Uncle Jack's Pictures and Comments From the Citizens Leadership Academy

Mary did a good job yesterday (in her very first published post) describing who spoke, and what we did.

I wanted to mention a few things that I learned.

One, the Mayor is a part time job! But it seems he works like I do. They say he's often in the office before 8, is the last one to leave, an has events and appearances almost every evening. I also learned that he loves momentos of his job as much as he loves being the "happiest mayor in the world"

Two: I have a face made for Radio. :( but I loved being in front of the camera, wasn't nervous, and sound great on the playback. And I got a real kick out of running a camera and turning all the knobs, and wearing the fancy headset which is way cooler than my bluetooth. The control panel for a TV station is more complicated than a jumbo jet. I'd have never been a good TV production "geek".

This Saturday, I'm taking a guided tour of the Lied Animal Shelter. I sure hoping all the previous problems have been straightened out. I've got a lot of questions, and don't intend to let them sugar coat anything.

First Citizen's Leadership Class

Last night Jack and I attended our first class of the Citizen’s Leadership Academy. It was really fun and informative. First of all they fed us a great dinner complete with chocolate chip cookies for desert. Then Dr. Doug Selby, the City Manager explained how the council/manager form of city government works. He was very intelligent and obviously knows what he is doing.

Next the City Auditor, Radford Snelding, explained what his office does and said they mainly are auditing performance and compliance since an independent auditor actually comes in and does the financial auditing. Then Ted Olivas, director of the office of government, community and cultural affairs explained the advocacy, outreach and business functions of his office and told us that he actually goes to the legislature for their biannual sessions to promote the city’s agenda.

All of that was great information and then we got to go for a tour of the 10th floor which included Mayor Goodman’s office. Wow! Jack took several pictures which I’m sure he will post for all to see. Mayor Goodman had told me he was a collector and I sure would love to have some of his fabulous things in my collection. This was such a treat for everyone in the group, especially Jack and me.

Finally we got a complete tour of the city television channel, KCLV, channel 2. It is really a well equipped TV station and it doesn’t cost the taxpayers anything. The money to pay for it comes from part of the franchise fees paid for cable TV. Everyone got to appear both behind and in front of the camera. It was my first time behind one and getting to zoom in and focus on the panel discussion we improvised was truly amazing. They explained about green screens and blue screens and we got to see all the fabulous video and audio equipment.

The class was totally enjoyable and I am so looking forward to the one next week. MJ

The City Of Las Vegas's "Citizen Leadership Academy"

Last night was the meet and greet opening reception. I am very honored to have been accepted into the Academy this year. There's only 25 who were chosen from about 100 applicants.

The Academy is an 8 week course in how government works. We'll get behind the scene tours of City Hall, the jail, the fire department, the sewer plant, the municipal courts, animal shelter, parks and recreation facilities and many more. We alsoWe were also allowed to sign up for extra credit trips, and I'll finally get to do ride alongs with a metro officer, and a code enforcement officer.

Each week, I'll be reporting on who we meet, what we saw and what we learned. One of the cities goals for conducting the academy in the first place is to develop civic leaders who can help spread the knowledge. I'm looking forward to being able to share what I learn with you.

Watch for it every Wednesday.

2 Very Vintage Vegas residents chosen for the "Citizen Leadership Academy"

Our favorite lifelong downtown resident Mary Alderman, and your intrepid blogger Jack LeVine have been selected for 2 of the seats in this years Citizen Leadership Academy. 25 seats were available, and there were over 60 applicants.

The academy is an 8 week, 10 session workshop to teach us how the City of Las Vegas actually works. We'll get to tour the downtown, the sewage treatment plant, the KCLV tv studio, a fire station, regional justice center and jail, and lots of other things that we don't normally get to see behind the scenes.

We'll get to meet all the department managers and staff, city councilpersons, mayor and the people who actually run the city.

We'll be doing a weekly post of what we learned, and passing on to our readers everything of interest.