In January 2020 I was accepted into Citizens University in College Station, which is a free 13-week program that meets once a week to learn more about the various departments in the city. The sessions focus on the different departments, services, programs, budgets and activities within: City Manager's Office, City Secretary's Office, Parks & Recreation, Water Services, Electric Services, Utility Services, Neighborhood Services, Public Works, GIS, Planning & Development Services, Police, Fire, Municipal Court, Fiscal Services, Public Communications, Community Services, and City Council. With my interest in working in municipal government, Citizens University has allowed me to learn about the various departments and how they are interconnected to make the city operate as a whole. This program is not connected to Texas A&M University, thus I had to take the initiative to fill out the application and this is an extra class I attend that I do not receive university credits for. Due to COVID-19 the program was suspended, but below I have highlighted some of my favorite sessions I was able to attend during the first half of the program.
On February 3rd, 2020 I attended the Citizens University session on Fiscal Services and Utility Customer Service at City Hall to learn about College Station's annual budget. During this session, the Fiscal Services Department described their fiscal management responsibilities which are split up into multiple divisions: Budget, Fiscal Administration and Treasury, Accounting, Purchasing, Municipal Court, and Utility Customer Service. The city employees provided a presentation along with a group activity to demonstrate how the department interacts with other departments during the budget allocation period. In my group, for Parks and Recreation, we were given a proposed budget for the department and had to make cuts and justify which areas we felt were necessary for the department. We then had to present our final budget requests to the council. This activity allowed me to have hands-on practice with dealing with budget cuts, and how to interact with the Fiscal Services Department, the City Council, and other various departments within a city.
On February 24th, 2020 our group met at City Hall in the Council Chambers to learn about the Community Services Department and Code Enforcement. One of the main takeaways I learned in this session was how Community Services was established as a separate department in 2015, shifting off from Planning and Development Services. In College Station, Code Enforcement is a division within Community Services. In my experiences working with the City of Bryan, Code Enforcement works more closely with Planning and Development, which is an interesting observation that even similar cities do not always operate with the same departmental structures. Additionally, as I have already known with my involvement with Elder Aid, the Community Services Department builds external partnerships with private, public, and nonprofit organizations, such as their housing partnerships with Elder Aid, Twin City Mission, Brazos Valley Community Action Programs, and B/CS Habitat for Humanity.
On March 2nd, 2020 our group drove to Carters Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant to learn about the Water and Wastewater Divisions within College Station's Utilities Department. One of the key takeaways from the presentation connects strongly with the concepts discussed in my Urban Sustainability course, such that water conservation is essential. The division has taken great strides toward becoming an innovator for programs that promote water conservation. In a partnership with Texas A&M, the city developed BV WaterSmart in 2010, as a program that focuses on water conservation by reducing the overwatering of landscapes and lawns. This program has educational training videos and since its establishment in 2010, the program has contributed to a cumulative yearly reduction in water amounting to around 2 months of the city's water use. The efforts the city has put in and fostering partnerships with other organizations highlight the city's efforts toward providing great service to its residents.