Boulder officials pick board members

Residents chosen for jobs on 19 advisory boards and commissions

Boulder’s City Council on Thursday evening chose community members to fill numerous open seats on city boards and commissions.

In total, the city received 100 applications for 37 openings on 19 different boards and commissions this year, City Clerk Elesha Johnson said at Thursday’s meeting. Fourteen of the applications were withdrawn or determined to be ineligible before interviews took place, leaving 86 eligible applications. As has happened in the past, far more people applied for certain boards and commissions than others. This year, the Transportation Advisory Board got the most applications, followed by the Open Space Board of Trustees, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and the Planning Board.

Seven current board members sought reappointment to the seats they already held. There were also 11 people who applied for multiple different openings, including a handful of candidates who ran for City Council last fall but weren’t elected. Jacques Decalo, Waylon Lewis, Aaron Neyer and Jennifer Robins each applied for two to three boards or commissions, and all four were given appointments.

Neyer was named to the Human Relations Commission, Decalo was named to the Cannabis Licensing and Advisory Board, and Robins and Lewis were named to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board.

However, despite the strong interest in some boards and commissions, others didn’t receive enough applicants to fill all of the vacancies. The Beverage Licensing Authority, Boulder Junction Access District Parking Commission and the Boulder Junction Access District Travel Demand Management Commission only had one applicant each, and all three

had at least two open seats. Meanwhile, no one applied for the Downtown Management Commission.

The council unanimously voted to extend the recruitment process for the Beverage Licensing Authority and the Design Advisory Board to give more applicants a chance to apply. As with the beverage licensing board, the design board also

had just one applicant.

Council members said there were an abundance of strong applicants for numerous boards. Councilmember Matthew Benjamin said the 10 applicants for the single vacancy on the Open Space Board of Trustees

were a “plethora of riches.”

Mayor Pro Tem Nicole Speer thanked all of the applicants for applying and more than once remarked how many qualified applicants there were this year. Several other council members echoed her sentiments.

According to a city memo, officials used various methods to recruit residents, including ads in the city’s online and mailed newsletters, “ribbons” on city websites, flyers on the doors of public buildings and newspaper ads.