To: Honorable Mayor and Members of Town Council
Through: David L. Corliss, Town Manager
From: Kristin Read, Assistant Town Manager
Shannon Eklund, Executive Assistant
Title
Discussion/Direction: Board and Commission Interviews
Body
______________________________________________________________________________
Executive Summary
Staff is preparing to support Council’s annual boards and commissions interview process. A Councilmember provided staff some feedback regarding how the interviews are scheduled, and staff has evaluated options and wishes to obtain Council’s direction on how to proceed.
One option is to hold most of the interviews the second Tuesday in May, when they typically have been held recently, and to stagger interviews on the preceding evening for some boards for which the Council liaison has conflicts. An alternate approach is to move up the application period into March so interviews can be held during April on the same night as each board/commissions’ regularly scheduled meeting, as opposed to having an entire evening of interviews. In this approach, interviews for the two boards that don’t have meetings in April could be scheduled separately.
The purpose of this memo is to further describe the options staff has developed to Council so Council can provide direction on the manner in which to proceed with this year’s interviews.
Discussion
The majority of the Town’s boards and commissions have staggered terms that run from June 1 of the beginning year to May 31 two years later. Council has previously adopted guidelines for the annual process of recruiting and appointing volunteers to fill vacancies on Town boards and commissions. (See Attachment A, Resolution 2019-048.) Accordingly, Town staff generally advertises each April for applications from community members interested in volunteering for these groups. Council then generally interviews applicants during a special meeting on the second Tuesday in May so it can make appointments at its second May meeting, filling any vacancies ahead of the boards’ June meetings.
With at least 60 applicants per year in recent years, the interviews have become increasingly difficult to accomplish all on one evening - especially in instances where a Councilmember serves as the liaison to multiple boards. A Councilmember has asked staff to consider this dynamic and how the interviews may be scheduled differently to allow Councilmembers to attend all of the interviews for the boards on which they serve. (In addition to the Council liaison, the board/commission’s chair and staff liaison generally comprise the interview panel.) Staff has developed two options for Council to consider in this regard for this year’s interviews:
Option 1
If Council wishes to continue accepting applications in April and holding most interviews on one evening in May, staff recommends calling a special meeting for 5 p.m. on Tuesday, May 10, for that purpose. Staff would intend to schedule as many interviews as possible on that evening but would also plan to schedule some interviews the evening prior, on Monday, May 9, in instances where Councilmembers are liaisons to multiple boards/commissions and it’s impractical to achieve all of their interviews in one evening. Staff anticipates only Councilmembers Dietz and Johnson may need to be present for interviews on both of these evenings, so a special meeting would not need to be called for May 9. Staff would coordinate the specifics with these Councilmembers and their boards/commissions once the total number of applicants for each board is known.
Option 2
If Council would like to consider an alternate approach to the traditional special meeting and evening full of interviews, interviews for each board/commission could be scheduled on the same evening as each board’s regularly scheduled meeting in April. Under this approach, staff could move up the application period from April into March, and applicants would be invited to interview in April instead of May. All boards/commissions have meetings scheduled in April except for the Board of Building Appeals and the Election Commission. Staff could work with those interview panels to schedule interviews sometime in April or early May to facilitate Council making its appointments during the May 17 Council meeting.
One aspect to note regarding this option is that some candidates apply to interview for multiple boards, so they would be asked to attend interviews on multiple evenings, rather than completing them mostly on one evening as under Option 1. (Note: a candidate may not be appointed to more than one board.) Staff could share details about the date each board/commission’s interviews would occur as part of the public information about the process so candidates could have that information when applying. The panels typically determine their recommendations for appointments promptly after interviews, so candidates could be notified right away if offered a position and decide whether they want to proceed with interviewing for other boards later in the month.
Staff Recommendation
Staff recommends that Council discuss the options and provide staff direction on how they would like to proceed with this year’s process. If Council prefers Option 1, a motion calling a special meeting for May 10 would be appropriate:
“I move to call a special meeting for 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 10, in Council Chambers at Town Hall, for the purpose of conducting board and commission interviews.”
Attachment
Attachment A: RES 2019-048: Policy Regarding the Process for Recruiting Citizen Volunteers to the Town’s Boards and Commissions