Fayetteville could end board term limits

Changes would apply to citizen boards, committees

FAYETTEVILLE -- A proposal by Alderman Alan Long would do away with term limits for all resident boards and committees.

The mayor and members of the City Council can serve as many four-year terms as they're elected to.

Council Agenda

Fayetteville’s City Council is scheduled to meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in Room 219 of the City Administration Building, 113 W. Mountain St. Also on the agenda:

• New rules for city initiatives and referendums.

• An amendment requiring scooter drivers insure their vehicles.

• An “Active Transportation Plan” for trail, sidewalk and bike lane projects.

• A $1 million contract with Crossland Heavy Contractors of Columbus, Kan., to replace a more than 70-year-old drainage culvert in the Washington-Willow neighborhood.

• Prohibiting drivers from parking in front of or blocking mailboxes.

• 11 vehicle purchases totaling $1.3 million.

Source: Staff Report

But members of more than two dozen other groups, including the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, Environmental Action Committee and Fayetteville Arts Council, are limited to two consecutive terms. Board members must step down after that and aren't eligible for reappointment until another full term has passed.

Term lengths vary by board. Members of the Civil Service Commission serve six-year terms, for example, while members of the Housing Authority Board are on a five-year rotation.

Long said Tuesday his proposal would allow good committee members to keep their posts, regardless of how long they've been in them.

"We (as the City Council) should be able to make the decision and pick the best candidate for the job," Long said. "We need to get the best pool of applicants we can and pick from them instead of arbitrarily saying, 'No, you can't apply.'"

Generally, the City Council's Nominating Committee interviews applicants and recommends appointments to the council.

All registered voters can apply for vacancies. However, some boards have specific requirements. Four members of the Advertising and Promotion Commission must own or manage a hotel or restaurant, for instance. Two members of the City Board of Health must be physicians.

In the case of the Planning Commission, which signs off on rezoning requests, large-scale developments and reviews a whole host of other items, appointees come from a variety of backgrounds. Many are planners, engineers, architects or builders. They serve a maximum of two consecutive three-year terms, meaning, in most cases, a commissioner must vacate his position after six years.

Porter Winston and Craig Honchell are recent examples of commissioners who have been term-limited. Winston and Honchell were replaced last month by Tom Brown, a retired material construction planner with ConocoPhillips, and Matt Hoffman, a project designer with the University of Arkansas' Community Design Center.

Winston, a carpenter with 3GD Inc., said, if given the choice, he would have liked to have stayed on the commission another three years. Instead, he'll serve a three-year term on the Board of Adjustments, which hears appeals from developers, and intends to reapply for the Planning Commission in 2018.

Winston said for planning commissioners, whose job often involves very technical aspects of development issues, it takes a while to get up to speed.

"I felt like it took me a good three years to feel like I really understood what it was all about," he explained. "Having term limits does offer that possibility of mixing it up. On the other hand, three years seems like a long time to have someone off the commission if they're effective."

Kyle Cook, a planning commissioner who served as chairman of the City Council's Nominating Committee for several years, disagreed.

"Six years is a pretty long time," Cook said.

"From my perspective, on the national and state election scale, I hate term limits," he added. "I think, as a voter, you should be able to make that decision on who stays and who doesn't.

"But when it comes to the city boards, at that level, I think we should have turnover. We want to bring new ideas and fresh people in, different perspectives, and I think that's important."

According to Lisa Branson, deputy city clerk, 18 people applied for a seat on the Planning Commission earlier this year, making it one of the most sought-after appointments.

With other boards, such as the Audit and Town and Gown Advisory committees, no one applied. City code stipulates board members can continue serving if no one else applies for their position.

Cook said having term limits encourages residents to apply for boards and committees as veteran board members are term-limited off.

Long disagreed.

"I think it sends a really bad message to our constituents and to the citizens of Fayetteville if we say, 'No, we can't take your application,'" he said. "That, to me, says, 'We don't want you to engage us on that level.' I want us to engage as many people as possible."

NW News on 04/01/2015

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