SPRINGFIELD — A proposal to require the city to advertise vacancies on boards and commissions and to streamline the process for residents to offer their services will go before the City Council on Monday for final approval after it received a favorable recommendation from a council committee Thursday.
Councilor Michael Fenton, chairman of the council’s General Government Committee, said he will bring the proposed ordinance out of committee and support bringing it before the full council for a vote.
The ordinance, proposed by Council President Jesse Lederman, would require the City Clerk’s Office to maintain an up-to-date list of vacancies for various boards and committees on the city’s webpage, and provide a means for people to apply.
The list would give details for each board’s responsibilities and duties, the length of terms, and who the appointing authority is. It would also have a form where residents could apply for vacancies and list their contact information and their qualifications.
The city clerk’s office would then be responsible for forwarding applications to the appointing authority for review.
The idea behind it is to increase transparency while also bringing in more people who are interested in helping the city government function.
“It creates some guarantees for the future,” Lederman said.
“Someday none of us will be here, right?” he said. “We want to make sure that we’re putting in place practices that will benefit the city for posterity.”
In Springfield, appointments to non-elective boards or committees vary. Depending on the board, an appointment can be made by the mayor in most cases, but also by the city council president, or by a vote of the entire council.
The council has previously passed resolutions encouraging that board and committee vacancies be filled, but they were advisory. Passage of this ordinance would give it the added heft of being law.
“Currently, there is no formal process by which to petition an appointing authority for consideration,” Lederman said.
Recruitment for vacancies is handled on a case-by-case basis with the appointing authority usually picking someone they know and are comfortable with but not necessarily the most qualified, he said.
" I think that the spirit of this is that you shouldn’t have to know somebody to get appointed to a board or commission in Springfield,” Lederman said. “If you are a resident, you should be able to come forward and volunteer and be considered based on your qualification for the position.”
Fenton suggested the city Law Department weigh in on whether an online application for a voluntary board filed on the city website would be considered public information or would be treated as confidential like a job application.
Lederman said he would reach out to the Law Department. If it is considered public, that would have to be made clear up front to anyone thinking of volunteering, he said.
Councilor Justin Hurst asked if there was a time limit for when someone applying for a board has to be selected or rejected, or whether the person’s name gets removed from consideration.
Lederman said the wording of the ordinance does not address that directly. If someone filled out an application and never heard back, the person could probably request that their application be withdrawn, he said.
Hurst said it might be a good idea to consider that.
“If you had people who were on the list for a long time, it would be nice for us to know. Because if the mayor chose not to appoint them to a particular body, maybe we could offer them to slide onto a board that the city council is in charge of,” he said.
He emphasized it has to be made clear on the application if the appointing authority is the mayor or the council.
“If they are not selected and are on this list for a long time…what I would hate to see happen is folks think we are the ones responsible for them not being selected and remaining on the list forever,” he said. “Especially if we’re not the ones appointing them.”
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