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to apply with little success. He suggested that people became involved in civic affairs because they were <br />very dissatisfied or very satisfied with City government. <br />Mr. Brown agreed with Mr. Pryor. He thought it would be useful to know where all applicants came <br />from. He acknowledged that for whatever reason, the City received more applications from residents of <br />wards 1, 2, and 3. He looked for the best applicant when reviewing applications and tried to avoid <br />looking at ward numbers. He did not know how to address the lack of geographic diversity. <br />Mayor Piercy agreed that geographic diversity was important but so were other types of diversity. She <br />noted growing participation from the Cal Young and Trainsong neighborhoods and said the City should <br />keep working on the issue without getting bogged down. <br />Mr. Clark pointed out that geographic diversity was mandated by City policy. He wanted the City to do <br />more to effectively achieve such diversity. He said the issue was not a shortage of applicants from other <br />wards but the council's decision - making process. When the council had a chance to choose a qualified <br />applicant from Ward 4 it selected a qualified candidate from Ward 3. Mr. Clark wanted to find new ways <br />to find residents to participate and suggested that the City employ the newsletters of the school districts <br />and local community agencies to announce vacancies. He thought the councilors could do more as <br />individuals. He asked staff to communicate with the council regarding the deadlines for applications. <br />Mayor Piercy observed that information provided by staff indicated that the lowest levels of participation <br />were in the downtown, Trainsong, Far West, Jefferson - Westside, West University, and Laurel Hill <br />neighborhoods. Ms. Osborn pointed out the discussion was complicated by the fact that neighborhood <br />organizations were different sizes. <br />Ms. Ortiz expressed general satisfaction with the current process and thanked staff for its work. She <br />suggested that the City could explore the approach used in Salem, where a subcommittee of the council <br />rather than the full council interviewed candidates. <br />Mr. Zelenka believed the City needed to get more gender diversity on the Planning Commission and <br />noted the lack of younger and older applicants as well as applicants of color. He did not want to "trump" <br />those things for geographic diversity. He did not want to see geographic diversity "quotas." <br />Mr. Zelenka also supported the current process and recommended that candidates should receive coaching <br />on their opening statements. He did not think the format the City currently used extracted the most <br />relevant information about life experiences. <br />Mr. Poling pointed out that one -third of applicants did not respond to the question regarding ethnic <br />background, which skewed the numbers. He supported Mr. Zelenka's suggestion that applicants be <br />coached in preparing for their interviews. <br />Mr. Clark posited the idea of an ordinance change that provided for individual councilors to appoint <br />individual Budget Committee members. <br />Ms. Taylor did not dislike Mr. Clark's idea. She did not want to limit councilors' appointments to <br />residents of their wards, however. She suggested that after the applicant's opening statement, the <br />councilors ask questions based on the statement. <br />Ms. Ortiz recommended that the City hold more open houses to inform residents of board and <br />commissions vacancies and share information about the duties and responsibilities of the positions <br />MINUTES— Eugene City Council January 11, 2012 Page 4 <br />Work Session <br />