THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 14, 1995 TAG: 9505120223
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JANE HARPER, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 217 lines
IN SOME WAYS, it was a Chesapeake City Council meeting like countless others. Council members grilled staff for more details. Speakers talked well beyond their allotted time. And there were a few light-hearted moments which broke the tension of intense debate.
What was unusual, however, were the council members, mayor and city staff who were holding court this day. In a nutshell, they were much younger and a little more confused than usual.
Indeed, they were high school seniors, all selected from area schools to participate in the 11th annual Mayor's Youth Day. The event was held May 5 with about 200 seniors from seven public and private high schools playing the parts of local government officials for a day.
Teachers and administrators selected students based on academic achievement, leadership skills and extracurricular activities. Each was paired with a ``mentor'' - an elected official or city employee - with whom the students spent the day before taking their place inside City Council chambers.
Most students seemed to take the appointment seriously, looking professional in sport jackets and ties and dresses and bows. A few, however, stuck to usual student dress: jeans and loose shirts.
Mayor William E. Ward described Youth Day as a hands-on way for students to learn how their city works and, in some cases, doesn't work.
``The most important function of government is local government,'' Ward told the students. ``It's the part of government that touches your lives the most.''
The students then scattered throughout the municipal center to their respective departments. They spent the morning learning about their mentors' jobs and responsibilities and then went to lunch with them.
In the afternoon, a mock School Board meeting was held, followed by an imitation City Council session. Students also acted as public speakers before the council, serving up a host of problems that members were supposed to solve or at least try to answer.
As a formal agenda, the stand-in council members were asked to consider two items: How should Chesapeake, the fastest growing city in Virginia, expand city services without raising taxes; and whether the city should develop more programs to combat drug and alcohol use among teens.
Regarding new drug programs, the council surprised its audience by overwhelmingly blocking more spending, siding with speakers who argued that local government already pays enough and that parents, not schools or City Hall, should do more.
In coping with growth, student speakers had plenty of ideas - taxes on developers and a one-time fee for new residents were among the suggestions - but the students did not reach a conclusion. Instead, they simply voted to consider ways to pay for infrastructure needs without increasing taxes, but did not specify how to do that.
Josh Gerloff, president of Great Bridge High School's Student Council Association, had the honor of being mayor for the day. Decked out in a blue blazer, khakis, penny loafers and a striped bow-tie, Gerloff appeared right at home as he walked into the mayor's spacious office and leaned back in the high-back chair behind Ward's desk.
Asked what he hoped to learn during the day, Gerloff said, ``Well, I know I'm going to run the city and learn a little about local government. In our (advanced placement) government class at school we learn a lot about state and national government, but not local government.''
Gerloff will attend Notre Dame University in the fall, where many of his family members went to college. He hopes to get into medical school and become an orthopedic surgeon, like his uncle. He's also interested in politics and has been involved in a high school model General Assembly program, in which he acted as a delegate one year and state senator two years.
``I'd like to actually get involved in public policy and correct things,'' Gerloff said. ``(Elected office) is a sort of hands-on job, instead of just sitting back and complaining.''
Ward, a history professor at Norfolk State University, who has been mayor for five years, said it was refreshing to meet young people so interested in the political process.
Growing up in rural Charlotte County, Ward said all he thought about at that age was ``getting off the farm.'' He considered becoming a lawyer, but such opportunities for young black men in the 1950s were limited. So he went into teaching, eventually earning a Ph.D. degree.
His interest in politics wasn't sparked until the civil rights movement in the 1960s. He managed campaigns for the city's first two elected black councilmen before deciding to run for office himself.
``This is the time they should be becoming involved,'' Ward said of the high school seniors. ``At 18 they can vote, and yet one of the biggest disappointments today is the lack of young voters.''
There seemed to be no lack of interest among participating students on this day. Several said they hope to run for office some day.
Delvon Key, a senior at Oscar F. Smith High School, was cool and confident as she argued her positions during the mock School Board meeting, where she served as vice chairwoman. Later, at the mock City Council meeting, she stood tall and spoke authoritatively when she addressed the council as a speaker. When Gerloff, the mayor for the day, tried to cut her off when the time buzzer sounded, she curtly informed him that she was wrapping up her remarks.
``This was a breeze,'' Key said afterward. ``I'd love to do it again. I wasn't nervous at all.''
She plans to attend the University of Virginia in January and will major in English. Afterward, she hopes to go to law school and would like to be ``a senator or something like that.''
Another student who seemed to relish the spotlight was Kristen Fournier of Great Bridge High School. Fournier repeatedly grilled mock speakers and city staff, demanding that they supply details to her questions.
``This is what I'm interested in doing,'' Fournier said, adding that she'd like to be a city council member or perhaps even a state senator someday.
Fournier, who plans to major in political science at the University of Virginia in the fall, said it was her mentor, Councilman John M. de Triquet, who had encouraged her to ask the tough questions.
``He really prepared me and got me pumped up to talk and ask questions,'' Fournier said. ``He really made me feel comfortable, and I wasn't nervous at all.''
One student who caught one of Fournier's tougher questions was Curtis Buyrn, also of Great Bridge High School. When Fournier asked someone representing the budget office to explain the costs of various infrastructure plans, Buyrn, the only student assigned to that office, was forced to make that lonely walk to the podium. His predicament soon offered a little comic relief.
``Could I have just a couple of minutes?'' Buyrn asked Fournier as he shuffled through papers, sparking laughter from fellow students. ``Maybe you could go on to another topic while I do that.''
When Buyrn found his answer, Fournier shot back another question. And again, he asked for ``a couple more minutes,'' sparking more laughter and some sympathetic sighs from the audience. City Manager James W. Rein then came to Buyrn's rescue, slipping him a note with the answer, which brought more laughter to the session.
But the poor budget officer would get his revenge. When student Councilman Donald Harper of Great Bridge High School asked Buyrn if $3.5 million in unallocated funds could go for infrastructure, Buyrn gave up and simply responded, ``Hey, why not?''
He had hit upon something. Soon it became a game among student staffers to find clever ways to avoid questions they didn't have answers for. When student City Manager Dee Moody of Indian River High School was asked a difficult question by Fournier, for example, she responded that her office would get back to the council member with that information in a couple of weeks. The tactic won convincing approval from the audience.
Student Assistant City Attorney Bryan Curtis of Great Bridge High School got around one question shot his way by saying cooly, ``It's a very complex issue, and it will require extensive research.'' That, too, won applause.
In fact, the council members asked so many questions that Gerloff eventually had to cut them off so that they could finish in time to catch their buses back to school.
Confusion seemed to take over at times during the City Council session and the School Board meeting that took place before it. Jeannine Simpson of Indian River High School, for example, had been assigned the role of deputy school superintendent, but judging from her actions, she clearly would have preferred a seat on the School Board.
When student Board Chairman Kristen Vincent of Indian River High School called for a vote, Simpson raised her hand, forgetting that the deputy superintendent doesn't vote.
Simpson ducked her head and laughed when reminded of it by a colleague. But that embarrassing moment apparently didn't have much effect; Simpson raised her hand again when the next vote was called.
``I'm obviously on the wrong side of the table,'' she said with a smile.
Chesapeake School Superintendent C. Fred Bateman said afterward that, despite a few mistakes, he thought the students did well.
``These are some serious kids,'' Bateman said, noting how the student playing him for the day, Annie Ashley of Deep Creek High School, is valedictorian of her class. ``I've had student superintendents over the years that I've had to whisper in their ears (during the mock School Board meeting.) I didn't have to do that with Annie. She knew what she was doing.''
``I was impressed with their thought process,'' said Board Chairman Maury Brickhouse. ``These kids were really thinking.''
Brickhouse also was impressed with how quickly they dealt with the business before them. ``We never finish that fast,'' he said.
With only a small number of high-profile positions available, most students played government officials in city departments, such as Public Works, Planning, Utilities and Inspections.
There clearly were some posts more coveted than others. Two of the more popular assignments were in the sheriff's department, where students got a tour of the jail, and in the police department, where mock cops rode in a patrol car and watched a demonstration of the department's K-9 dog unit.
``I think it was just good luck,'' Lewis Pulley of Greenbrier Christian Academy said of his assignment as sheriff for the day. ``I know some people who got assigned to the library and they said, `Man you really lucked out.' ''
When asked what he was looking forward to most, Pulley said, ``Other than lunch, I guess the jail (tour).'' During his visit to the City Jail, Pulley had an opportunity to feel what it's like to be locked in a cell.
Garry Smith of Oscar F. Smith High School was allowed to choose his assignment for the day. He picked the police department.
``I figured this would be one of the most exciting things,'' Smith said.
``It's kind of cool,'' said Smith's friend Cameron Midgett, also of Oscar F. Smith, as they took a tour of the Public Safety Building. Among the highlights of the tour: various samples of confiscated narcotics and a set of human fingers floating in a jar. The fingers, it was learned, had been cut from a drowning victim to try to identify him through fingerprints.
Midgett said he chose the police department because he may want to be a policeman. He was looking forward to his ride in the patrol car.
While all students may not have received the assignment they wanted, they all appeared happy just to have the opportunity to participate.
Carey Stafford of Great Bridge High School, who served as a School Board member for the day, perhaps summed up the experience best when she said, ``It was much more fun than school.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
[Color Photo]
THE VIEW FROM THE INSIDE
Lewis Pulley
Photos, including the cover, by PETER D. SUNDBERG
Josh Gerloff, president of Great Bridge High's Student Council
Association, had the honor of being mayor for the day. Gerloff
appeared right at home in the office of Mayor William E. Ward,
left.
Bryan Johnston of Western Branch and Dee Moody of Indian River
confer with City Manager James W. Rein.
Officer T.L. Riggs, a fingerprint expert, gives a tour of his
department.
Students view confiscated drug accessories in the narcotics
division.
by CNB