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Pleasanton residents who want to learn how their local government works but don’t want to pay for the Leadership Pleasanton program, which has provided lessons on the subject for several decades, will now be able to do so for free under the city’s newly created Pleasanton Community Academy.
According to a press release from the city, the academy was designed to expand the Pleasanton community’s understanding of local government.
“The Pleasanton Community Academy will consist of five sessions, each designed to offer participants an immersive experience in various aspects of the city’s delivery of programs and services, and the opportunity to connect with city officials and fellow community members,” the press release states. “The Pleasanton Community Academy will cover an array of topics, including infrastructure, leisure activities, public safety and management skills training.”
The academy, which is set to begin its first of five sessions in January, was also mainly created so that the city would not have to allocate $10,000 from its budget to go toward funding the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Pleasanton program.
“This is the program City Council directed staff to create to replace Pleasanton’s financial participation in Leadership Pleasanton,” city communication manager Heather Tiernan told the Weekly. “The program is free for community members to participate in and the city is utilizing staff time to conduct the programming.”
The City Council decision Tiernan is referring to is when the council majority voted 4-1 to not provide the $10,000 sponsorship that the program typically received every year from 2000 until 2019, before it was paused due to the pandemic, on March 7. Vice Mayor Jack Balch dissented.
The council also voted that day to reduce staff time dedicated to the chamber-run program from four days to two days.
Organized by the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Pleasanton was launched in 1988 as a way to identify and help develop community leaders from different sectors within the community.
The program takes in 30 members of the community — anyone from business leaders and elected officials to everyday residents — during the fall of each year and they all go through various sessions that help them understand how the city works.
“Topics of the sessions include Pleasanton history, local government, health and human services, business and economics, education, public safety, infrastructure and recreation,” according to the chamber’s website.
Previously the $10,000 that came from the city was used by the program to not only run the program in any aspect, but would also to go toward giving individuals who couldn’t afford the $950 tuition to enter the program a scholarship so that they could attend, chamber business manager Yianna Theodorou told the Weekly.
Theodorou, who also manages the leadership program, said that while the chamber is not receiving that money, it has not affected the program moving forward in any way.
“We definitely have donations and other businesses, companies, individuals in the area who have stepped in to take the place of that — to ensure that people still have the opportunity to attend, who want to attend the class,” Theodorou said.
In fact, she said that this year’s group who enrolled in the program is a relatively large one with 33 active participants.
“Our program is still in full swing,” Theodorou said. “We’ve already started the class of 2024, they’ve already had two classes. It has not affected the quality or any of the program’s information that’s been put out.”
She added that while the chamber doesn’t have much else to say about the Pleasanton Community Academy because it is still in the early stages and hasn’t officially launched yet, she said that her understanding is that the academy will complement the Leadership Pleasanton program.
“City staff has definitely worked hard for us to make sure that the key components that we had before making any changes to the program are still intact moving forward,” Theodorou said.
She also said that she doesn’t feel like the two programs will necessarily conflict with each other simply because local government was just one piece of Leadership Pleasanton.
“(Leadership Pleasanton) goes into history, education, business, health care and all of that,” Theodorou said. “It just looks a little bit different this time than it has in the past, but … I do feel that there is room for both to complement each other.”
According to the press release from the city, the Pleasanton Community Academy will begin its first session on Jan. 17, which will go over the basics of city government. Sessions will be held on Wednesday evenings from January through May, running from 6-8:30 p.m.
The program will be open for individuals who live or work in the city and who are over the age of 18. While the sessions are free, space will be limited to 25 participants. Those interested in applying can do so through the city’s website — applications will be accepted through Nov. 15.
