As a Garfield Heights High School student growing up in Ohio near Lake Erie, Bill Patena received an assignment he wasn’t very thrilled about. His teacher asked him to attend a local city council meeting and then report back his observations to his class.
Initially, he said, he was not very excited about the idea of spending hours in a boring meeting. But, he wound up really enjoying the meeting, and even attended several more meetings on his own volition.
No wonder he’s now been on the Peoria City Council for a decade and loves serving the residents of Ironwood District.
