- Our planet is in chaos.

Our waters are polluted, our air is poisoned.

We have no laws go forth through space to the planet Earth.

Learn from them.

We have so little time left.

- Take me to your leaders.

- Who are you?

What do you want?

- My planet is in trouble.

We need your help.

Please take me to your leaders.

- It started out as a typical day.

I was busy working on another case when suddenly I saw the light this light it.

Well, he comes from a long way away and says his name is Ntic.

His planet has no rules, which causes great confusion.

So he came to investigate our government.

Well, I thought this is a job for a private eye and this is a job for Katie Sherlock.

So I said, NTIC, I can help you, but this will take time.

I mean, Ohio is a big state and we have three branches of government, executive, legislative, and judicial.

I told him it was going to take some time to travel around the state to see where our leaders work.

Then he says he has a faster way.

Just hang on.

So my investigation led me here to Columbus where the governor lives.

After many, many long hours of research, I came up with a few interesting facts.

I learned that the governor is the political leader of the state and is the head of the executive branch of the government and represents all the people in the state.

He's elected for a four year term and is inaugurated in January.

- Ladies and gentlemen, - I stopped by the State House and saw the governor in action.

He was talking to members of the General Assembly.

Now, the general assembly is the legislative branch of government.

I learned one thing working on this case, and that's not the best way to get the facts is by asking questions.

So I went straight to the top.

I met with Mr. George Voinovich, the governor of Ohio, and found out that he has a lot of duties.

The main responsibilities of the governor are to prepare a budget for the state to serve as the commander in chief of the National Guard, to appoint officials in the executive branch of government.

And to see that all the laws passed by the state legislature are carried out.

The governor also suggests ideas and influences the decisions of the legislature.

One way he can influence a decision is by vetoing, a bill passed by the legislature.

If he approves the bill, he can pass it into law.

So I met with the big guy himself.

Can you believe he does all those things?

But I was just the first piece of the puzzle.

Something was gnawing away at me.

Something was missing.

And I live a long way from Columbus.

What if something happens in my city that has nothing to do with the rest of the state?

Come on.

We've got places to go and people to see.

There are hundreds of cities and villages in Ohio and each one of them has a leader.

Now, do you know what that person is called?

That's right.

It's the mayor.

Now the mayor is the political leader of the city.

She's the head of the executive branch of the city government, and she represents all the people in the city.

In Athens, Ohio, the mayor is elected for a four year term.

In other cities and villages, the term of office may be different.

The swearing in ceremony, which is like an inauguration takes place in January.

I wanted to see for myself what the mayor does.

So I tagged along.

She has a busy schedule, and on this day she was meeting with the fire department.

Some of the main responsibilities of the mayor are like those of the governor, for example, she prepares a budget.

She appoints all department heads like the head of the recreation department, and she sees that all the laws passed by the city council are carried out.

She suggests ideas and influences the decisions of the city council.

And one way America influence the decisions is by vetoing a city law, which is called an ordinance.

Some other jobs of the mayor are to hold special courts where needed to serve as the justice of the peace and to supervise the work of city departments.

For example, the police fire a recreation department.

I'm starting to get the picture, but there are still some unanswered questions.

I had two of my assistants call the governor and the mayor in for questioning.

But I need your help too.

So let's get back to my office.

Okay, is everybody back?

Good.

I'm glad you're all here because I need your help too.

'cause some of you have phones right in your classrooms today and in a few minutes I'm gonna ask you to call me.

But first I wanna introduce some very special people to you.

Here in my office is the mayor of Athens, Ohio.

Sarah Hendrick, thank you for joining us.

Mayor Hendrick.

It's nice to be here.

And also with me are Rachel Phillips from Logan Middle School and Tyler Ramage from Vinton County Junior High.

Now I've tuned my television into Columbus the state capitol so the governor can join us.

Good afternoon, governor Voinovich.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for joining us this afternoon.

- Afternoon.

I'm real happy to join you and tighter and Rachel and, and Mayor Hendrick, her.

- Hey, thank you very much.

Well, I know that many of you have questions for the governor and the mayor, and we have some questions too.

So the first question is going for the governor is going to be from Rachel.

- All right.

Governor, I'd like to know when were you elected as Governor of Ohio?

- I was elected back in 1990 and began serving the people of Ohio when I was sworn in on January the 14th, 1991.

- What do you like least about your job as governor?

- Oh, I think that part of it that's most difficult is the fact that you'd think the governor's got all the power in the world.

And that is that if you want to get anything done, you have to work with a lot of other people to make it happen.

And that's, that's difficult because many of those people have different ideas than you have.

And the big job is to try and gain a consensus so you can get something done.

And you have to really work with the other branch of government, the legislative branch if you expect to be successful.

- Governor, I'd like to know, have you had to veto any laws, and if so, what laws were they?

- Well, I try not to veto pieces of legislation we try to do is that I've got a problem with a piece of legislation.

I try to get that information up to the legislature and hopefully they'll take out the part that I don't like so that when it gets to me, I won't have to veto it.

On a couple of occasions though, I have had to veto, and two that I remember very well is they were going to create new commissions.

One to look at the qualifications of interior decorators and another one dealing with physical therapists.

And I think we have too many boards and commissions in Ohio, and we vetoed that, that legislation.

- Okay.

In your opinion, what is the most important law you have introduced?

- Well, we don't introduce legislation that the members of the legislature are the ones that introduce legislation.

I suspect if, and, and I think Katie mentioned it in the introduction when she was talking about state government, the most important bill that I have anything to do with is the budget bill.

That's my bill.

And that that really sets and drives the way we do things in the state of Ohio because it reflects my priorities.

And usually when you're talking about priorities is where you spend your money.

So I'd say that's probably the most important piece of legislation the governor has anything to do with every two years.

- Okay.

Rachel, governor, what is the most favorite part of your job?

- The most favorite part?

Oh, I think meeting people.

I like people.

I wasn't too much older than than you were when I decided that I wanted to have a career in government.

In fact, I went to higher university in Athens and was involved in student government there.

And I like people a lot.

And the part of the job that's most satisfying is it gives you a chance to, to touch other people's lives and and, and hopefully improve them.

And that's one of the wonderful things about being in government today.

- Okay.

One more question from Tyler for the governor, what do you feel are your most important, important duties as the head of state?

- Well, I think the most important duty is to, is to provide leadership to the state, to look out and to see the problems that are in the state and put a plan together to respond to the, to the needs of the people of the state, whether it be an education, a higher education, secondary primary, dealing with problems of the environment.

We have lots of elderly people in Ohio dealing with their problems, providing recreation, maintaining highways.

We need someone like the leader of the ban.

That's kind of what the governor does.

And that I think is one of the most important things.

And I think the most important thing, you must provide leadership to a state where you have about 11 million people.

- Yeah.

Okay.

Well, right now we'll go on to some questions about city government.

And the first question for the mayor is from Tyler.

- After you elected, were there certain officials that you got to pick or appoint?

- Yes.

I appoint all of the department heads, and the chief of those department heads is called the service safety director.

He's the chief administrative officer in the city.

- Okay.

Rachel?

- Yeah.

Are you the - First woman to be elected mayor of - Athens?

I am indeed.

I'm probably not the first qualified woman to be the mayor, but I was the first qualified woman to be elected mayor, and hopefully there'll be many more of us.

- Do you plan to run for mayor again?

- That decision?

I'll make it about two years.

I haven't quite made up my mind yet.

A lot of things go into that decision.

This is my second term as mayor, and I think I'll wait a couple years just to make that final decision, - Rachel.

Yeah.

Is it a mayor's responsibility to lay off people and government workers?

- Sometimes that becomes important if you have budgetary problems.

And the usual procedure is if the mayor identifies a budgetary problem, then a recommendation is made to the city council.

It is the city council that determines the number of people who are employed in the city.

- Tyler, why do you think you're the right person for the job as mayor?

- Well, I think I had the right skills and the right experience and the right opportunity back in 1987.

- Rachel?

Yeah.

What is the most important job as mayor?

- Well, the most important job I have is the same most important job the governor has, and that is to introduce a budget to the city council.

It is operates on the, the city level, the same, it does as the state level.

It says to the C, the city council and to the public what we believe the major priorities for this community are.

And when the city council adopts that budget, then throughout the year, the mayor executes that budget and carries out those policies.

- Okay.

Tyler, do you like your job as mayor?

- I certainly do.

- Rachel, what do you do during a city council meeting?

- Well, that's a good question.

A lot of times I give an administrative report to begin with, and that usually brings the city council up to date on what's happening in the city administration.

Then I'm also there to answer questions about pieces of legislation that we have asked the city council to consider.

So my, my chief role then is to provide information to the city council so they can make an informed judgment.

- Okay.

Well, right now we have some phone calls from the guys out there, so I think our first phone call is from Ryan from Albany Elementary.

Ryan, you there?

- Governor Vic?

How can you improve schools in Ohio?

- Well, I think that we've got a wonderful opportunity to do that with a education reform piece of legislation that's gonna be introduced into the general assembly in about two weeks.

And most of the parts of that are gonna be in the, in the budget.

And that's a reform package to make sure that we have a system of education in Ohio that concentrates on, on outcomes and performance, and one that gets away from all kinds of rules and regulations that make it difficult for our teachers to get their job done.

I think we've got some great teachers in Ohio, and what we need to do is to get off their back and let them be good teachers.

- Yeah.

Okay.

I think our next call is from Jeremy and he is from Garfield Elementary.

Jeremy, - How can we convince people not to litter?

- I, I'm sorry, but I didn't hear you.

- Jeremy.

Wanna know how can we convince people not to litter?

- I think that what we need to do is to have them just look out and see that things when they're not littered are much more pleasant to, to look at.

And that by getting involved in litter, putting pieces of paper out that what they're doing is not being good citizens.

And if we're all good citizens, we pick up after ourselves.

I think we all learned that.

- Okay.

Our next phone call is from Shalin.

And what school are you from?

Shalin.

- Park.

- Park.

Okay.

Why don't you tell me what, what's your question?

- What is the most important thing you have done since being in office?

- Did you hear that Governor?

- What's the most important thing that I've done in office?

- Yes.

- I think that what the most important thing we've done is we have elevated the issue of education in Ohio to the priority that it deserves.

And that is to get everybody involved and get them to understand that education's just not for teachers and, and parents and, and, and students, but it's everyone's business, including the business community.

And we've got them involved in a way that they've never been involved before.

Including my own wife, Janet, who is heading up the Ohio Adoptive School program.

And since she's been involved with that, we've had 350 schools that have been adopted by various businesses and governmental agencies.

We think that education is the future of our state.

- Okay.

Mayor, I think there's some questions for you.

I think it's from Amanda from Albany Elementary.

Elementary.

Amanda, - What jobs did you have before you were a mayor?

- The job I had immediately before I was mayor was public administration programs coordinator for the Institute for Local Government Administration in rural development at Ohio University.

- Okay.

Another question for the mayor is from Mike from Garfield Elementary.

Mike, - What kind of programs are available for the needy people?

- Excuse me.

Didn't I think what kind of programs are available for the needy people is what he said.

In - The city of, of Athens, there are a number of social service activities that are provided in the community.

Most of those are overseen by the state government.

Okay.

This the one thing that in Ohio, we have a county level of government, which actually functions to carry out state policies.

And many of the social service service activities are state programs.

We give support to those various organizations through through cooperation.

- Okay.

And we have one more question for the mayor from Rachel from Parks Elementary.

- Hi, my name is Rachel St. And I'm from Yorkville and Tus Gross County.

How did you be, how did you become interested in politics?

- Did you hear that?

No.

- No, we didn't - Hear that first.

Okay.

Rachel wanted to know, how did you become interested in politics?

- Well, my family was very, very active in politics, more or less an armchair level.

I, the earliest things I can remember are long involved discussion of politics, and I grew up with, with the, the emphasis then that politics are very important.

And so when I became old enough to get involved, I certainly did get involved through service, the Democratic Party, and then I ran for city council and then for mayor.

So it's been, it's been my family's background.

Okay.

Well, - We're just about outta time, so I just want our time of questions, and thanks for being for us today, everybody.

This investigation is off to a great start.

Thanks for helping me with your questions and phone calls.

So far, we've learned that the executive leaders, the governor and the mayor, are elected to four year terms.

They prepare budgets, carry out and veto laws, and appoint other officials.

But before we move on to the next stage of our investigation, I wanna tell you about a challenge activity for you and your teacher.

Now, today's challenge, the Simulated News conference can be found on page nine of the Teacher's Guide When your class is completed, the activity by the end of next week, write to me, Katie Sherlock to tell me about it.

Let me know what you did and what you learned from the activity.

I just need one letter per class and include your teacher's name and school address.

You can send your letters to me at the address you see on your screen.

- See you next time.

Funding for this program was made possible by a grant from the Ohio Education Technology Equity Commission.