Sammamish City Council changes advisory boards
October 27, 2009
By J.B. Wogan
The City Council took steps to simplify its advisory board system Oct. 20, limiting the number of positions and staggering terms for one of its main boards.
The change would also allow a non-Sammamish resident to make recommendations on local parks decisions.
The council has five acting advisory boards, which study art, land-use, parks, Beaver Lake, and youth issues.
Most of the council’s changes regard the size and timing of turnover in the Parks Commission.
“The council wants everybody on the same page,” Parks Commission Chairman Hank Klein explained.
The Parks Commission is a body of nine citizens appointed by the council to mull over parks and recreation issues and make recommendations to the council. The Parks Commission also has three alternates, something the council decided to change. Alternates, also appointed by the council, would attend meetings and step in to take a vote if a sitting commissioner was absent.
“In essence, that means you’re doing a lot of the work, but you don’t really count,” Klein said.
There was also the sticky issue of whether alternates deserved full-time seats when regular commissioners left. The council created the alternate positions in 2002 as a way to quickly replace commissioners with other knowledgeable citizens, according to Parks Director Jessi Richardson.
The council picked a new applicant over an existing alternate in December 2008.
“Given that this action was inconsistent with the original intention of the alternate positions, we feel it is unnecessary and perhaps unfair to continue these positions,” Richardson wrote in a memo to the council.
The council is also changing when commissioner terms expire. Six commissioners’ terms were set to expire in 2010 and another four would expire in 2011. Richardson wrote that staggering the terms would minimize the impacts of commissioner turnover.
“The current rotation could result in 100 percent turnover within a two-year period,” she wrote.
In future years, no more than three commissioner terms will expire at any one time, with three of four years having just two terms expire.
The staggering of four-year terms, plus eliminating alternates, will make the Parks Commission more like the council’s land-use advisory board, the Planning Commission.
The consistency will not exist at the Arts Commission, however. That advisory board, which helps plan for public art installations and art exhibitions at City Hall, chose not to do away with its alternates.
“Their attitude was, the more the merrier,” said Lyman Howard, finance director and Arts Commission staff liaison. He said the commissioners considered alternate positions a good training opportunity for future commissioners.
Non-residents will get their say
The council also agreed to a provision that would allow one non-Sammamish resident to sit on the Parks Commission. The change might have implications in the future if Sammamish takes over Klahanie Park. A Klahanie resident could join the commission to speak on behalf of Klahanie residents.
Reporter J.B. Wogan can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 247, or jbwogan@isspress.com.
Comments
Got something to say?
Before you comment, please note:
- These comments are moderated.
- Comments should be relevant to the topic at hand and contribute to its discussion.
- Personal attacks and/or excessive profanity will not be tolerated and such comments will not be approved.
- This is not your personal chat room or forum, so please stay on topic.
