As you may recall from my State of the City address this past June, I shared that we would be rolling out a podcast series designed to educate Meridian about their City government. I know that our residents are curious and eager to learn more about local government and how they can get involved and have their voices heard. At the same time, with our strategic plan, I’m committed to making sure that we increase accessibility to government so we can empower our residents with knowledge. That’s why I’m excited to announce the launch of our new podcast, myMERIDIAN. This is our first attempt into this sphere and I hope it will provide the community with additional insight into our City departments.

Each week, the myMERIDIAN podcast will release a new episode from our collection of “CITY 101” episodes. You can think of these episodes as a behind-the-scenes look at our City. You’ll hear me interview the leaders of various departments and offices in the City of Meridian. In our conversations you’ll have a chance to learn more about how the City functions and the beliefs and philosophies of those leading our departments such as police, fire, parks, and more. Whether you’re new to the area or you’re someone who’s lived here for a long time, I’m sure you’ll discover something new.

What I hope you learn is that when it comes to local government, cities like Meridian deal with a lot of moving parts and pieces, as well as a lot of departments, projects, and partnerships. From time to time, you may have found yourself wondering about how the City of Meridian functions. Who’s in charge of what? What services are available? Where do I go to learn more about a particular program? Hopefully CITY 101 will help answer those questions and more.

Our first episode now available features our City Attorney, Bill Nary, who provides a general overview of the City of Meridian. Bill is a long-time resident, former City Councilmember and current Director who knows his history of our community. Moving forward, you can expect a new episode to release every week on our webpage, Spotify, and on Apple Podcasts. Additionally, we will send out released episodes every other week through our City E-Newsletter.

I hope you find the myMERIDIAN CITY101 podcast to be useful and informative. Next spring we hope to bring you more episodes from many of our community partners, but for now we hope this quenches your curiosity about all things Meridian!