The Town Council voted on Feb. 1 to adopt a new policy that asks people interested in being appointed to boards or commissions to be present at a Council meeting prior to their approval.

At the start of each Council meeting, the members vote on approving any interested residents nominated to fill vacant seats on the various local boards and commissions.

Often these appointments contain the same familiar faces of interested volunteers, but sometimes those interested in serving are people unknown to the Town Council members. That can cause some Council members to question whether the appointed person is the right fit for the job.

Council member Carrie Allen raised that issue at a Feb. 1 meeting. Following a discussion, the members agreed to have new appointees come to Council meetings so that members can first ask questions of the people if the members want to.

Council chairman Chris Aniskovich said that it would be communicated to applicants that they would not be considered for open seats until they appear at a meeting.

“The only thing we’re changing about the appointment policy is that we’ll be asking the individuals to come to a meeting in case Council members have questions. Everything else is the same,” said Aniskovich.

In an effort to increase participation in the town boards and commissions, the Council unanimously enacted a revised appointment policy in 2020.

Per that policy, once a seat on a board or commission becomes available, that seat will remain open for a period of 14 days. Notices will be sent to town committees, including the Green Party, and posted on the town website.

Applications will be available online for anyone interested in the open seat to be filled out and sent to the Town Council, which will review the candidates. The openings will still be subject to minority representation requirements.

Prior to 2020, open seats were customarily filled by the party to which the person resigning belonged. That party would nominate a candidate to fill the seat. That process led to occasional accusations that the people appointed were not always the most qualified.

Furthermore, people who were not registered to either the Republican or Democratic parties but wanted to fill a vacancy were disadvantaged since the major parties dominated most seats in town.

The new policy was adopted to level the playing field so that no one person or party has an advantage when it comes to filling a seat.

Part of the reason the Council opted to make a new appointment policy in 2020 was due to charter changes that went into effect in 2019 that prohibit an individual from holding more than one elected position and three appointed positions concurrently (excluding subcommittees and ad-hoc committees). Under the previous charter, there were instances of the same individuals holding multiple positions, even on boards that would occasionally conflict with each other.

Speaking at the meeting in 2022, Council member Dennis Donovan said he felt that having interested people come directly to the Town Council instead of going through the Democratic or Republican Town Committee (RTC) could also eliminate some bias.

Donovan said that not only would some people potentially be turned off by the idea of having to make their case to both the town committee and then again to the Town Council, but it could also lead to petty politics stopping some people from joining.

“I’ve seen where if somebody doesn’t really get along with the members of the RTC, they’re going to ostracize them. And I’m sure it’s happened on your side. Let’s be frank about it. We know personalities come into this,” Donovan said during the meeting on Feb 1.

When a vacancy occurs on a board, the Town Clerk’s Office sends out a notice to various entities about that vacancy. The clerk then updates the town Blue Book—a document that keeps track of every seat in town, the term length, and the political party of that position. The book is updated every time a vacancy occurs or is filled.

A list of open seats will be kept and updated online as seats open become available, and social media will be used to keep people informed of the openings.