Students show poise in mock environment

Deirdre Newman

Newport Beach high school students got a firsthand taste of the

nuances of politics and procedure as they held a mock City Council

meeting, complete with controversial issues and mundane details.

Forty-eight students assumed the personas of various city officials

and debated issues like the John Wayne Airport settlement agreement as

part of Youth Government Day last Wednesday.

While the procedure proved more problematic than the politics, most of

the students showed an adroit grasp of the issues.

“They did a great job and asked great questions, even their procedural

questions were right on target,” said Dave Kiff, assistant city manager.

The event was organized by the city’s Youth Council, a group of 20

high school students that report to the City Council. Corona del Mar High

School sent the most participants, followed by Mater Dei High School and

Newport Harbor High School.The students only had a few hours in the

morning to get briefed about the issues by Mayor Tod Ridgeway before the

official council meeting got underway.

It started off with the nominations and voting for mayor and vice

mayor. Then after some musical chairs, the students got down to business.

The first topic on the agenda was the John Wayne Airport settlement

agreement.

The young council members peppered the students acting as city staff

with questions and took public comments into consideration, before

unanimously endorsing a limited expansion plan known as “Scenario 1,”

following in the flight path of the real City Council.

Other issues of consideration included improving water quality in

Newport Bay and impacts of the city’s Greenlight law.

While the students handled the debates with poise, they quibbled

contentiously over procedural issues during the discussion of water

quality, leading the student mayor, Meera Shukla, to make a motion to

turn off the microphone of student councilman, Razvan Ungureanu, who was

challenging her.

Shukla said she gained a great deal from the mock-council experience.

“At first I was kind of nervous and then became kind of impassioned

about the issues,” Meera said. “I learned a lot from what people were

saying.”

Ungureanu, who came to the U.S. four years ago from Romania, said the

experience provided insight into the inner-workings of local government.

“It helped me understand how the local functions of our government are

approached and dealt with,” Razvan said, adding that he appreciates that

there is more freedom of expression here than in Eastern European

countries.

Ros Bregozzo, an American government teacher at Corona del Mar High

School, said he was impressed with the students’ performance, “especially

considering the amount of the time they had to put it together.”