- March 28, 2024
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The Ocoee City Commission on Tuesday, Sept. 1, approved changes to its Ocoee Youth Council program.
The program was formed in January 2019, when the commission approved Resolution No. 2019-002. In previous meetings the group adopted bylaws and operational rules that became known as “Exhibit A.”
Via a virtual conference call, OYC chair Chelsea Mendes — an Ocoee resident and dual-enrollee at Dr. Phillips High and Valencia College — brought forth a resolution amending the council’s bylaws (Exhibit “A”) of Resolution No. 2019-010. Those amendments would reduce the membership to no more than nine members and allow membership of up to two non-Ocoee residents who are enrolled in a public or private school within the city. In the resolution, the OYC also asked for the removal of a member who had missed three consecutive regular meetings.
“When I joined the Ocoee Youth Council, I had the opportunity to attend legislative days this past February in Tallahassee, and four of us — along with Ms. (Dorcas) Dillard — learned so much about how much government works and the importance of getting involved in our community,” Mendes said. “However, I was really surprised there were not more students involved in the Ocoee Youth Council.
“I noticed many of the other Florida youth groups had more members than our council,” she said. “I then learned there were students who attended Ocoee High School and applied to the Ocoee Youth Council, but they were rejected because they were not residents of Ocoee.”
Mendes said Dillard, who serves as the program’s coordinator, reached out to 10 other similar groups to ask if this was something that had been done before. Of the 10, eight programs responded back confirming they had non-residents in their programs and even offered their own bylaws and rules for the OYC to get an idea of how their operations were run.
The decision to include these students made sense given they live in the community, Dillard said.
“They’re a part of our school system, so they’re going to do things that are right here in this city,” Dillard said. “And our youth council … is going to focus on activities right here in the city of Ocoee.”
The addition of these two new students also would help the program gain much-needed traction, which it has so far struggled to do, Dillard said in response to a question from Commissioner Rosemary Wilsen regarding the group’s biggest issues.
The program has seven students involved (out of the 15 available spots) before the number was reduced to nine on Tuesday. Currently, the biggest supporter of the OYC has been Ocoee High School, Dillard said.
“We’ve done not only advertising, but the students themselves have spoken at their student government,” Dillard said. “A lot of the students who have interest in city government and finding out about politics. … They’ve just been busy with other activities and sometimes something like this goes on the back burner.”
Mendes offered a solution that would take aim at pulling in interest via popular social media apps.
“I believe a few of the roadblocks are we may not have the social media attraction that most students would like or be attracted to,” Mendes said. “If we committed to some of the social media platforms (such as) Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter — those platforms that kids are consistently on — and if we were to promote that, or the council (promote that) … I believe we could get them more involved.”
Addressing a question about how the city would handle social media by Commissioner George Oliver, city attorney Scott Cookson said it could be done with comments on social media pages turned off. Maintaining a comment section is often tricky and difficult, Cookson said.
The commission approved of the changes unanimously.