Thread by @shayshinecastle

OK, got my interview done in time for the board and commission appointments to start.

Presentation here: documents.bouldercolorado.gov/WebLink/DocVie…

I cover these every year (although I might have missed last year...?) and while it seems pretty boring, it's actually fairly important in sneaky ways. Kind of like judicial appointments at the federal level: They influence policy.

How do I mean? Boulder's boards govern things like liquor licenses, development, open space, parks & rec, transportation.

Some of these boards are more powerful than others, and therefore some are more political than others.

For example: The Planning Board would have some mandatory seats for planning professionals, you would think. But not so: For a couple years there, there wasn't one single architect or other professional on there.

It's instead been used to stack one side or the other when it comes to growth and development issues, Boulder's main (in the past) political divide. It's been more slow-growth folks in past years, though that has shifted as power has.

The same could be said (about growth and development politics) of the Water Resources Advisory Board or the Open Space Board of Trustees. This matters bc they sometimes weigh in on projects like CU South.

Another reason boards/commissions matter: They often serve as a "debut" for future city council members. They get into the system and work their way up.

Anyway, long-winded, but hopefully you understand why I spend my time (and yours) on this.

We're starting out talking about the problems that vacancies and a lack of applicants have caused.

This is a particularly low year for participation: In recent years, we've had ~90 applicants. This year was 60, and 17 of them withdrew / were ineligible.

That left 43 applicants for 29 open spots. Only 6 boards got more applicants than they had seats.

Planning Board, in some ways the most powerful, got 2 applicants. Two!

Councilwoman Folkerts asked staff to talk about why, so we'll check in on that later.

I guess I did cover this last year. Just to show how many fewer people we got, last year the Environmental Advisory Board and Transportation Advisory Board got 13 applications each!

boulderbeat.news/2022/03/09/202…

This year, they had 5 applicants combined. 2 for EAB — which has 2 open seats — and 3 for TAB, which 1 spot available.

City clerk Elesha Johnson says that 19 folks withdrew or were ineligible, not 17. My figure (17) came from the notes; unclear which number is accurate, but the point remains the same: Not a lot of folks vying for these spots.

That being said, some of these applicants were so impressive. The Housing Advisory Board candidates, in particular, impressed me, as did the Parks & Red Advisory Board folks. So many people volunteering and giving back, bringing lived experience. Love to see it.

Lynn Segal is our sole public hearing speaker, and she is once again delighting me. Absence really does make the heart grow fonder.

At the same time, I am so, so happy to not be sitting in here every Tuesday. I know ya'll miss me, and I miss you, but the hours and stress just weren't worth it. Happy to be putting my talents to better (if less visible) use.

Thursday*
That's how long it's been... council meetings used to be on Tuesdays.

Arts Commission: 2 seats, 2 applicants
- Jeffrey Kash gets the 5-year term
- Sheryl Cardoza gets the 3-year term

Board of Zoning Adjustment (BOZA): 1 seat (5 years), 2 applicants

Drew Eisenberg, renewable energy engineer at Siemens and member of Boulder Police Community Dialogue and Engagement Panel (for 3 years) is the sole nominee, so he gets it

Raymond (Jack) Rudd, a current member, also applied, but council likes to give new folks a chance.

Cannabis Licensing Advisory Board (CLAB)- 2 seats, 5 applicants
- 1 must be MJ biz owner or rep (2 applicants)
- 1 must have health/education background (3 applicants)

Ethan Daniel, cultivation manager at Green Dot Labs, gets the biz owner/rep seat

For the other seat, Winer noms Thomas Kunstman - current member (but hasn't served a full term yet) and semi-retired doctor

Folkers nominates Penny Friedberg, a retired professor of nutrition

Kunstman gets it.

Another board with some v qualified applicants, as Friend is calling out now.

Some CLAB news coming from me next week: Their recommendation to allow weed hospitality spots in Boulder. Basically, bars where you can smoke/imbibe pot.

Some interesting conditions they're recommending there. More details next week.

Design Advisory Board - 2 seats, 2 applicants, but they're only filling the one tonight(?) There was some discussion earlier about why, but it was really in the weeds, so I didn't tweet it.

Stephen Eckert, an architect, is appointed to the DAB seat.

JK, they're filling both. Eckert gets the 5-year seat and Rory Bilocerkowycz, current DAB member, will get the 3-year(?) seat.

Environmental Advisory Board: 2 seats, 2 applicants
- Michael SanClements, current member, gets the 1-year term
- Alexandra Bothwell gets the full 5-year spot

"This appointment process has been pretty nasty so far," Brockett jokes, bc they're literally sailing through these with no disagreements. Just filling seats with available folks.

Now we'll get some action: Housing Advisory Board - 2 seats, 5 applicants

Speer nominates Yvonne Durbin, a renter who works in nonprofit community development/financing, and works on opportunity zones,

Folkerts nominates Karin Hoskin (Boulder Beat reader!), who lives in a permanently affordable home, volunteers with TGTHR doing street outreach and is the former director of Cohousing US

Yates nominates Karen Klerman, a commercial real estate financing specialist, Boulder Shelter Board member and previously BHP board member. Also previously served on the Downtown Management Commission — one of the boards that got 0 applicants this time

Klerman gets the 5-year seat; Hoskin gets the 1-year term

Human Relations Commission - 2 seats, 2 applicants
- Fikir Yacob, current member, gets the full 5-year term. He got the 1-year spot last year.
- Anna Pavlenko, who rents an affordable unit in Boulder, gets the 1-year spot this time

Our first board with not enough applicants: Landmarks Board, which has 2 seats but only 1 applicant

John Decker, current member, is reappointed to the longer, 5-year seat

Library Commission, which I'm confused about because that won't exist once the district is up and running, nonetheless has a 5-year seat up for grabs. 2 applicants

Miriam Gilbert, a publisher, gets it

Brockett tackling my confusion: That commission won't likely be doing much after this year, bc the district will have its own board. Applications for THAT are open now.

Open Space Board of Trustees - 1 seat (5 years) 5 applicants

Folkerts nominates Mason Roberts

Yates/Friend(?) nominates Brady Robinson, who is involved in Open Boulder and many outdoor/conservation groups, and apparently has done a TED talk

Folkerts: I appreciated the detail with which Mason (another Boulder Beat reader!) links his ideas to our existing plans and ongoing knowledge of issues.

"For someone who hasn't served on a board or commission, he clearly did a lot of research."

Applicants to this board also included 2 previous planning board members, which speaks to my point earlier about which boards are political, and why

Robinson gets the OSBT spot. Here's his TED talk, if you're interested

Parks & Recreation Advisory Board - 2 seats and 7 applicants — the most this year

Andrew Bernstein, who mentioned in his application that he is a disabled person and user of the city parks system/services, gets a seat.

For the second seat, Friend nominates Anna Segur, a super locally involved parent, including with the Latino Parent Advisory Council for BVSD. She also assists Afghan and Iraqi refugees

Winer nominates Jennifer Robins, works in telecomms real estate, runs a Girl Scout troop

Segur gets it

Planning Board - 1 seat, 2 applicants: The least I have ever seen, if my memory is correct. Reminder: This board has a vote on development.

Kurt Nordback, a housing/ADU advocate and super involved and informed resident when it comes to housing/land use, gets it by acclimation

Transportation Advisory Board - 1 seat, 3 applicants

Maria (Triny) Willerton, current member, is the only nominee, so she gets it

Lastly: Water Resources Advisory Board - 1 seat , 1 applicant. Lauren Koopman is appointed to a 5-year term

And with that, the quickest and least political appointment process I've ever seen is over.

Brockett says the same thing: The smoothest one I've seen in 8 years on council

Benjamin: "I wish we had more applicants is the only thing I'd say is a frustration with this process."

Yates: "I think there's actually been a trend the last 2 or 3 years. That signals something is not quite right or welcoming." Asks NRV to go into detail on the process to evaluate boards and commissions.

NRV: "A couple things: We have talked about boards and commissions for a while. We are going to be having a consultant take a look at that. The issue is not new to cities."

Maybe there are too many of them, NRV says consultants have suggested. Maybe the terms are too long: 5 years can be "daunting," she says.

"While these are voluntary boards, are there additional ways to support, from stipends to child care to parking."

Other cities have explored that, NRV says. "Those are decisions we will be bringing forward."

Also, consultants will look at the "scope" of boards, NRV says. Some have overlapping work; maybe we can eliminate 1 or 2.

"Everything is on the table," she says.

As to timing: maybe the latter part of the year, NRV says. "Possibly" some recommendations before we do this again next year.

Folkerts: Is it typical to have that many applicants who were ineligible or withdrew?

Johnson: :It is typical. We normally have about 10% of applications that are deemed ineligible" due to residency or special conditions, like being a biz owner or property owner.

You can *rep* for a biz or property owner, on the boards where that is required, Johnson says, but you need to have a letter from them vouching for you.

Folkerts: How did our outreach efforts this year compare to past years?

Some staffer I don't know: The one-year residency requirements disqualified a lot of people. (As in, you have to have lived in Boulder for at least 1 year)

Basically, our outreach efforts were the same, staff says.

Folkerts: Did we utilize professional, industry groups? Do we need to work on that a bit?

Johnson: What we've normally done in the past is rely on board members to promote this. But if we did get a list of where to post, we could do that. We'd still rely on them to develop that list.

Benjamin: We have some v active civic groups. We could directly partner with them. Maybe hosting a q&a. "They've got an engaged membership."

"Are we leveraging our community connectors?"

Johnson: We have been working with our communications department, and they have been asking for the assistance of the community connectors. "We will work with the suggestions that we've been given by council."

Friend: "Everybody is a little frustrated the numbers were kind of low this year, but I think it's awesome. It's a chance for us to flip the script and say this is not working. There's not a lot of benefit to being a board member sometimes."

"It's even harder in this environment where things turn toxic," Friend says. "I love it that we kind of failed this year. Onward to a much more diverse, broad outreach, however that looks."

Winer: Design Advisory Board, I think for a few years now, we haven't even been able to fill that one seat. With boards where we have the hardest time, maybe we can look to professional organizations.

No applicants for these boards: BJAD (both) Downtown Management Commission, Beverage Licensing Authority and Uni Hill Commercial Area Management Commission

These are some of the same ones that we always struggle with. BJAD in particular, which is 2 boards specific to the Boulder Junction area

You can still apply to these! Council has been doing mid-year appointments since at least 2019, bc they never fill all these seats. boulderbeat.news/2019/06/05/cou…

The point being, this is not a new issue.

Anyway, done with that. On to the next!

Actually, before we move on, let's speculate just a tiny little bit. Not generally a good idea, but this is informed speculating.

Some reasons maybe we aren't getting more applicants, in addition to the reasons already discussed: We just went through a super-messy appointment process for the Police Oversight Board.

And while they're not part of this, and their work is v specific, folks watching may have wanted to steer clear of serving the city on any groups.

Also, maybe with shifting political power, people are less motivated. We've seen the same pool of folks forever and ever in some of these roles.

Lastly, people be busy. And tired.

Why do YOU think we got so many fewer applicants? Let me know! Your guess is (probably) as good as mine, if you've been watching as long as I have. More perspectives welcome!

@threadreaderapp please unroll. Thanks!

@threadreaderapp Guess I should add one more reason we got fewer: Less media coverage? I don't think I have that much reach, but I might be worth an applicant or 2.

Camera and BRL were still on it, I think; at least one applicant referenced BRL's writeup about it.