After being introduced we discussed our homework of attending a local government board meeting. The meetings clearly provided the class with an idea of what goes on in our local governments. We then got a great deal of information about the City of Merced. The City of Merced is a full service city made up of about 500 employees and has an elected council made up of 7 members; Mayor, Mayor Pro-Temp and 5 at large council seats.
Jess Brown from the Merced County Association of Governments then stopped by to discuss the many transportation projects that MCAG is overseeing. MCAG also maintains a GIS system that is available to all members. He spoke about how construction of most transportation projects is often the quickest part of the project taking only 1-2 years while a project will take 5-7 years or more to get through the planning stage. City of Merced Mayor Ellie Wooten was the next to address the class. She spoke candidly about the city is currently facing and took questions.
Next the group traveled to the Merced Sun-Star for lunch and a guided tour. Mike Tharp, the Staff Editor of the Merced Sun-Star spoke to the group about the real and serious challenges facing the newspaper industry, introduced us to a few reporters & staff and showed us how the Sun-Star operates.
Our next stop was a tour of a few of the Merced County Administration offices as well as some face time with Supervisor Deidre Kelsey. Supervisor Kelsey explained the roles a county supervisor plays, both in the office and in the district. One thing is for certain, a supervisor’s time is often allocated and we were appreciative to have the opportunity to share some of that time.
Our final stop was at Radio Merced, a local studio that consists of 5 stations: KABX “Oldies 97.5 FM”, KLOQ “Radio Lobo 98.7 FM”, KNAH “Hank FM 106.3”, KBRE “The Bear 92.5 FM” and KYOS “News/Talk 1480 AM. After a tour by Matt Cone the class was interviewed by Robert Henson of KYOS for the Monday morning broadcast. I was actually able to here the interview on my way to work this morning.
