While Amarillo City Council is the main governing body for the city, many decisions shaping local policy are set by various boards appointed by the council. As the council began the annual process of filling seats on these boards earlier this month, they also took steps to make major changes to how the boards work.

The first change removed the requirement that members of the Condemnation Appeals Commission also serve on the Construction Advisory and Appeals Commission. According to city staff, this is mainly to increase the pool of candidates ahead of plans to increase the frequency of condemnation appeals meetings.

“Moving forward, they will be held twice a month to accommodate the new internal demolition program approved in the recent budget,” said City Marshall Jacob Diaz. The change also introduces staggered terms for the commission.

The council had been expected to make appointments to the commission at their November 18th meeting, but it appears that has been pushed to their upcoming December 9th meeting, along with several other appointments.

The next change was a much more comprehensive change. Ordinance 8226 codified several new boards, removed several old boards. It also made changes to qualifications, terms, and attendance requirements.

The boards added to the city code under the ordinance are the Beautification and Public Arts Board, the Digital Dignity, Rights and Privacy Board, the TIRZ #2 and #3 Boards, and the Heritage Hills, Homestead, and Pinnacle PID Boards.

Three boards were removed. The Emergency Care Advisory Board and Comprehensive Plan Advisory Board have both already been sunset. The Redstone PID has been dissolved, so its board was also removed.

The ordinance also added a requirement that individuals must submit an application to be appointed to a board. (The text of the ordinance does not specify that the individual must have applied for the specific board they are appointed to, just that they meet the general requirements for board membership.) Also, while not part of the ordinance, the city had made an administrative change to have board applications open year-round rather than just for a short window ahead of appointments being made.

Stricter attendance requirements are also included. Currently, board members “may be subject to replacement” if they miss more than 25% of regularly scheduled meetings. The ordinance adds additional language stating that a member who misses three consecutive regular meetings “may be automatically removed.”

Several board-specific changes are also included:

The Parks and Recreation Board will be required to have one member who is on City Council
The Library Advisory Board will be required to have one member of the Friends of the Amarillo Public Library Board. All members must be Amarillo Public Libraries cardholders in good standing.
The Beautification and Public Arts Advisory Board will no longer be required to have a member who is on City Council

Both of the ordinances making changes to boards passed unanimously.

The council also had several board appointments on the agenda.

Appointments to several PID boards were approved unanimously through the Consent Agenda, meaning those appointments did not receive separate discussion or separate votes.

The council cast their votes for the Potter County Appraisal District Board and Potter County Appraisal District Board. Mitzi Wade and Chip Hunt were the only two nominees for the two open spots on the Potter County board, and the council split their votes between the two.

For the Randall County Appraisal District Board, the council gave all of their votes to Jinger White. White, along with former City Councilman Tom Scherlen, had previously been nominated by Amarillo City Council. Two other nominees, Haley Holt and Jack Klaus, had also been put forward by other taxing entities and were leading the vote count ahead of the meeting. Mayor Cole Stanley suggested putting all of the city’s votes behind former City Councilman Tom Scherlen, though there was pushback from councilmen Don Tipps, Les Simpson, and David Prescott. “I don’t want to waste the votes,” said Prescott. Councilman Tim Reid ended up being the only vote against casting the votes for White.

Things then slowed down when the council got to the remaining board appointments on the agenda. Councilman Tim Reid questioned the practice of making all appointments within the span of one or two meetings, as has historically been done.

“I found this process of going through all of these appointments as one of the most bizarre things we do as a city government,” said Reid. “I don’t understand what the hurry is.” Reid suggested tabling the appointments.

Councilman Les Simpson pushed back, stating that he felt comfortable making appointments now and taking more time to consider making reforms to the appointment process later.

Ultimately, the council did make appointments to all of the boards on the agenda for the November meeting. These included the Airport Advisory Board, Amarillo Area Public Health Board, Amarillo Convention and Visitors Bureau, Amarillo EDC Board, Animal Management and Welfare Advisory Board, Board of Review for Landmarks, Historic Districts, and Downtown Design, Center City TIRZ Board, Community Development Advisory Committee, Council Audit Committee, East Gateway TIRZ, Potter-Randall Emergency Communications District Board, and South Gateway TIRZ Board.

Further board appointments are set for December 9th.