Wenatchee City Council approves creation of Junior City Council

a couple of local students to come before the council and ask for a vote on establishing something that’s been a big endeavor for them: The creation of a junior city council.

Maybe they had an audience that was already leaning their way due to a little occupational bias, but their request was received, voted on and ultimately approved by the council, complete with a location and time for meetings.

Luisanna Esquivel and Alex Reeg of Wenatchee High School, along with their AP Comparative Government teacher Scott Tiedeman and City Council member Charlie Atkinson, conceived the idea and brought it to City Hall on Thursday night.

Esquivel, an incoming senior at the school, is the Washington State vice president of finance for the Family, Community, and Career Leaders of America (FCCLA), a student-led organization that she says has taught her the importance of advocating for student voices and encouraging young people to become leaders.

Last January, she met with councilmember Atkinson after a council meeting that she attended. They talked about their shared passion for civic engagement, and the conversation about creating an initiative to advise the City Council with representative voices from the diverse students throughout Wenatchee. That idea became the vision for a junior city council, which would be comprised of Wenatchee’s young leaders who not only are committed to making positive change in their community, but also pursuing their own personal growth.

Atkinson then recruited fellow councilmember Mayra Navarro Gomez, who wound up pouring her own time and energy into the project as well. But Esquivel describes it differently:

“The creation of a junior city council is more than just a project,” she said. “It’s an opportunity to empower the next generation, to build stronger connections between youth and government, and to create a lasting culture of civic engagement.”

Esquivel asked the council for their support, then handed the microphone over to Alex Reeg, also an incoming senior. Reeg has a background in engagement with others as well, including mission work on a trip to Arizona with adults and other students and a giant effort with 10,000 other teens in Florida to create care packages for people in need.

He says that in addition to finding his own fulfillment in both large- and small-scale efforts to improve communities, he’s also discovered just how many young people share that deep desire to have their voices heard and make an impact themselves.

“I believe wholeheartedly that youth are not just the next generation, but the generation of now. Giving them a seat at the table is vital, not only for the future, but for the present,” Reeg said.

It all started when Tiedeman tasked them with going out into the community for civic engagement. That led to attending city council meetings, including one that would culminate in asking a question of the council: What else could they do besides be in clubs at school? Atkinson had seen a junior city council in Auburn, WA, and he said he’d be interested to see something like that here in Wenatchee.

Esquivel and Reeg then brought that question back to Mr. Tiedeman’s class, where they met overwhelming approval, and they were able to get it all started with the help of the city council and Mayor Mike Poirier.

The pair says that their council will be parliamentary, just like the actual city council, in terms of introducing action items and allowing for public input — in other words, says Reeg, “A mock city council as much as possible.”

If all of that sounds just impossibly professional and organized for a couple of teenagers, it certainly didn’t surprise Wenatchee’s City Council on the 10th: To applause and thanks, they approved the junior city council, to meet there in Council Chambers at City Hall, once a month on a Thursday.

Watch for incredible things to come from these young people. Reeg is absolutely correct when he says that the youth aren’t just the next generation, but the generation of “now.” The demographic for civic engagement has been trending younger for years, and here in Wenatchee, we’re now going to see it in action.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media