Study Session - 6/20/2023 5:45:00 PM

push it on
gonna give this a 30 second warning
councilmember Anderson if you want to
make your way back
we'll get started
foreign
okay I'm going to call to order this
Gilbert Town Council study session for
the evening of June 20th 2023 we have a
quick study session that Judy Martinez
is going to present to us this evening
we apologize for the delay we were in
executive session interviewing for our
veterans Advisory Board Judy I'm going
to kick it over to you um chevelli just
one question is council member kaprowski
on teams already she is okay thank you
very much Judy it's all yours
thank you mayor Peterson
mayor Peterson Gilbert Town Council it's
my pleasure to present to you the
recommendations of the Council
subcommittee on board and commission
processes we'll go through this very
quickly but I'm more than happy to go
back to anything or provide more
information if requested
a little background the
subcommittee was activated on April 4th
with mayor Peterson serving as chair and
vice mayor tilkey and council member
Torgeson rounding out the subcommittee
their task was simply to review the
current processes for appointments to
boards commissions and committees
the subcommittee met on May 3rd and
reviewed the town code regarding Boards
of commission recent changes to the town
code a list of their active boards the
current processes and known items for
consideration
this is an overview of the application
process it's just a high level overview
I won't go through each one but this is
an internal process it's an
administrative process that the clerk's
office uses but it's obviously open to
suggestions that's why we're here
tonight so we're happy to implement any
changes that are requested
once the application closes the council
is tasked with reviewing the
applications the video interviews if
provided and then the council submits
their individual rankings to the clerk's
office
important to note that the rankings
determine who gets in-person interviews
with the council the lower the number
the better the ranking so number one is
the First Choice it's a very easy
ranking system a cumulative number is
determined for each applicant by the
clerk's office
the top ranked applicants are selected
for in-person interviews and the typical
process is to interview two times the
number of openings so if there's two
openings the typical process is to
interview the top four ranked applicants
all applicants are notified before the
agenda is published so that's those
selected to be interviewed and those not
the cumulative scores are shared with
the council at the time of the
interviews but not the individual scores
and the interviews are with the entire
Council
um this is just the administrative
process for after the interviews the
important thing to note is that the
council makes the motion during a public
meeting
and the appointments require a majority
of vote of the council and then the rest
just outline kind of our process of
updating everything notifying the staff
Liaisons and that type of thing
so why we're all here today
um the recommendations the subcommittee
discussed the staff Liaisons involvement
in the screening the recommendation was
that no formal process is needed but
that the council liaison assigned to
that board takes the initiative to speak
to the staff Liaisons just to see if
there's any important information they
need to share if their strengths and
weaknesses of the current body if
there's any ideal background and
qualifications they're looking for and
if there's any incumbent information
they would like to share
um we asked the council to consider the
their participation with the rankings
they did feel it was important that
everyone continues to rank them
um the clerk's office does want to
extend more training to the council
members if requested
um or in further explanation of the
ranking system and we also wanted to
note that the files will soon be shared
in SharePoint versus Dropbox which
should make them more easily accessible
the subcommittee also discussed the
methods of rankings and their
recommendation was to keep the current
method they felt that it was simple to
use there were no known issues they were
very pleased with the pull of applicants
that come in and they also liked the
type form ranking method where you
simply drag and drop the applicants in
the order that you prefer
another consideration was we asked them
to
look at if the incumbent should have a
different process to reapply and the
recommendation was to keep that process
the same so the income should have the
same application and also still be
ranked and come in for interviews
this is the most significant change
currently we extend a video interview
link to all of the applicants and the
recommendation was that they the group
actually really liked those video
interviews as a way to vet through
applications so their recommendation was
to actually make the video interview
mandatory so that's the most significant
change it was recommended that the video
interview is reduced from three
questions to one and the question is
listed there but it's just a general
question a way for the applicant to kind
of introduce themselves to you for you
to kind of get to know them and again
it's just one step in the process to
help you vet through those applications
we did um
consider if
there was a low number of participants
that that would really reduce your pool
to choose from so it was recommended
that the clerk's office could extend the
deadline for the video interview portion
and as a result we would also open the
recruitment earlier to allow for
possible extensions
we also noted that the initial
advertising should include that notice
that there would be a mandatory video
interview and then the clerk's office
can also offer assistance to any
applicants that maybe don't have a
camera or have technical issues they
could schedule an appointment to come in
and get that done with us
and another big item of consideration
were term lengths so the code does state
that the term should be three years
unless otherwise provided by law
ordinance boarding commission bylaws or
Articles of Incorporation
what you see before you are the boards
with three-year terms
and probably what you're more interested
in are those that have longer terms
so the public safety personnel
retirement system local pension boards
for police and fire they do have a
four-year term that is defined in
statute
the one that was I think most of of most
interest to the council was the
Industrial Development Authority because
they only meet typically annually and
they have a six-year term which is quite
long that is actually also defined in
statute
the Redevelopment commission has a
four-year term and that is defined in
statute so it's noted in the town code
and in the zoning code but it does
reference the statute
the one exception that I found is the
Planning Commission there is a statutory
reference under Title IX cities and
towns for a Planning Commission but it
only states that members must have at
least or I'm sorry that the board must
have at least five members which ours
has more
that the terms are provided by local
ordinance and so there's no actual
statutory reference for term links
the subcommittee did not at this point
recommend shortening those terms I think
they wanted just more information but it
looks like we could
shorten those term lengths to three
years if that is the request of the
council but at this point that seems to
be the only one that does not have a
statutory reference
and then just a quick note on your
regular meeting agenda this evening you
have an item to possibly approve two new
policies one is the ethics handbook and
one is the code of conduct so we just
wanted to note that if you do approve
that item tonight then we would add
those items to the resources that are
required for board and commission
members to review
all I have tonight I know that I went
through that very quickly but I'm happy
to go back to anything and and discuss
anything further and obviously we are
here to implement any changes that you
as a council recommend so
happy to help
thank you Judy any questions or comments
for Judy at this time
then we I think it looks like we're
going to move forward with the
recommendations from the subcommittee
from what I'm seeing here I'm councilman
member koprowski did you have any
comments on this issue
no further comments thank you thank you
um so it looks like we'll move forward
with the recommendations from the
subcommittee I think we covered all the
topics that we were concerned about and
I
from the planning commission's
perspective I like that it's in line
with the Redevelopment commission so I
think that we're good with leaving that
one the same since we didn't
specifically outline anything but yes
thank you thank you Mary thank you to
the subcommittee and thank you all for
your time I want to thank you for your
time and all the changes that you've
already made to boards and commissions
especially the drag and drop and
everything that you've done for us to
make it easier and also offering your
time for training for the council
members and also offering your time for
folks that might need extra help doing
the videos the mandatory videos so thank
you so much for that you and chevelli
and the whole team are doing a great job
we appreciate that thank you thanks Judy
it is 6 34 so I can adjourn that study
session and move right into our council
meeting for