All Pawtucket All The Time

By Ken McGill, Registrar of Voters

City of Pawtucket 

I’m so late writing this column because last week, at the last minute, I was asked to attend a conference in Philadelphia. The conference, “Building a Blueprint For Change” was about how to better use volunteers to make our city a better place to live. I went with Ed Tetzner from the mayor’s office and we left Wednesday afternoon driving the five hours, in the rain, to the City of Brotherly Love. The conference ran Thursday and Friday and was both educational and an eye opener. If you think Pawtucket’s got problems you should hear about other cities and towns.

On Thursday evening we were invited to Philadelphia City Hall for a reception put on by the mayor. Philadelphia City Hall is a beautiful, massive structure with a statue of William Penn on top. Sandwiches, soft drinks and some beer was served in what was called “The Peoples Room”. The Peoples Room is located just down the hall from the Mayor’s Office and it is dedicated to the residents of Philadelphia. There was a large statue of George Washington in the room and the ceiling was adorned with beautiful paintings. During the reception a loud booming voice said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter.” Everyone stood and applauded as the mayor made his grand entrance into the room. I had the opportunity to shake the mayor’s hand and to sit right next to the podium as he gave his speech.

Michael Nutter is the 98^th Mayor of the City of Philadelphia. He assumed the office on January 7, 2008 and formally was a city councilor from the 4^th District. He is a democrat who first supported Hillary Clinton in last years presidential race and later supported Barack Obama. His main issues include: changes to the City’s Ethics Code, a “Philly First Program” that gives Philadelphia businesses preference in competitive contracts and consolidation of city libraries to save money.

The conference itself was excellent. We met many mayoral aides, planning directors and leaders of non-profits from all over the country. The subjects at the conference included: creating action agenda’s with constituents, media partnerships and the use of social media, faith based non-profits and in times of tight budgets how can you get citizens to volunteer. Ed and I could not attend all the different subjects that they had but we did cover as much as we could.

We left the conference around noon and before we headed home we decided to see some of the sites. We went by Independence Hall, the old City Hall where the first US Supreme Court held its meetings, the Liberty Bell (it’s still cracked) and the grave of Benjamin Franklin. Philadelphia is a fascinating city and for a history buff like myself it’s a place I could spend a week.

Since working for city government I have been on many conferences all over our great country. Some you get great information from and others you wonder why your there. The Building a Blueprint for Change was a great experience to network with other towns and cities and it is my hope to take what Ed and I learned and to apply it to our city. That is why conferences and educational opportunities will always be part of Pawtucket – Your Hometown.

-           Until Next Week.