By MiLee Vogel – City of Sycamore
Today marked the second day of Girls State, and what an experience it was! The main event was finally meeting in breakout rooms with our individual cities. Cholla, Palo Verde, Manzanita, Saguaro, Ocotillo, and Sycamore are the cities represented in this year’s mythical 51st state.
The city of Sycamore, which I was placed in, was composed of around 30-40 delegates. First on the agenda was roll call. After it was ensured that everyone was present, we moved onto elections. Since we weren’t able to meet in person, elections this year are drastically different. Normally in Girls State, delegates who want to run for a certain position, such as Mayor, have to run a campaign and gain a certain number of signatures to run on the ballot. After individuals are chosen on the ballot through the primary election, we would then move onto the general election. This year for each political position, girls volunteered and then a random drawing took place to appoint the various officials.
Each city’s political officials consisted of the Mayor, two Councilwoman, and a Clerk. The Clerk was appointed at the beginning of the meeting, to act as the notary public and the secretary to take official minutes/notes. Once the three remaining positions were filled, the Clerk went through the Oath of Office and they were sworn in.
Our second order of business was for the mayor and councilwomen to appoint a Budget Director and a Planning and Zoning Commissioner with three assistants. The population of each city is determined based off the previous years ending result, however this year this concept was changed. Due to our unique circumstances this year, our cities population sizes were determined by our political officials, with my city of Sycamore coming to a population of 40,000.
With the population out of the way, our time was almost spent. As a group, we tried to quickly discuss a theme for our city, only grasping at ideas of a family-based, economically conspicuous, and sustainable city. And with that, the second day of Arizona Girls State came to an end! What a thrilling ride! Tomorrow we are onto explore county government. County of Kaibab here I come! This is MiLee Vogel, signing off.