Column: Addressing Carson City’s boards, commissions and committees
Submitted by editor on Fri, 01/23/2015 - 3:47pm
Committee appointments by the Board of Supervisors has been a much talked about subject the last few weeks. Here’s my take:
Carson City has many boards, commissions and committees (BCCs) that typically include one or two city supervisor representatives in addition to city staff and representatives from the public, who may be appointed or apply for their positions. A complete list of Carson City’s boards, commissions and committees (BCCs), and information about each, may be found here:
The Board of Supervisors, which consists of five members including the Mayor, votes for which supervisor sits on which BCC. I can only speak to how I made decisions about which supervisor should sit on each BCC. I nominate or vote for a supervisor based on (1) their background experience or knowledge as it pertains to the pertinent subject matter; (2) their prior experience sitting on a specific BCC , either as a supervisor or as a citizen member, and the job that person did in relaying information back to the Board or to the public; and (3) their desire to serve on a BCC.
Some BCCs are extremely time consuming and complex. RTC (regional transportation commission), for example, deals with transportation issues throughout Carson City, works with the adjacent counties and NDOT on a variety of issues including road maintenance and the Jump Around Carson (JAC) public transportation system. Getting my arms around the many projects RTC is involved in was no small feat when I was appointed to this committee two years ago, and the steep learning curve continues today. The Carson Water Sub-Conservancy is equally as complex and time consuming.
Serving on each BCC is a privilege that is not to be taken lightly. There is a responsibility associated with BCC appointments and the supervisor appointed to each position has an important, unique function. Sometimes a Supervisor’s appropriate role is to simply listen, provide feedback when requested, and report back to the Board of Supervisors. Sometimes, important decisions are made at the BCC level with other government jurisdictions. In any case, all of the BCC positions are important and the appointment process is a serious matter which unfortunately was made to be a bit of a mockery a couple of weeks ago.
Please do not let this discourage you from finding out more about the BCC appointments, and if you are interested in serving as a citizen member of a BCC, I want to know. Some appointments are made for a two or four year term, some are made annually. So there can be a wait for an appointment, but it’s important that our citizens get involved where their interests and areas of specialization lay, so I strongly encourage new faces to get involved in the process where they can and wish to.
The BCC appointment process is truly an example of democracy at work. Your elected officials vote for each other to these posts, and then each elected official typically has an opportunity to vote on citizen appointments to each BCC. As is usually the case in a democracy, no one is happy all the time and there is always room for improvement in the process. I encourage you to become an active, informed participant in that process going forward.
— Brad Bonkowski is the Ward 2 Supervisor for Carson City. He can be reached at BBonkowski@carson.org.
