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Campbell hosts high school seniors during annual Civic Day
By EMMALEE C. TORISK
CAMPBELL
Before Friday, Brianna Diaz hadn’t been too familiar with the day-to-day operations of her city.
That’s why the Campbell Memorial High School senior signed up for Civic Day. The annual event allows each participating student to spend the morning shadowing a city official, then the afternoon staging a mock council meeting. About 26 students participated this year.
“I’m here just to see what they do,” said Diaz, a senior at Campbell Memorial High School who plans to study nursing in college.
The event began shortly after 8 a.m. in council chambers at Campbell City Hall. For the first time in Civic Day’s history, the speaker was a statewide officeholder: Josh Mandel, state treasurer.
Addressing the audience, Mandel explained that throughout his career — which has spanned from city council in Lyndhurst, to the Ohio House of Representatives, to the state treasurer’s office — he’s often been met with obstacles.
Many people told him he was too young to run for office and that he should just wait his turn, but this resistance simply motivated him to work even harder. This was one lesson Mandel shared with students: Weaknesses can be overcome with “hard work and sweat.”
In another, he encouraged students to always maintain their integrity, which he defined as “doing the right thing when no one is looking.”
“Someone could take your house. Someone could take your spouse. Someone could take your car,” Mandel said. “But the only person who can take away your integrity is you.”
Mandel also stressed the importance of being transparent, something he said he’s tried to do as state treasurer by creating a database of public-employee salaries on his office’s website. He added that he hopes to put the state’s checkbook online by this summer; this project would allow taxpayers to see checks written by the state for “everything from 27 cents to 27 million bucks.”
“People have confidence in you when you’re an open book,” Mandel said. “I encourage you as citizens to hold me accountable ... for how we’re spending your tax dollars.”
After Mandel’s presentation, which culminated in a question-and-answer session, Diaz spent the first half of the day with JoAnn Sirilla, the mayor’s assistant. Sirilla, who began working at city hall in February, said the city’s annually hosting Civic Day demonstrates its interest in younger residents.
Perhaps the event will spark their interest in one day working for the city in some capacity — including for its school district, as a member of council, or in one of many municipal departments, she said. At the very least, it could encourage residents to become more involved in and aware of what’s happening in their community.
“I love young people, and I think we can learn a lot from them,” Sirilla said. “People are critical of how things are run, until they experience it and know what’s going on. There’s not enough credit given to some of the youth.”
Civic Day in the city dates back at least to the 1950s, with only a handful of years between now and then in which it didn’t take place, said Brian Macala, the city’s law director. He added that participating students are selected by their government and history teachers, and that they’re paired with sponsors based upon their career plans. If a student is interested in law enforcement, for example, he might be partnered with the police chief.
In addition to being beneficial to students, Civic Day also is useful to sponsors. During the mock council meeting, for example, students must prepare a piece of legislation that addresses some issue they feel is pertinent in the city.
Juanita Rich, 4th Ward councilwoman, explained that Friday’s piece of legislation dealt with creating an off-leash dog park in the city. She was impressed and said students seemed to enjoy the opportunity to experience what an actual council meeting might be like.
“It was a good experience for them. It was good for everybody all around to get to talk to the students, to listen to them to see what their concerns were,” Rich said. “It helps us to do our job.”