Why Even Bother to Apply?

Troy's Board and Commission Appointment Process is Broken

One of the cornerstones of this project is giving residents of our hometowns opportunities to learn about how their local governments work and doing our level best to open doors to allow these residents to serve their community. This is important because what we have seen in many local communities is a lack of residents willing to step up and give back in important positions in our local government; we see local races for public office often go uncontested, and we see a lack of new voices and ideas on local boards and commissions.

Some communities actually work hard to recruit individuals to serve on their local government’s boards and commissions. Just last week at the Tipp City Council Meeting, a number of council members talked about how there were open spots on boards, and they were asking residents to file an application with the City Council Clerk for consideration.

Then there is Troy. This community supposedly has a process to encourage residents to apply for seats on city boards and commissions — but the more we see this process in action, the more we see that it’s a complete farce.

Earlier this year, we learned from an interesting interaction between the Mayor and Council that our board process prioritizes existing members of boards and commission, even to the point where these individuals need not reapply.

Council President Rozell: “Mayor, those five, did we have any other input from citizens that expressed an intrest? Nobody expressed to be on the CIC?”

Mayor Oda: “No.”

Council Member Schilling: “I have a question. Madame mayor did the, um the five that are being reappointed to the board, are they, did they resubmit their application to do that?”

Mayor Oda: “Not a requirement.”

Council Member Schilling: “You don't require that? Okay so they just, you contacted them and they said, yeah we'd like to continue.”

Mayor Oda: “The process is we reach out to them to ask if they are interested in reappointment and if they are then we don't go any further with it.”

The above transcript was about seating people on the Board of Directors of the City’s Community Improvement Corporation, a nonprofit arm of the city that ostensibly works to achieve economic and community development goals of the community.

At the council’s last meeting, the Mayor needed to appoint a new member to the Board of Directors of the Community Improvement Corporation for a term beginning after the first of the year. This individual, as customarily expected, was approved by City Council through a unanimous vote and without any comment or question.

This publication made a public records request of the city for a record of this individual’s board application to serve on the Board of the Community Improvement Corporation; the response was that an application did not exist.

This publication then followed up and asked for a public records request for all individuals that have applied to be on the Board of the Community Improvement Corporation. The city responded with applications from 20 individuals; two of those individuals sent applications this month.

The Mayor has the opportunity to appoint whomever they wish to the city’s board and commissions. For most of the city’s board or commissions, there are no formal requirements. But, it leaves open the question, why does the city even have an online form for citizens to use, if residents are going to be continually ignored?

Residents live in a community that prioritizes citizen involvement and creating processes that formalizes that participation helps create a sense of openness and transparency, but only if those tools are actually implemented.

If the city is not going to use their online form to find and recruit individuals for board and commission openings, it should simply stop the charade and get rid of the online form altogether.

What Do You Think?

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