08/25/1975 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Councilman Murray said his proposal in no way attempted to change any criteria for appointments nor to designate by whom the appointments would be made. It was an attempt only to standardize procedure for making appointments and to bring more -- focus on the opportunity for public involvement, at the same time building a reser- voir of people from which to draw candidates. He felt that something needed to be done to avoid the recurring confusion when appointments are to be made by the Counci 1 , that ironing out the procedures at the time of each individual appointment left much to be desired in the way of a positive impression in terms of public in vol vement . Mayor Anderson called attention to a chart he prepared and distributed to Council members showing the number of appointments to boards and commissions; ratio of those made by the mayor, mayor confirmed by council, and by council only; annual vacancies; number of members and length of terms; etc. He explained that those listed were created by ordinance, there existed other ad hoc committees and tempor(;lry committees which because of citizen interest had developed into more or less permanent groups. He noted that with the exception of the Renewal Agency (terms running to July 10) and representatives on MAPAC (terms running to June 30), all of the boards and com- missions listed had terms running to January 1. The Mayor continued that most of the boards and commissions created by ordinance required certain professional quali- fications or persons knowledgeable in certain industries resulting in an average of only about l40f 21 vacancies a year to be filled by at-large citizen type appoint- ments. lie noted Council bylaws provisions for appointments and his practice of calling for Council suqgestions when vacancies occur, calling for staff recommenda- t.i on8 when profes,c;.): ana 1 trJpe' appointments are required, reviewing applications on r.ile of unsuccessful caIlrJ.idatcs for previous Council appointments, plus his own file of persons who had expressed to him !',}rsonally - their interest in serving. lie said olle oj' the problems was that of recruitment, in getting qualified people to participate. He continued that he had followed the practice of reappointing just for one term, and then only after review of performance, attendance, interest in the e work of whatever board of commission was involved, etc. In some instances, he. said, reappointments may have been made to assure continuity of work being pursued by the body at that time. 'l'he Mayor said he pOJ:nted these things out to show the problem involved. He agreed that perhaps something was needed to smooth out a somewhat imperfect procedure, but establishment of a uniform structure although a good idea might require a major legal overhaul. Councilman Haws wasn't sure that what was proposed would avoid embarrassing situations such as recently occurred in filling positions on the newly created Cabel TV Commission. Counc,ilman Keller said that instance was the first during his Council tenure where someone had expressed an interest ih participating and had not been included. He thought the Council procedure for making selection from candidates could be improved, but he couldn't imagine anyone interested enough to give time to the types of meetings required of membership who would not be known well enough to be finally appointed. He too thought the main problem would be finding qualified people to serve. Councilman Murray agreed that people already aware of and following local government interests would probably be determined the most likely candidates for appointment. But he thought there were vast numbers of people who would also like to be considered if they had the opportunity, and the present hit-and-miss practice was not affording them that opportunity. He thought his proposal would be in keeping with this com- muni ty, characterized as being most progressive in citlzen participation, and would prov.ide a broader base f.rom which to make selections. He thought an ad hoc Council committee could review citizen applications on hand to meet the concerns expressed . about the recent appointment situation mentio~ed by Councilman Haws. He said pro- cedural questions would have to be decided upon. Too much Council time had been taken in the past in deciding how to make appointments, then when appointments were made there'were still Council members disgruntled with the way it was done. Council- man Keller agreed on the question of,prpcedure. He also thought ~t would be better 8/25/75 - 20 484:'