Outline:
New Members Bring Fresh Ideas to San Diego Youth Commission
Melanie Yau, Angela Ortner, and Sadie Wheeler are three of the newest members of the San Diego Youth Commission. Each has a unique vision for how they want to make an impact in their community. Yau is passionate about bringing more diverse perspectives into the city’s government. Ortner hopes to inspire other young people to get involved in public service. Wheeler sees an opportunity to improve mental health resources for young San Diegans.
The San Diego Youth Commission is an advisory body that aims to bridge the gap between young people and city leadership. It recently held its first meeting in over a year after facing challenges with participation and interest from potential members.
Despite these hurdles, several new appointments have helped revive the commission. Yau, a 17-year-old senior at The Bishop’s School in La Jolla, is excited about the upcoming meeting. “I’m really excited to have the meeting and see what happens,” she said.
Currently, only 13 members serve on the commission, which has 20 available seats. Vacancies still exist in Districts 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9, as well as one seat that must be appointed by the mayor. The Mayor’s Office is currently conducting interviews to fill that position.
At Saturday’s meeting, the group will elect a chair and vice chair. Beyond that, the commissioners will set their own priorities. Tara Ryan, the program coordinator of the Office of Child and Youth Success, which oversees the commission, said, “The intention is that they set their agenda.”
The youth advisory body is part of a larger issue in San Diego, where several city boards and commissions have faced setbacks due to chronic vacancies. A review by The San Diego Union-Tribune last year found nearly one in five positions on the city’s boards and commissions was vacant, potentially causing delays in policymaking.
Former youth commissioners have also expressed frustration over a lack of preparation for the role. One commissioner told the Union-Tribune in 2023, “We were basically thrown in the water and told to swim.” Others mentioned that a lack of structure and turnout had hindered their success.
Mayor Todd Gloria reactivated the Youth Commission in 2021, but it has struggled to gain momentum. The commission’s last meeting was held in August 2024, followed by repeated cancellations. No meetings were scheduled from July through December of last year due to a lack of quorum.
As current commissioners have been appointed, they’ve received training on city government, including meeting procedures and public meeting law. This new material is especially important for members who range in age from their teens to their early 20s.
Ryan says the office has worked to keep the commissioners connected as new ones are added, including through a leadership retreat last spring and monthly emails. In the coming months, her office will begin hosting outreach events to fill the vacancies and prioritize partnerships with high schools in districts with open spots.
Hopes for reviving the Youth Commission are part of broader efforts at the Office of Child and Youth Success. Last year, its executive director position was cut, and the office was consolidated under the Library Department’s Youth and Family Services Division. Ryan says most operations haven’t changed since, but the lack of an executive director leaves it with less direct access to city leadership.
The office also updated its two-year child and youth plan last fall to clarify its role in supporting the city’s other youth programming. The plan focuses on education and career pathways, economic and workforce opportunities, youth empowerment, engaging activities, and child care.
Claire Snyder, director of programming at the nonprofit advocacy group Youth Will, said better structure and support from the city’s youth office has been crucial to the commission’s growth in the last year. Her group partners with the office to host civic engagement workshops and share publicly the role the commission can play in city government.
The panel still faces challenges, Snyder said, including a long process for applicants to join and a steep learning curve for commissioners to get up to speed. The group is essentially just getting started, she added.
“Unfortunately, they haven’t been able to do a lot,” she acknowledged. Her group wants to “encourage folks to see the potential that the Youth Commission has if it was fully functioning.”
Sadie Wheeler, a 17-year-old senior at University City High School who joined last January, is eager to get started. But she’s “skeptical” about the meeting this weekend and worries it might be canceled if people call out sick. Since she was sworn in as a commissioner about a year ago, the group hasn’t met at all.
“It’s frustrating when people say that they are available and then they’re definitely not available,” she said. “And I think that a lot of people just don’t really have the time to commit to the Youth Commission like they thought they did.”
While this first meeting will be largely procedural — establishing a chair and vice chair — she’s ready to talk with her fellow commissioners about how they envision the panel.
The commissioners have big plans for the group, too. Along with pushing for more mental health resources for young people, Wheeler wants to help ensure that students in San Diego schools have access to menstrual products in restrooms.
Yau wants to host town halls where young people can share their thoughts directly with government officials, and wants to offer resources such as mentorship for military families like hers.
Angela Ortner, a 21-year-old transfer student at UC San Diego, hopes she can help some of the younger commissioners navigate college applications and the job market.
“I know things I wish I would have known when I was a senior or junior in high school,” Ortner said. “So that’s something I want to bring to the table.”