that citizens were allotted enough time because they were open to
more speakers, and the citizen that did speak took a lot of time to express his opinion.

Lum 2
The Chamber of Commerce then gave their Annual report. The Chamber of Commerces
mission is to improve the economic prosperity of the business community by providing leadership,
education and resources. They talked about education forums, citys economic development
roundtable, business, walk and advocating issues that affect business. I was surprised by how
directly the Chamber of Commerce affects high schools. Curtis Hunt then recognized students in
the audience and the programs Gotcha and the Career fair that the Chamber had talked about.
The mayor then praised the Chamber. The Mayor as well as council member Mitch Mashburn also
recognized the students present and the mayor said he was impressed by Buckinghams curriculum
and what they have to offer. It was shocking to me that the officials took time out of their meeting
to not only recognize that student were in attendance, but also asked us more information about
why we were there and where we were from.
City Attorney, Jerry Bolbrecht announced that hed be leaving at the end of July. The
council decides how the new city attorney should be selected. Jerry Holbrecht expressed his
opinion that the Council should consider internal candidates, who each have 20+ years of
experience. The mayor seemed to like this idea as long as there are experts in this field on the
board of interviewers. I believe that the council should interview the candidates, and if that doesnt
work they can go out into the community for additional candidates.
I think the decision in Vacaville are made democratically because there is a vote taken on
each item of business and there is time allotted for those in the audience who would like to offer
their point of view on the issue. The positives of the city council meeting for the community is that
it gives citizens a chance to take their issues to a bigger platform where they can effect change.
However, a negative would be that not enough people actually attend these meetings to make all
decisions well rounded. From this experience, I learned how decisions in our community are
made, as well as more about local programs that Ive witnessed.