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Students take to the lectern at Board of Supervisors meeting

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For one day each year in the Sutter County, Calif. board chambers, a new set of younger voices speak from the lectern about local government issues.  

The Sutter County Board of Supervisors launched the Public Business From the Floor Speech Contest to engage students in local government.

“We came about the idea of ‘let’s bring the kids in and give them an opportunity to do what Americans do all the time’ and that is to petition their government,” said Chuck Smith, public information officer for Sutter County.

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Sutter County’s Public Business from the Floor Speech Contest is the recipient of a Best in Category 2020 NACo Achievement Award in the Civic Education and Public Information category.

For the contest, high school students are encouraged to research county issues and advocate a position during a real Board of Supervisors meeting. Ron Sullenger, who chairs the Sutter County Board of Supervisors, has served as a judge for previous contests and said he has heard students speak on a variety of topics ranging from substance abuse to homelessness and even to property exchange agreements.

“Our agenda and our goal is to try to encourage and start students early and get them, hopefully, to realize that they are going to be required to make grown-up decisions sooner or later that affect their parents, their lifestyle, the way the country does business,” he said.

Participants choose a topic that is under the jurisdiction of the county, identify a position or action they wish the board to take, use facts and examples to support their topic and have overall polished speaking skills.

The 20/30 Club of Yuba City- Marysville provides cash prizes of around $1,000 to be split among the top three winners. Supervisors and members from the service club serve as judges.

“It’s a unique way of encouraging the youth to participate,” Sullenger said. “Hopefully if the youth participates, mom and dad will be there to hear their own child and one thing leads to another so it’s a way of stimulating public participation and youthful participation.”

Each contest is covered like any other board meeting, with media outlets in attendance. The meeting is also livestreamed like regular board meetings and each student is given three minutes to speak — the same amount of time allocated to speakers at regular board meetings. 

“It’s not just about giving a speech in a safe place and doing it technically correct,” Smith said. “This is about learning a subject about local government, applying the subject to making an ask.”

The contest is open to any high school student who lives in the county or goes to school in the county. In 2019, 17 students from seven public and private high schools participated in the speech contest.

“We really like to reach the youth,” Smith said. “We’d like them to be engaged in their communities. We would really like them to understand that governments are run by those who show up, so that’s where the concept developed.”

The county works to recruit students for the contest through increased outreach efforts with schools by holding presentations, advertising in the local newspaper and on social media. Smith explained that many students from high school Future Farmers of America chapters participate in the contest because it has an already established speech program.

Sullenger said that one contest specifically stood out to him because he saw a high school principal sitting in the front row cheering on her students.

“When the high school principal takes a couple hours out of her evening, I think that says a lot,” he said. “I was encouraged as a judge seeing the principal participate with her two students. These youngsters hopefully are getting an informational source that will allow them to be objective in their approach to our participation and anything they do.”

Sullenger advised other counties to find a co-sponsor to cover the financial tab for a similar contest.

“It has grown exponentially from there and we hope that the base will continue to expand and the youngsters that participate will not only look at this speech contest as a one-time, one shot ‘I’ll get off the stage and never participate again,’” Sullenger said.

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Problem:

Students often lack engagement and knowledge about county government.

Solution:

Engage with youth through a speech contest to increase community outreach and youth participation in local government.
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