New Satellite Beach Youth Council elects Alex LaFortune as chair and sets environmental, outreach priorities

At its first official meeting Oct. 28, 2019, the Satellite Beach Youth Council elected Alex LaFortune as chair and Charlotte Barnes as vice chair and opened planning for first-year priorities including lagoon cleanups, social-media outreach and community events.

Webb Pierce, the city clerk, led an orientation on meeting rules and Florida’s Sunshine Law, telling members that these are “important things for you to understand as advisory board members.” The oath of office was administered to new and alternate members during the opening, and staff reviewed the nomination and voting procedures the council would use to select leadership.

A council member moved to nominate Alex LaFortune for chair and another member seconded the motion; the body declared the motion passed. LaFortune then invited nominations for vice chair; Charlotte Barnes was nominated, seconded and approved by roll-call vote.

During the public-comment period, Serena Videla introduced herself as an alternate member and offered to serve as secretary, saying, “My name is Serena Videla. I’m an alternative member on the youth council,” and describing prior experience keeping minutes.

After leadership was in place, members brainstormed priorities. Several members pushed for youth engagement and environmental work focused on the Indian River lagoon, proposing short-term actions such as beach or lagoon cleanups, oyster-mat or mangrove plantings and awareness posters. One member suggested partnering with the Brevard Zoo for seeds and volunteer outreach; another proposed refillable water bottle stations in schools to reduce single-use plastics.

Members also discussed social-media strategy to reach peers (favoring Instagram) while using Facebook to reach parents; volunteers stepped forward to run accounts and to design a youth-council T-shirt. Staff and the city manager, Courtney Barker, offered modest startup support and reminded the group that social-media posts tied to council business are public records and subject to capture by the city’s public-records system.

The council agreed on logistics including a goal that meetings end by 9 p.m., and members were asked to prepare vision/mission ideas, shirt designs and short proposals to present at the next meeting. Chair LaFortune adjourned the meeting after confirming those next steps.

The council’s next regular meeting was scheduled for the fourth Monday of the month (with variations noted for holidays); members were asked to submit mission statements and design ideas ahead of the next session.