Minutes 02-10-2015 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commissioner Jacobs said he came into this thinking of the fact that the places with the longest unfilled vacancies are the ones that are designated to the towns, who never bother to fill them. He said the towns do not care, and he would like to create a mechanism that if a town vacancy is not filled within 6 months, it is up for "grabs". He said efforts can still be made to find someone in that municipality, but they would not have to be recommended by the elected officials. Commissioner Jacobs said he thinks there are a lot of other boards with specific requirements. He said the slate could be wiped, and the Board of Commissioners would just be trusted to put applicants on these boards that represent a diversity of interest in that particular area, if there is not statutory requirement. However, he said his inclination is that the requirements have been worked out over a long period of time to create a balance. He said it is important to have the geographical diversity on the Planning Board to make sure everyone has a say. He said he would be willing to look at the board to see if any are more restrictive than necessary, and he would like to make a policy regarding the unfilled town positions. Commissioner Burroughs said her thinking is somewhat incremental. She believes the current system was set up for fairly good reasons. She likes the idea that if a town position is not filled in 6 months, the Board can fill it. She said she would not throw out the whole system, as it can lead to homogenization. She said this is directly dealing with the seats that are not getting filled, rather than throwing out the whole system. Commissioner porosin said his interest is not tearing down what has been constructed. He questions, when there are seats that are vacant for a period of time, whether it is better to have this reserved for a specific category, or to have the Board fill those seats with people who have applied to be on that Board. He said this may not mean that the requirements go away forever. He said it is important to recognize the people who step forward with interest in being on these boards. He said the other question is identifying why there are vacancies. He questioned whether the problem is recruitment or a board that is not functioning well. He said all of this speaks to other issues, such as people serving on multiple boards. He said the goal should be to maximize the level of citizen engagement. He said he has talked to people who applied for boards and never heard anything. He would expand Commissioner Jacob's suggestion about filling the town seats after 6 months to include any seat that is hard to fill. Commissioner Jacobs said he would be willing to consider this proposal. Commissioner Jacobs said Randy Marshall, the former principal of Carrboro Elementary, has been applying for the Planning Board for at least 10 years. He said it would be nice to see this information and see how long people have been on the list. He said if people continue to renew their application to serve, then the Board does owe them a courtesy. Commissioner Jacobs gave some background history on the Housing Authority, and he said there is some gray area about what this board is supposed to be doing. He suggested work by the department heads and the attorney to determine the distinctive roles of the boards to make it easier to recruit for them. Chair McKee already asked the staff to work with the chairs of these boards on a six month record of attendance to identify where there are problems. He said if a person has a long history of not attending meetings, it is time to start looking for another applicant. Commissioner Rich said this is moving toward a six month period after which another applicant is considered. She asked if information on the length of a vacancy is provided in the abstracts. She said the Commissioners do not have this information. Thom Freeman said there has been information added to the bottom of the abstract, which lists the vacant seats and the expiration date of the vacancy. He said it does not list the