By Doug Hissom Special to OnMilwaukee.com Published Jul 18, 2007 at 5:14 AM

The Milwaukee Common Council’s Youth Council hasn’t met this year for one very good reason: lack of youth. Led in concept in 2004 by Ald. Joe Davis, the council met for the first time during the 2005-‘06 school year. But it didn’t happen last year.

After a dearth of applications came in last fall, the application process was extended a second time to February, but still too few applied. And now the Youth Council remains dormant.

“I won't speculate as to cause, because, frankly, none have been identified -- despite more than a little introspection,” offers Jim Owczarski, the Common Council Records Manager, who oversees of the Youth Council.

He suggests that contracting with a different outreach group this year to find youth -- Strive Media rather than Urban Underground -- may have had something to do with the results. The next plan is to set up a “think group” of community based organizations that will offer recommendations on how to reach youth interested in becoming part of a faux legislative body “where they live.”

Owczarski remains highly positive about the Youth Council experience. The 15 members represent each aldermanic district and deal with some legislative issues.

“One of the terrific things about the MYC is that it really turned into a legislative body,” he says. “We had remarkable success our first time around. The previous term's president, Arlee Vang from Hamilton High School, is about to head for Georgetown on a full scholarship.”

No more nooners: Heading to the hotel for a quick nooner would be outlawed in the City of Milwaukee if Ald. Michael Murphy has a say. Murphy is proposing the city ban hotels, motels and rooming houses from renting rooms by the hour.

His plan would also ban hotels from renting the same room more than once in a day. The measure is being heard by the Common Council Licenses Committee this week.  

Doug Hissom Special to OnMilwaukee.com
Doug Hissom has covered local and state politics for 20 years. Over the course of that time he was publisher, editor, news editor, managing editor and senior writer at the Shepherd Express weekly paper in Milwaukee. He also covered education and environmental issues extensively. He ran the UWM Post in the mid-1980s, winning a Society of Professional Journalists award as best non-daily college newspaper.

An avid outdoors person he regularly takes extended paddling trips in the wilderness, preferring the hinterlands of northern Canada and Alaska. After a bet with a bunch of sailors, he paddled across Lake Michigan in a canoe.

He lives in Bay View.