Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory had a quick lesson for the teenagers gathered for the first meeting of the Mayor’s Youth Council: The Internet does not have all the answers.
That news seemed to stun the approximately 25 teenagers participating in a four-hour retreat at the Carl H. Lindner Family YMCA in the West End, who suggested the mayor might want to get a MySpace page.
“I challenge you to find the first six bills introduced by my father William L. Mallory, Sr.” when he went to the Ohio Legislature, he said. “I bet you can’t find one and he was there for 28 years.”
If anyone could show the mayor the six bills online, he would give them $1,000. The group sat silent.
Mallory said afterward that he was overcome with emotion looking at the teenagers who applied and were chosen to be an advisory board for the mayor. The thought of so many young people on the Council – made up of public, private, charter school and home-schooled students from around the city – that want to make the city better made him proud and a bit nostalgic. Mallory said he “was just the opposite” when he was their age, opting to not get involved.
“I guess I was just a late bloomer,” he said.
No takers on the bet, though it appears there’s a chance the information could be online if not now, soon. I’ll keep you updated if anyone collects. Mallory encouraged members of the group to create their own Youth Council MySpace page, which several offered to do.