15 - Procedure for appointing council officers and board appointments

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I in�tially prepared this for the city council in 2014, and thought it might be helpful again, JG Board appointments can bevoted ooinvarious ways each with some p|us,esand minuses, There ismo specific right orwrong methodology. Three | have seen and participated in(with some variations) are: 1. As many nominations ascouncil members want to make are placed (no seconds are needed, since this is not aformal motion). Once nominations cease, avote is called. if there are multiple vacancies, each council member is given the number of votes, equal to the number of vacancies. (For example, four people are nominated for two vacancies; each coumoi[ mmemnbe/ votes for two people; whoever gets the first and second most votes is appointed.) The advantage is that lots of people can get nominated (which makes 1benn feel less ignored even if they lose), and you can gothnaugh lots ofboards pretty fast. The downside is that |tcan get confusing, it is hard to make sure everyone votes the correct number of times, and someone can get chosen without a majority ofthe council voting for them. Z. Nominations are made and seconded to be placed into consideration. The council then votes among those who were nominated. The council may or may not require a majority vote to be appointed. If this option is used, run-offs may be necessary. The advantage is that if a person cannot even get a second, he/she certainly is not going to get edected, so why waste time voting on him/her? It also goes fairly quickly, though run-offs can get confusing and slow things down |fthey are used:. 3. An individual nomination is made and seconded. This is treated like any other motion, mo everyone votes on that motion (persam). This continues until every slot is filled. This allows persons to be considered individually, but that means it can be YM slow if you are filling lots of slots, and if council members are not paying attention, they might run out of slots before getting to a name on the list they actually like. That also means getting nominated early increases the chance ufbeing elected, which might not be fair. Also, when voting omeach person individually, voting "no" can hmNL a volunteer's feelings more than if he/she simply lost to another candidate(s) (i.e, voting for Joe instead of Susan in often more palatable than voting Yes on ]pe and Nonn5unam). Other methods used include rankings (usually following interviews), nominations by the mayor or staff (used by very large aind very small municipalities), appointing one member per council member (good for a charter commission or OP committee, but not recommended for standing boards), using a nominating committee (good for large organizations orchwrchex),etc.