Minutes 02-10-2015 - Laserfiche WebLink

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the Commissioners. She said it is important to give the advisory boards an opportunity to make recommendations, and if no recommendations are made, then the Board may want to fill some positions. Chair McKee said he is hearing three different areas of discussion. He said there seems to be consensus on the idea of the Board making appointments for town positions that remain unfilled for six months or more. Chair McKee said he is not hearing consensus on the issue of positions based on geographic area. He thinks it is critical to hold some of these positions for specific areas of the County, though he could possibly be persuaded on a six month argument. He said his fear is that a future board might fill some of these vacancies for outlying areas, and the term is 3 years at a time, so this might eliminate a person from that area who might be interested. He said he recruits for some of these positions. Commissioner Rich said that for some of these positions, if the six month rule was in place there might be more pressure to fill the spot. Commissioner porosin said on the question of geography, he would support a six month window. He said that would put the burden on the Board and staff to try to recruit. He said, as far as the three year term, if you get rid of the geographic requirements, seats come up all the time, and there is flexibility to recruit from the area that is lacking representation the next time a seat comes up. Commissioner porosin said if you consider having vacant seats while there are people on a wait list versus having the boards fully filled, he would be in favor of the latter option. He said, as far as vetting applications, he thinks the Board has put itself in a box. He said if you want the advisory boards to make recommendations, but then the Commissioners are ultimately going to do whatever they want, this sends mixed signals. He said if the Board wants to have the discretion, they should just say that they are going to fill the seats, or more clear direction needs to be given to the advisory board on the desired diversity. He said if the recommendations do not meet these guidelines, they should not be taken. Commissioner porosin said he would be in favor of the advisory boards not vetting the applications. He has referred candidates that were then screened out of the process. Commissioner Jacobs said there was a time when the Board received no recommendations from the advisory boards. He said the predilection could be changed if the Board chooses to do so. He said there needs to be some sort of hands on approach to insure diversity. He said there can be more flexibility for the Board to appoint, and it does not have to be a given that the advisory board makes recommendations. Chair McKee said he would propose trying the six month proposal for filling the positions with a geographic requirement. Commissioner Price said if you make sure there are enough at-large seats, it allows the flexibility to switch the people around. She said this will ensure that you are not locked into that three year term issue. Chair McKee said he is seeing consensus on this, and on using the six month time for the geographic spots from this point forward. Commissioner Jacobs said staff will make the effort to try and find someone to fill that spot within the six month time. Chair McKee said he would also like to see efforts to alert the Commissioners about these spots, to allow them the opportunity to recruit. Thom Freeman requested a little time to get with Information Technology to set up a system for tracking the six month periods. Chair McKee asked Thom Freeman to present this as an information item at a future meeting to give an update on where things stand.