What’s your favorite color? What’s your favorite food? What do you like most about being Mayor of Minot? What do you like least? These were all questions that Mayor Mark Jantzer answered in the first schedule Conversation With The Mayor held at North Plains Elementary school on Friday, January 9th.
According to Alyssa Kelly, School Liaison Program Manager “Dr. Amanda Capote, Music Teacher at North Plains Elementary School, is pioneering this program. It is designed to provide military-connected students with the unique opportunity to engage directly with the Mayor of Minot. Through open dialogue, students will learn more about local government, share their experiences as military children, and build stronger connections between our school, the community, and local leadership. The Purpose and Goals: Civic engagement, connection, empowerment, education, and community partnership.”
In his first comments Mayor Jantzer explained his journey to being elected as Mayor of Minot. “I was on City Council and was appointed by the council as acting Mayor. Then I was elected to the position of Mayor replacing the former mayor who had resigned. Finally, we had an election to determine who would be Mayor in August of last year. I had to gather signatures to get my name on the ballot and run against 3 other candidates. I was elected Mayor on August 5th, and now we will have another election in June to see if the citizens of Minot who elected me the first time want me to keep my job (as Mayor)” Mark told the students.
Much of what Mayor Jantzer explained in his opening remarks was City Government 101. Mayor Jantzer explained the services that a city like Minot provides to its’ citizens including police and first protection. Other service like running water and garbage and recycling collections. But you could see that although they were somewhat interested in the job of Mayor, their real true interest was in asking questions of Mayor Jantzer who systematically orchestrated a question/answer period that took up much of the hour Jantzer would spend talking with the kids.
By random choice, the first student question was “What is your favorite color?” “Well,” answered Jantzer “I guess my favorite color is kind of a blue, sky blue.” There were tougher questions “What is the hardest thing you do as Mayor.” The answer revolved around the fact that Minot has over 50,000 citizens “and they don’t all agree and so it isn’t easy to please all the people at any given time” said Jantzer. The example the Mayor used was recycling “where some people are in total support of recycling, and others think it’s dumb and a waste of time and too expensive.”
One of the questions asked what Mayor Jantzer does at City Hall which the mayor answered with examples and an invitation for the students to arrange a field trip to City Hall for a tour.
One of the final questions about the distance between the City of Minot and Minot Air Force Base allowed Mayor Jantzer to talk about the relationship between Minot and the Minot Air Force Base, and how important that friendly relationship is.
Finally, the question that perhaps brought as much thought as any “What is your favorite food?” After a bit of through the Mayor came up with “probably beef spareribs” which brought a few laughs from the audience.
There was time at the end of the question and answer session for a few one on one questions, photos, and of course a few hugs and thank yous from appreciative students and teachers.
