Ashly Day

American Gov.
Mr. Hawkins
12/5/2014
Attending a city council meeting
On November 20, 2014 I attended my second city council meeting, this time I had an
idea on what to expect. I found my seat and proceeded to walk up to the front of the
room. I introduced myself to Joe Niccol, he signed my paper acknowledging i was
attending. He then asked me various questions, What School I went to, what grade, and
who my teacher was. He was very official and polite. I proceeded to take my seat and
noticed that approximately 30 people were attending the meeting.
After sitting I wrote down five of the city council members names: James Woosely,
Brett Johnson, Mary Page, Shanna Fraser, and Jill Lysen. Te leader of the meeting was
Joe Niccol. Joe than got everybodys attention and started the meeting. He started by
stating the issues that were going to be discussed: policy plan amendment and Pacific
Plaza East planned program.
At point during the meeting the disused putting up a sign down town they would be
like a screen slide show kind of thing, projecting different events going on in Vacaville. I
was thinking okay this is simple, I think it would be a great idea. But the city council

members had a different opinion. They did not like the idea because they thought it was
too big and our be taking up to much space. The man that was the other side of the
podium argued back and forth with the city council members for roughly thirty minutes.
Many different opinions were put out and shut down.
What suppressed me most about the meeting was how respectful the city council
members were of other peoples time. Many people rambled on and on and they just sat
there and let them voice their opinion. It got to a point a few times where they had to cut
some people off but they did it very professionally and respectfully. Going to these
meetings was definitely a good learning experience, if I had the option to go again I
would.