To: Honorable Mayor and Members of Town Council
From: Sally Misare, Town Clerk
Title
Resolution Adopting a Policy Regarding the Process for Appointment of Citizen Volunteers to the Town’s Boards and Commissions
Body
________________________________________________________________________________
Executive Summary
Each year, the Town of Castle Rock solicits applications from citizens interested in volunteering to serve on the Town’s Boards and Commissions. In 2017, there are approximately 40 vacancies on the Town’s 11 Boards and Commissions. Current openings (Attachment B).
The Town has an established process for recruitment, interview and appointment of citizens to these vacancies which has been used for the last several years. Staff is requesting input from Council as to whether the current practices should be continued, or whether there are changes or amendments to the practices which Council would like to implement.
If Council wishes to continue the current practices, staff is requesting approval of a Resolution (Attachment A) in order to formalize the process.
History of Past Town Council, Boards & Commissions, or Other Discussions
Historically, a display ad recruiting volunteers for the open volunteer positions is placed in the Castle Rock News Press, information regarding the annual vacancies is included in Town Talk which is distributed with water bills, vacancies are posted on the Town’s website, the LED sign at Town Hall, all of the Town’s social media outlets and via a press release.
The majority of the Town’s boards and Commissions have terms which run from June 1 - May 31 of any given year. Commission members serve staggered two year terms, and with the exception of the Historic Preservation Board, are limited to a total of three, two year terms, or six years.
(See Section 2.14.020 B) of the Municipal Code - Term limits - which states:
No board or commission member, with the exception of members of the Historic Preservation Board, shall serve more than three (3) consecutive two-year terms ("Term Limit"). A partial term shall be counted as a full term served. A partial term is defined as any period of time less than two (2) years. Members of the Historic Preservation Board may serve four consecutive two-year terms.)
In order to maintain staggered terms, each Boards and Commission has some vacancies each year. Town Code also requires that current members of a Board or Commission who wish to continue serving must apply and be interviewed for reappointment.
The deadline for submitting applications is generally set for late April, Most applications are submitted electronically from the link included with the outreach efforts. In the past, Council has agreed to call a Special Meeting the second week of May in order to conduct interviews with citizens interested in filling a vacancy on a Board or Commission.
The general guidelines for conducting interviews and making appointments which Town Council as used in the past includes the following:
1) Interviews for all vacancies have been conducted on a single evening beginning at 5 PM. This allows citizens applying for multiple openings to participate in interviews for each one. The scheduling of these appointments is coordinated by the Town Clerk’s office.
2) Copies of all applications for all Commissions will be distributed electronically to each Councilmember. The applications are not posted on the website as part of the packet, but should they be requested, they are subject to the Open Records law.
3) Applicants are interviewed by a panel of three people including:
• The primary Council liaison to the Commission, or where no liaison is assigned, a Councilmember member designated to act as a liaison to the Commission for the purpose of interviewing applicants. In the past the Town Clerk was given the discretion to make these assignments on an as needed basis. If Council would prefer to make these assignments, please advise.
• The Chairman of the Commission, or if unavailable, the vice chair or a person designated by the Chairman for the purpose of interviewing applicants If the Chairman of the Commission is applying for appointment, an alternate representative must be designated. (Staff liaisons will contact their Commission to inform him/her of this process)
• The Staff liaison to the Commission. The primary function of the staff liaison will be to advise the applicant on technical issues related to the functions of the Commission. The staff liaison will not make recommendations regarding appointments.
4) All interviews are conducted at Town Hall. If an applicant is unable to attend an interview on the designated evening, it is left to the discretion of the interview panel to determine an alternate time for an interview if desired. The Town Clerk schedules interviews approximately 15 minutes apart; applicants will report to the Town Hall Atrium and will be directed to the appropriate room for interviews. The interview panel should interview all applicants for a Commission, including incumbents, and including those who indicated that a certain Commission was their second or third choice.
5) In prior years, the issue as to whether the interviews were open to the public was raised. The Town Attorney’s office advises there is no legal requirement to have these interviews be open; however the final determination on this issue is at the discretion of Council. If a member of the public wishes to observe the interviews for any Board or Commission, and the interview panel has deemed this acceptable, it should be made clear that the role is of an observer, not a participant. At such time as the panel begins discussing its recommendations, the observer should be excused from the room.
6) Prior Councils directed that no citizen should be appointed to more than ONE commission. Those citizens who are already serving on a commission, and selected for appointment to different commission, will be offered the option of which Commission to serve on. Appointment to one Commission may be made contingent on resignation from another Commission.
7) Once all interviews are completed, recommendations for appointment will be submitted to the Town Clerk. The Clerk will work with staff liaisons to determine if there are citizens recommended for appointment to more than one commission, and to work through any issues related to the applicant’s preferences and the needs of the Town.
8) The names of the recommended applicants will be circulated among Councilmembers. Historically, the recommendation of the interview panel has been accepted. The Clerk will then prepare a list of all recommendations for appointment at the next Council meeting. Each Councilmember is requested to advise the Clerk if there are any concerns regarding a specific recommendation so that the Clerk can schedule that appointment for further discussion at the next Council Meeting
9) There is NO requirement to appoint everyone who applied for a certain Commission, even if the number of applicants was less than or equal to the number of vacancies.
10) Applicants not chosen during the annual recruitment may be considered for interim positions as they become available during the year.
Staff Recommendation
The above outline summarizes the procedures that have been used in the past. However, Council has full discretion to make any changes to the process which it deems desirable or appropriate.
If Council chooses to use this process again, staff requests a motion approving the Resolution adopting said policy after which staff will proceed with the advertising and recruitment process and determine a recommended date for a Special Meeting.
If Council wishes to make amendments to the process, specific direction should be provided to staff as to the nature of the changes, and staff will prepare a revised Resolution for Council consideration.
Proposed Motion
I move to approve the Resolution Adopting a Policy Regarding the Process for Appointment of Citizen Volunteers to the Town’s Boards and Commissions.
OR
I move to direct staff to make the following changes to the Process for Appointment of Citizen Volunteers to the Town’s Boards and Commissions.
Attachments
Attachment A: Resolution
Attachment B: 2017 Openings