Citizen Boards and Commissions
These advisory boards and commissions help guide the local government decision making process
Residents that want to get involved with local government often find citizen boards and commissions as a great way to learn about their community. Every local government of every size have these boards and commissions that help guide the local decision making process. These boards are advisory in nature and help provide guidance to the local legislative body (like a city council) when decisions come up.
A good example of one of these boards and commissions is a local Planning Commission. We have talked about our own Planning Commission here in Troy in a previous post. You can read that post here:
One of the aspects of the story that we really didn’t dive into is how members of the Planning Commission are appointed.
A Tale of Two Cities
Troy, being a “Statutory Committee” has it’s rules for board appointments in the Ohio Revised Code. Each advisory board and committee has different rules and regulations, but in general, the State Law empowers the Mayor to make those appointments with the concurrence of City Council.
These appointments are not approved by resolution or ordinance (a signed piece of legislation), but rather by a simple motion of council. This process is outlined in Rule IX of Council’s Rules of Procedure.
One of the aspects of the appointment process that might surprise residents is that Council does not receive a lot of information about those individuals designated to serve on the advisory bodies. Basically, city council members receive only the name and the address and the committee that the individual is being asked to served on. There is no discussion of educational credentials or what the individual does or how long they have been a part of the community.
Piqua, on the other hand, is a “charter community”. There general rules for operation come from their own city charter and code of ordinances. In Piqua, each individual up for a board or commission seat is approved by a full vote of the City Commission. Since the Mayor in Piqua has no executive authority (by practice, they simply run the City Commission meetings), those individuals apply to the Commission as a whole.
Better Questions, Better Process
In Piqua’s process, residents that want to serve on a board or commission must apply through an online form on the city’s website. You can look at their application form here. Notice what the City Commission wants to know; they want a resume, they want to know civic activities, they want to know how long you have lived in the community, they want to know if you have gone through a leadership training program (like the Piqua Government Academy). The information that they want speaks to not only the lengths that the City Commission wants residents to go through to earn an appointment, but it shows that the City Commission really wants to have a clear understanding of who these appointees are.
Troy’s process, doesn’t revolved around Council, ir revolves around the Mayor and this is the form you can fill out to be considered for a board appointment. By every measure, this form is not as comprehensive Piqua’s form. The questions, while good, are more general in nature and many of these questions are not required in order to submit an application.
It should also be noted that there is nothing in Troy’s Code of Ordinaces that requires an individual to complete this application to either apply for a new appointment or a re-appointment to an advisory board or commission role. The whole process of going through this process is truly voluntary. The Mayor has sole discretion to appoint individuals to these roles and there is nothing compelling the Mayor to use any process to get any information from an applicant.
If you are going to have a process….use it!
In order for government to work, it is advisable that there are well qualified and well intentioned people at all levels, including these advisory boards and committees. And while Troy has the beginning of a process to ensure that well qualified and well intentioned people are appointed, it is severely lacking in many aspects.
Primarily, it would be in the city’s best interest to ensure that all individuals seeking appointment or re-appointment to an advisory board or committee go through the process of filling out the online form. It would also be helpful if the form was redesigned to ensure that more information about education and civic acvities were asked.
The City’s process would also be strengthened if the completed application was shared with council becore their concurrence is requested. Many times each year, council is being asked to concur on these appointments; these members should have access to information on who these potential board committee members are.
Is it possible to increase the number of planning commission members to better represent the community? See ohio revised code sec 713.01
I filled out one of these application forms for the planning commission, but I assume that I will never get the call to serve, since it is completely at the discretion of the mayor.