The Review Magazine Summer 2025

PETOSKEY YOUTH ADVISORY COUNCIL

“ What I learned was—yes, there was great interest in opportunities to have youth voices involved in governance. ”

“What I learned was—yes, there was great interest in opportunities to have youth voices involved in governance,” says DeMoore. “When I asked them what issues they were interested in driving, I got a very wise response: ‘We don’t know enough about the City. We’d have to start at the ground level to learn our options before we could respond.’” The students looked at the policies of the 2005–2006 PYAC and suggested revisions. Originally, it included students in grades 8–12 and had a residency requirement for the City of Petoskey. Due to differences of maturity and development, the students recommended raising the minimum grade to 10, and expanding the residency requirements to students who either reside in Petoskey or attend Petoskey schools. DeMoore brought the students’ suggestions before Mayor John Murphy and the Petoskey City Council. They approved the revised application in March 2024, and DeMoore was designated as the City Council’s liaison to the now resurrected PYAC. In publicizing the re-formation of PYAC, DeMoore reached out to not just Petoskey High School but also the local charter school, a Catholic school, the homeschooling community, and the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians.

The four-person applications committee, which includes DeMoore and Srigley, met in May 2024 and emerged with a group of 12 highly motivated young people. While the committee utilizes a blind application process in order to minimize bias, this new PYAC was almost evenly divided between sexes and grades and included one homeschooler and one tribal member. From the beginning, DeMoore was committed to PYAC providing a “meaningful, experiential” education for its members. Per their “very wise” comment at the brainstorming meeting about lacking foundational knowledge on how the City functions, she decided to initiate a crash course. Every month for the remainder of 2024, students took part in a deep dive into one aspect of Petoskey's operations. It began in late August 2023, when City Manager Shane Horn and Director of Parks and Recreation Kendall Klingelsmith loaded the kids aboard a Petoskey Downtown Trolley to see Petoskey’s parks and outdoor opportunities. Later departmental overviews included trips to public works facilities, public safety demonstrations from police and EMTs, and a presentation by Eric Hemenway, Director of Repatriation, Archives, and Records for the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians of Waganakising, on local Indigenous history.

Petoskey Youth Advisory Council (PYAC) Co-Chair Charles Olson introducing the PYAC Year in Review presentation to the Petoskey City Council on May 19, 2025. At the dais, from left to right are City Clerk & Executive Assistant to the City Manager Sarah Bek; City Manager Shane Horn; Mayor John Murphy; Ward 1 City Councilmember/Mayor Pro Tem Tina DeMoore; Ward 2 City Councilmember Derek Shiels; and Ward 3 City Councilmember Joe Nachtrab. Pictured to the far right is City of PetoskeyFinance Director & Treasurer Audrey Plath.

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