By LYNETTE SOWELL-STEVENS
Cove Leader-Press
Class #3 of the Copperas Cove Citizen Leadership Academy wrapped up eight weeks of seminars and were recognized at the Copperas Cove city council meeting on Tuesday.
The class ran from August 6 through September 24 with a total of 13 participants.
During the eight weeks, the attendees received insight into day-to-day operations of the various local city departments and government services.
Each of the evenings featured a different city department that talked about what they do in their jobs. They were also able to answer questions one-on-one.
During the final session, the class heard about the Copperas Cove Senior Center, Parks & Recreation, Keep Copperas Cove Beautiful, and Public Relations.
The group had the opportunity to ask questions regarding the senior center, its activities, and who can receive services, and discussed the need for volunteers.
Jeff Stoddard, Director of Parks & Recreation answered questions about the golf course.
Along with the classes, the students attended a city council workshop and a city council regular meeting. The class will receive certificates of completion at a future city council workshop.
Victor Miranda is one of the class members and shared something he learned that he didn’t realize before.
“I gained an appreciation for the city employees. They are spread very thin, and they don’t have enough employees to do everything that they do, and they still do a phenomenal job,” he said.
Dana Wall was another class member.
“One thing that I’ve really walked away with is knowing that the city already has a private firm that oversees the budget, before it even hits council or any of those individuals, they’ve already rotated out a staff of seven different people that have looked at it throughout the year, so I do believe that that is one of the biggest misconceptions in our community is that we don’t already have outside eyes already paying attention to these things,” said Wall.
Letitia Rollock described herself as a “big advocate.”
“I always write stuff on Facebook. A lot of my friends already know that. I was actually going to publicly put something out in reference to this leadership class on what I’ve learned about the city government and everything,” said Rollock. “But it enlightened me to understand, as a community, especially when we had that water crisis, of how we came and pulled together.”
She said she was a military brat and has lived everywhere and has been in areas where they didn’t have some things for days or weeks, and they had learn how to adapt and figure it out.
“I’m going to write something from the heart of how I feel and the things that I’ve learned and like that, and so I’m hoping that people in Killeen, Harker Heights, San Antonio, they will see that this is an amazing city,”
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