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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06 COMMISSIONER SELECTION PROCESSAgenda Item 6 Reviewed. AGENDA REPORT CityManager� Finance DirectSd7O A MEETING DATE: NOVEMBER 5, 2013 TO: JEFFREY C. PARKER, CITY MANAGER FROM: DAVID E. KENDIG, CITY ATTORNEY SUBJECT: COMMISSIONER INTERVIEWS AND APPOINTMENTS PROCESS SUMMARY: This item is submitted for the Council to consider establishing procedures for City Council appointments to City commissions. RECOMMENDATION: Establish the following two -step process for appointments to fill future vacancies on City commissions: 1. In the event the City receives more applicants for a commission position than there are vacancies to fill, the Mayor will appoint an ad hoc committee for each City commission. The ad hoc committee shall be made up of two Council members who will review the applications, interview the candidates, and prepare a report with a recommendation to the full Council to appoint one (or more, if more than one position is vacant) of the candidates for that commission; and 2. The Council will then consider the report and recommendation at a public meeting and determine whether to appoint the recommended indlvidual(s) or to refer the matter back to the ad hoc committee for further review. Appointments would occur by nomination, which would be seconded, and the final vote on the appointment would be conducted by electronic roll call vote. FISCAL IMPACT: Minor, indirect costs associated with ad hoc committee interviews, but those costs are likely to be offset by reductions in costs associated with conducting a special meeting for the full Council to conduct similar Interviews. No other costs are anticipated. 963675.1 Commissioner Interviews And Appointments Process November 5, 2013 Page 2 of 6 CORRELATION TO THE STRATEGIC PLAN: Consideration of the procedures to apply to appointment of future commissioners advances Tustin's organizational value of transparency by enabling both commission candidates and the public to see and understand the City's actions and processes. (Strategic Plan, p. 6, Transparency.) BACKGROUND: Pursuant to the Tustin City Code, appointments to each of the City's commissions are made by the City Council. Although appointments are made by majority vote, the specific process the Council has used to interview, discuss, nominate and vote upon commissioner candidates has varied at the discretion of the Mayor and Council. This agenda item affords the Council an opportunity, if the Council wishes to do so, to establish one or more processes to be applied during the consideration of future commission appointments. OPTIONS: Although this Agenda Report includes a recommendation for an appointment process that includes appointment of an ad hoc committee and then voting upon the appointment of the candidate recommended by that committee, there are a number of alternative ways that candidates for commissions could be evaluated and appointed. The following list of options reflects some of the procedures the Council could adopt for use in future appointments. The options are broken down into two primary categories: (1) options for narrowing a field of applicants to an appropriate number of candidates for nominations to fill the vacancies; and (2) options for conducting the Council voting process. Options for Narrowing a Field of Several Candidates. When the Council last made commission appointments, there were more than ten candidates who had applied for appointment to the Planning Commission position. 963675.! Commissioner Interviews And Appointments Process November 5, 2013 Page 3 of 6 Options 1 through 5 below present alternative methods of "narrowing the field" when several candidates apply to be a City commissioner. Option 1: Appoint an ad hoc committee to narrow the field of candidates Under this approach, the Mayor would appoint an ad hoc committee for each commission for which there are vacancies. The ad hoc committee would consist of two Council members who would review all applications for that commission, and interview all candidates, and then present a written report with recommendation(s) to the Council. The Council would then do one of two things: Option 1A: Rely on the information in the report from the ad hoc committee in making the final appointment (instead of the full Council conducting more interviews); or Option 1B: The full Council could re- interview the recommended candidate(s) before making the Council's final appointment. This Option 1 could enable more in -depth interviews with candidates by the ad hoc committee than occurs during the public presentations at a group interview in a public meeting setting. This option would also reduce the amount of time that the full Council, the candidates, and interested public would spend in public meetings interviewing all the candidates. Under this approach, individual candidates would know whether they have been recommended for appointment and then would have the option whether to attend the public Council meeting at which the Council will consider the recommendation(s). Option 2: The Council interviews, nominates and appoints all the candidates at a public study session or meeting of the Council. This is the process that the Council used for the October 1st round of appointments. This process can involve a lengthy Council meeting or special study session in which multiple applicants are called upon to make public presentations and to respond to public questioning about their background and qualifications. The meeting typically winds up with a nomination process in which the Council appoints one or more candidates in the presence of other candidates who are not selected. 963675.1 Commissioner Interviews And Appointments Process November 5, 2013 Page 4 of 6 Option 3: The full Council interviews all applicants at a study session but nominations and appointment occur at a subsequent meeting. Option 3 is very similar to Option 2 except that the candidates are less likely to be present when the Council makes its selection(s). Also, this approach would allow individual Council members additional time to reflect upon the recommended appointee(s) after interviewing them. Because this option would require two meetings, it may be somewhat more time - consuming. Because of the public meeting context of the interviews, the interviews may prove less in -depth than those that could occur under other options. Option 4: When there are multiple vacancies, poll the Council for nominees. In the event there are two or more vacancies to be filled on a commission, and no ad hoc committee is appointed to recommend a nominee for each vacancy, the Council could publicly poll the Council members and tally the outcome to determine who will be nominated. An example may help better explain this option: If there are two vacancies on a commission, then Councilmember 1 might say he would nominate candidates A and B, while Councilmember 2 may say he would nominate candidates B and C, and Councilmember 3 may say he likes A and D, and so on. Once the poll is done, the two candidates who garner the most support during the poll would be the two nominees, and the Council would then vote on each of those two candidates to determine whether there is majority support for each appointment. If there is a tie in the polling support or there is not majority support for a nominee, then discussion would continue until a majority of the Council supports appointment of each of two nominees. (Note: the poll of the Council members at a public meeting may be conducted by written ballot, however, to comply with the Brown Act, the identity of each Council member and the content of his or her ballot must be made public when it is being tallied.) 9636751 Commissioner Interviews And Appointments Process November 5, 2013 Page 5 of 6 Option 5: Individual Council members interview applicants individually outside of a meeting (e.g., not as part of any ad hoc committee). At the subsequent Council meeting, the Council could then discuss the candidates, make nomination(s) and appoint. This option could result in more in -depth interviews with individual candidates than occurs during a group interviews in a public meeting setting. Due to Brown Act restrictions, a majority of the Council members' may not meet outside of a public meeting to conduct the interviews. As a result, the individual interviews option would require more one -on -one interviews, and therefore more time and effort on the part of the candidates and the individual Council members. This could be particularly burdensome to coordinate when there are many candidates. Option 6: No action. If the Council chooses not to establish a commissioner nomination and appointment process in advance, then the Mayor and the Council will determine a process each time a vacancy occurs. Options for conductina the Council voting process. Options A and B below would each be permissible methods of nominating and appointing a commissioner(s) once the field has been narrowed and a candidate has been nominated and the nomination seconded,' the vote could proceed in either of the two following ways: Voting Option A: Electronic roll call vote. Under this option, the vote on the appointment itself would be by electronic roll call. Under the electronic roll call method, all Council members enter their Yes or No votes for the nominee electronically, and, once all are entered, then all the votes for that candidate would then be revealed simultaneously. Note: substitute motions /nominations are also a possibility. A substitute nomination, if seconded, would be discussed and voted upon first. If the substitute motion failed (or failed to gain a second), then the original nomination would be voted upon. 963675.1 Commissioner Interviews And Appointments Process November 5, 2013 Page 6 of 6 Voting Option B: Voice Vote. Under this option, the vote on the appointment would occur with the Mayor first calling for all in support, then all opposed, and announcing the vote and the outcome at the conclusion of the voting. Conclusion: There has been an overall increase in interest in participating on the City's commissions. Given the time needed to review the applications closely and to conduct appropriately in -depth interviews with the applicants, the Council may wish to consider establishing an ad hoc committee process to commissioner nominations that results in written recommendations to the Council. We hope this proves helpful. The City Attorney will be available to address any questions you may have at the Council's meeting. 463675.1