We have completed our 2019 Citizen's Academy and I will be recognizing our seven community participants with certificates of completion during the March 7 Board of Aldermen meeting.
The 2019 Osage Beach Citizen's Academy was our first academy, consisting of one night per week over the past several weeks. The objectives of the program were to engage the community with city government staff, inspire future participation at the local level, and provide education to our participants on how our local government functions by department on a day-to-day basis to provide our city's services.
We covered a variety of topics which included tours, demonstrations, and other presentations by department personnel. The topics included government overview, budget, finance, HR, and other functions at City Hall, public safety, 911 communications, court, ambulance, planning, building inspection, parks, public works, airports, economic development, and quality of life. Although we had one evening that was affected by bad weather we were still successful in covering all the information.
I want to thank the citizens who chose to spend one evening a week with us for several weeks. I appreciate their engagement and their interest in our local government! I also want to thank the staff for sharing their knowledge!
I plan to hold an academy annually with the next one scheduled for early 2020.
