Last Tuesday 1/3/12 at the Council Committee meeting it was brought out that the city sometimes finds it difficult to fill openings/vacancies on various city boards and commissions. Part of this is probably because of citizen apathy and part probably because folks may not know of the vacancies.
So, I sent an email on 1/4 to the entire city council with copies to the mayor and city manager. Would you believe, only two councilmembers even responded? They were Pflumm and Distler. Oh well. The contents of the email are listed below.
Listening to last night’s discussion I was tempted to ask to speak but decided against it for two reasons:
a. Was not feeling the greatest
b. Meeting was running late
Various comments were made about trouble filling vacancies on various boards and commissions. Let’s try these suggestions:
1. I do not ever remember seeing these vacancies posted on the FRONT page of the city’s website, along with other announcements
2. I do not ever remember receiving an email from the listserv system announcing these vacancies
3. I do not remember ever seeing a press release/news item in the Dispatch announcing these vacancies:
a. “Mayor Meyers has announced an opening for xxxxx board. For information on how to submit an application to serve on this board please contact “abc” or go to the city’s web site at yada yada yada
b. “Councilmember Neighbor has announced a vacancy on the yyyy board that has an opening allocated to his ward, Ward 1. For information on how to apply to serve (same as above)
Anyway, maybe these alternate avenues other than word of mouth have been used………………..but I do not remember seeing them.
Side note: There was a comment made that Ward 3 was under represented on the planning commission. That would actually be expected since Ward 3 has traditionally had the worst turn out for city elections of all the four wards. So why does it surprise anyone that they have the lowest representation (read that as lack of interest in serving the city on a volunteer basis) on the planning commission?
