City of Sugar Hill Youth Council Session
Wednesday, September 20th, 2017 5:30 P.M.
City Hall Council Chambers,
5039 West Broad Street
Sugar Hill, GA 30518
Members in Attendance: Spencer Grace Williams, Kaan Cubukcu, Ethan Shaw, Nida Merchant, Camryn Flores, Laura Ann Acker, Maya Chande, Camden Doker
Meeting called to order at 5:41 pm
City Council candidates Taylor Anderson and Joshua Mantz spoke to the youth council about their platforms and goals.
Mr. Anderson
- Platform of economic development and growth
- Increase productivity through city influence
- Incentivizing and making possible ‘living and working in Sugar Hill’ by bringing jobs to the city and developing infrastructure
- Cites the Suite Spot as an example of how the city can encourage entrepreneurship
- Strong focus on community; desires a pridefulness amongst community members of the community
- Intends to maintain his position on the DDA
- Believes in strengthening and furthering efforts to grow the city and downtown
- Wants to continue his current work through the city towards a strong central hub of activity and productivity
Mr. Mantz
- Platform of transparent and accountable government
- Wants to be accessible to communication from the community members
- Believes in private industry drivers for economic growth rather than government money and employees
- Encourage growth through policies and zonings easier on businesses
- Wants to bring strong and stable jobs to the city
- Supports small businesses, but through laissez-faire tactics
- Wants to attract medium businesses as an opportunity for people who want to work locally with a more dependable and ‘safe’ company
- Wants to market more strongly toward medium sized companies by qualifying our workforce and marketing assets like the Greenway
- As far as ‘transparency and accountability’, wants to market to the community about the fact that city meetings are public, and that elections are going on, because they’re not so obvious at the moment
- Not that the city is hiding anything, just wants more involvement, engagement, and commitment from the general populus rather than just a dedicated minority
- Notes that city events are incredibly well marketed and have great turnout, but in terms of government and voter participation there is a dearth
- Wants a stronger youth presence in the city and thinks a more committed youth council could make that happen, especially when applied as a tool for instilling enthusiasm in our peers
Maya provided the group with a list of messaging app options, along with their pros and cons, and the Youth Council voted to maintain the GroupMe.
Mike and Varessa detailed the Youth Council retreat, which will take place on Wednesday, September 27th. After meeting at City Hall, we will commute to an escape-the-room, and then pizza afterwards.
The Youth Council has been invited to the signed beam installation at 4:30-6:30 on September 25th. The event is VIP; the dress is business casual.
Spencer posited that we could take a trip to Sweet Life Park or the Sugar Hill Greenway. Varessa elaborated, and it was decided that the Council would table a vote on dates to the next meeting.
The council discussed participation in Sugar Rush on October 21st, and decided to volunteer without a booth, with the intent of making a strong presence at the event and doing advertising for both the ambassadors and the winter festival. Taking into a strong conflict with Lanier’s Marching Band, it was expected that the council might have some difficulty with a booth, and elected to make Sugar Rush a Youth Ambassador-oriented event. Nida mentioned she would follow up with Ambassador leaders and determine viability.
Kaan motioned to adjourn the meeting at 7:03, and Nida seconded the motion.
