My internship was with a St. Louis City Alderman. It was centered around a charter reform effort to modernize the city’s civil service system. Three key take aways were that
- policy reform at the local level is slow and deliberate,
- comparative research is an essential tool for policy work,
- and communicating clearly and transparently with everyone around you makes your work better and done more efficiently
What surprised me the most was the amount of work done informally. Decisions are made while having coffee, talking in hallways, or through games of telephone between legal and legislative staff – not always in a formal setting or manner. The most valuable part of the experience was sitting in on the labor debriefs. Getting to see how Unions and other bodies in the political world affect the decisions making process for policy was something that can’t be seen in the classroom. In hindsight, I would have been more communicative and built relationships with the staff and my colleagues. I would recommend such an internship to those interested as it offers genuine responsibility and a real look at how policy moves within our cities.
