Washington County seeks standardized board applications

WASHINGTON — County supervisors plan to adopt a standardized form for those seeking spots on the local government’s boards and commissions. A first draft of the template was discussed at a meeting on Tuesday.

Washington County Supervisor Jack Seward Jr. said the file could be tailored to the liking of any given commission.

“If a department head has a particular need, it could be revised, edited, to suit the department,” he said. “But in general, if somebody wants to come to the supervisors and say, ‘Hey, I’d like to be considered for a spot,’ I think it’s a good place to start.”

While revisions to the application’s wording are underway, supervisors said the final version would be distributed by their own office. That would reverse an unspoken norm of board volunteers seeking out to relevant department leaders before word reaches the county heads.

County Public Health Director Emily Tokheim said it would be important to ensure department leaders remained involved in the process.

“This is just one piece of the process when looking for board members,” she said. “It’s important that department heads are involved, they see these, they have an opportunity to talk, if they would like, with the people interested. Because they’re going to know the feedback.”

Seward said the process should still start with supervisors, however, given their final say in whether an applicant gets approved to serve.

The application would not scrap the county’s typical procedure for choosing appointees, in which applicants are considered by the relevant board, which recommends one of them to supervisors, before supervisors make their own final vote.

“Since it is up to the Board of Supervisors to make the appointment, it should come to us, and then it should flow down to the department head,” he said. “And if the department head has somebody that they want to do it, then they should say, ‘Fill this out, let the supervisors know,’ so information can kind of flow both ways.”

While some department leaders say they’re having a harder time than ever finding volunteers, others have seen growing competition for spots on their respective board as people get more engaged in their area of local government.

Board of Health applicants, especially seem to be on the rise, as evidenced by recent weeks of discussion about whether to appoint Seward and Board Chair Cathy Buffington to that body.

County supervisors said they would also consider requiring application materials from people seeking reappointments in an effort to give everyone a fair shake.

“I would say, every time something’s open, we advertise it,” Supervisor Marcus Fedler said. “If we get applications, we get applications. If you want to get reappointed, do that.”

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