Blog Topic 10 - Public Admin: Budgeting & Service Delivery

"[State and local budgeting] is as tangled and intricate as the webs of a thousand spiders on methamphetamines" - Ann Bowman/ Richard Kearney, 2012

I thought that was a vivid way of describing budgeting... I could definitely visualize it better after that.

1) Does you community partner rely on money or services provides by any public entity?

At the moment, PSANDNU does not receive funding from any sources.  Any funds that PSANDNU has or has had came from fundraising or donations.  Being that we are more of a grassroots organization that just started, we have not found a source of funding.  Our current missions, such as our lobby trip to Sacramento, have been self-funded by our members.  This shows how determined and dedicated these students are to the goal we are trying to accomplish.  In the future, we may be able to acquire funding from ASNDNU, but we must first obtain legitimacy.  The next step after legitimacy would be to petition for funds.

2) Are the money and services provided in a consistent and reliable manner or is the community partner subject to periodic application, approval, re-application, etc.?

The currently are no funds.  When we are able to ask for funds from ASNDNU, we must constantly apply for them, seek approval in two forums, then use a school credit card that is allowed out for a period no longer than 24 hours.  This will need to be done every time we are in need of funding, as an organization.  I was told that legitimate groups are allocated a certain amount at the beginning of the year, but I will need to look into this more.

3) How does this consistency, or lack thereof, affect your community partner's operations?

PSANDNU is very prideful, so we have been able to manage to the best of our abilities.  Of course, the lack of funding is holding PSANDNU back from its full potential.  Participation during events like the Sacramento trip has fallen because there were students that were unable to financially commit.  Also, without funding, we lack resources.

4) Do other people or organizations rely on your community partner to provide funding?

Fortunately, no one relies on PSANDNU for funds, because we do not have any.  It would be the equivalent of squeezing blood out of a rock.  Since we are a grassroots organization, we are at the lowest level of the pyramid.

Call 2 Action - Waterdog Lake

This year for call to action day, I aided in uprooting plants that were not indigenous to Waterdog Lake in Belmont.  This is important to maintain the grow because these plants will take over and kill other indigenous plants that are necessary to maintain that ecosystem.  I was accompanied by Jonathan Slocum, Manny Andrade, and Tiffanie Lee.
We were fortunate to work with Jonathan Gervais, the Belmont Parks and Recreation Director that spoke in our class. This call to action day was relevant to the State and Local Government class because we were helping a city entity (Belmont Parks and Recreations) in it's task to preserve the plants in Waterdog lake and remove the plants that are harmful.  This is one of the many tasks that the parks department has.  To help them will save them many hours of much need man power and help the environment, both at the same time. During this time, we experienced how this entity serves the city of Belmont and the multitude of tasks that are required to maintain this large piece of Belmont's property.

Blog Topic 9 - The Judiciary

My community partner, PSANDNU, does not ever have recourse to judicial processes as a way of resolving problems.  Also, my community partner does not involve the prison system in anyway.  Not at this point in its existence anyway.  We select a few missions every semester, problems that concern our community (NDNU) and attempt to address them.  In my community at NDNU, there is not judicial system or prison system, luckily.  There really is no need for either of those systems in a university.  Maybe if PSANDNU tackles an issue in the future, it might involve one or more of those systems, but not currently.

Blog topic 8 - Leadership

As my community partner is the Political Science Association of Notre Dame de Namur University (PSANDNU), we have only interacted with the Associated Students of Notre Dame de Namur University (ASNDNU).  We currently have no voting power or representation in ASNDNU and only can sit in on meetings until our probation is over.  When it ends, we will have the ability to vote on budgets that are trying to pass in the inter-organizational meetings.  We also have members that are currently trying to be involved in the ASNDNU senate as a commuter representative.  ASNDNU would be best described as a special district, as it only governs the student body at NDNU. Beyond that, the PSANDNU has not interacted with any form of government yet.  In reality, they have not even interacted with ASNDNU yet either.

PSANDNU was fortunate enough to be founded by multiple leaders.  The original members all had a desire to stand up and have their voices heard about topics they feel is important.  We acknowledge that we must all play our roles to make the machine that is PSANDNU work.  We have elected Veronica Minnis and Dean Kevin Santos as our Executive Co-Chairs, and they have done excellent jobs impacting our success and development.  Dean has been using his skills acquired as an activist for immigration, to help PSANDNU members learn what it takes to lobby and advocate politically.  He has been the voice and direction.  Dean has expanded us vertically, while Veronica has expanded us horizontally.  Veronica facilitates meetings, maintains/tracks membership records, and all the other dirty work involved.  Veronica has solidified and expanded the foundation of PSANDNU, so that we may move on to bigger and better things.  Of course they both have many other tasks that are very important, even if others may not view them as important.  Again, the other original founders are amazing leaders who perform beyond expectations, but I thought I was proper for this blog assignment to focus on the two that go the most above and beyond.