LEADS First Issue Day - Community & Government

Our first Issue Day was awesome! We focused on both community organizations and government entities (County and local municipalities), and then looked at where the two intersect by examining public/private partnerships.

The day started at One Bergen County Plaza, the County office building. Dennis McNerney, the Bergen County Executive, was our keynote speaker, and talked to the group about his position as County Executive and the challenges and opportunities he sees for Bergen County in the future.

Mr. McNerney was followed by a lively panel of elected and appointed officials: Valerie Vaineri Huttle, Assemblywoman, 37th District; Rose Heck, Mayor of Hasbrouck Heights and former Assemblywoman, 38th District; and Elizabeth Randall, former Freeholder and Commissioner, NJ Board of Public Utilities. All three gave us a candid view of life as an elected official, and all three emphasized that respect, concern for community and PASSION are the keys to getting things done - not party politics.

Class members toured the County building, and met several department heads and Freeholders. After the tour and over lunch, we heard from representatives of the Citizen's Campaign (www.jointhecampaign.org) about how to run for elected office, seek appointed office or get involved in the County party organizations. Although we have a school board member and a candidate for town council (just elected) in the class, most of our Bergen LEADers learned a lot about what's needed to mount a political campaign. (We donated leftover breakfast and lunch food to Table to Table, a community-based food rescue program that collects prepared and perishable excess food and delivers it to organizations that feed the hungry - www.tabletotable.org).

In the afternoon, our group broke into teams and visited eight area non-profit organizations: Center for Food Action, Bergen County CAP, bergenPAC, YMCA of Greater Bergen County, Heightened Independence & Progress, Bergen Family Center, Shelter Our Sisters and Women's Rights Information Center. We do have several non-profit professionals in the class, but for those who are not privy to how much non-profits do with very limited resources, the visits were real eye-openers.

Everybody met back up at the Volunteer Center for a fascinating debrief session - hot topics of conversation were the economy and how it's affecting area non-profits, and the idea of shared services vs. "home rule" for non-profits.

All in all - a great day!





For more information on these photos, click here.