Students Grade City Council's Performance

Four Mira Costa students took to the podium in the City Council chambers Tuesday and gave the city an earful.

Junior Ben Whistler, sophomores Suzanne Caflisch and Zachary Kay and freshman Adam Gerard gave a final presentation to city officials at the tail-end of a months-long program called the Costa-Council Project. The students have been attending council, commission and task force meetings and reporting back to elected officials during a monthly meeting at the high school. In their presentation, the students assessed the triumphs and pitfalls of the city's government.

The city's handling of the Sand Dune Park compromise impressed Caflisch, who "loved that [the council] made a plan that really addressed everybody," though she questioned the restrictiveness of the approved reservation system.

Kay was critical of the length of City Council meetings.

"It's really unrealistic for anyone to actually be able to stay here until 11 or 12 because they have responsibilities, like a wife, kids and a job," Kay said, making no mention of homework. He suggested starting and ending the meetings earlier and "streamlining the formality process a little bit."

Councilwoman Portia Cohen, who laid plans for the project during her nine-month term as mayor in 2009, has described the program as a way to encourage students to learn in "real time" about the inner-workings of municipal government. She and Councilman Wayne Powell have been sitting in on the lunch hour sessions at the high school. Though the program was initially made up of about two dozen Mustangs, only four were able to keep up with the time commitment demanded.

History teacher Andrew Caine, who led the project at Mira Costa, has said he wanted the students to see how messy a process democracy really is. Unable to make Tuesday's meeting, Caine can take pride in their persuasive requests for City Hall to tidy up its business.