Discussion: Potential Improvements to How Council Appoints New Members to City Boards and Commissions.

On February 7, 2017, Councilmember Barotz placed an item under Future Agenda Item Requests (F.A.I.R.) to determine if others were interested in placing an item on a future agenda to discuss potential to improve how Council appoints new members to City boards and commissions. A majority of members of the City Council were interested in placing this item on an agenda.

In years past, boards and commissions had a Councilmember liaison that participated as a non-voting member of the commission and provided recommendations to the Council for appointments. In 2010 the Council eliminated the councilmember liaisons and when appointments to boards and commissions were needed, two councilmembers were appointed to a Council Interview Team for each commission based on a random rotation process.

There was concern from the Council that the rotation used for the Council Interview Teams did not allow all Councilmembers an opportunity to make recommendations on all commissions. At Council’s request in early 2015 staff began to develop some potential options for Council to consider. In September 2015 Council directed staff to change the process to allow all Councilmembers an opportunity to make a recommendation for appointment on all boards or commissions. The process adopted is as follows:

1. A randomly rotating list of councilmembers was developed for each board or commission to assign councilmembers when vacancies arise.
2. Using the list for the board or commission desired, one councilmember is assigned to a single vacancy or appointment. If there is more than one appointment for that particular board or commission the next councilmember on the list will be assigned to the next appointment and so on.
3. The assigned councilmember(s) will make a motion to appoint their selected individual for the City Council to vote upon for possible approval. Should the motion not pass, the assigned councilmember may select another applicant for possible approval. This process may continue until an applicant is successfully approved.
4. If the assigned councilmember chooses not to make another motion, the next councilmember on the rotating list may make a motion to appoint.
5. In the event that the list of applicants is exhausted, the appointment will be postponed until additional applications are received.