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reappointed to the Budget Committee because of her political philosophy. He advocated for <br />geographic representation. <br /> <br />Mr. Rayor did not think changes to the appointment process were warranted. He believed that the <br />council was better qualified to appoint committee members as a body than he was as an <br />individual. He said that current committee and board members were qualified by virtue of their <br />background and experience. He did not want to change that. <br /> <br />Mr. Meisner did not see a need to change the system. He commended staff for making <br />improvements to the recruiting process. He agreed with Mr. Fart that geographic representation <br />on City boards and commissions was important. He wanted to appoint qualified and informed <br />people and said that he thought each of the councilors should work to recruit individuals to City <br />boards and commissions. Mr. Meisner recalled his past efforts to recruit Planning Commission <br />candidates from north and northeast Eugene and said that he was unsuccessful because people <br />were unwilling to take the time to serve. He said he would actively oppose a process that <br />involved individual appointments. He preferred the current, open process, as opposed to what he <br />characterized as a closed process. <br /> <br />Mr. Pap~ said that the City should be consistent in its approach no matter what it did. He too had <br />recruited candidates for various committees but noted that only one of his candidates was <br />appointed. He said that he was willing to use consider a different approach. He too wanted more <br />geographic representation on City boards and commissions. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey suggested that generally, the councilors supported those applicants who supported <br />their positions. He asked the council to consider whether this council or the next council should <br />make the upcoming committee appointments given that two current members were going off and <br />two new members were coming on. <br /> <br />Mayor Torrey noted that the Eugene Water & Electric Board position boundaries were based on <br />multiple wards that corresponded to the local high schools. He suggested that the council <br />consider an approach that meant no more than two Planning Commissioners could be from being <br />from any one of those areas. He believed that would result in geographic distribution of <br />commissioners. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly also did not see a compelling reason to change the current system. He was initially <br />attracted to the idea but was worried about unintended consequences. He referred to the minutes <br />of past council meetings and said they showed that arguments being made to support such a <br />change were used in the past to argue against it. <br /> <br />Mr. Kelly expressed concern about diversity, saying that under a councilor-appoints scenario there <br />was no way to get an aggregate picture of the diversity on a committee. In addition, Planning <br />Commissioners have four-year terms, and unless each councilor ran for a second term, the <br />councilor would have the opportunity to appoint one commissioner during their time on the council <br />but would not be able to weigh in on the remainder of the commission's composition. That <br />seemed limited to him. He added that if a change was made, councilors should not be restricted <br />to candidates within their ward. <br /> <br />Ms. Nathanson's shared the concerns expressed by others about diversity, saying she looked at <br />many, many factors in making her decisions about candidates. She was not interested in having a <br />Planning Commission of seven people who felt just like she did. She wanted to have advisory <br /> <br /> MINUTES--Eugene City Council September 11, 2002 Page 8 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br /> <br />