mdc5e@unix.mail.virginia.edu
Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2000 17:13:21 -0500
To: Blake Caravati <caravati@cstone.net>, David Toscano <toscano@cstone.net>, Maurice Cox <mdc5e@virginia.edu>, Meredith Richards
<mmrich@cstone.net>, Virginia Daugherty <virginia@papercraft.com>

From: Maurice Cox <mdc5e@virginia.edu>
Subject: Proposal for BAR Interviews

"'Dear Councilors,

I am forwarding for your input a proposal that I have in mind for the upcoming BAR interviews which also might have some positive implications for other City Brds. and Commissions which have a large public . (Sch'l Brd., Planning Commission, Housing Auth., for example) This is in response to council's interest expressed during our retreat to better engage and inform the public about our decision making processes.

Please give me any feedback you may have (I would like to discuss this before we go into excutive session tommorrow on the topic of board appointments).

Thanks, Maurice'"

PROPOSAL

"'In the spirit of open government which offers full PUBLIC discussion when City Council holds interviews for appointments to public office, I propose the following innovation in our procedure:

1)City Council will encourage the general public and invited representatives of local groups such as neighborhood associations, the NAACP, the Chamber of Commerce, and other interested parties to attend public interviews for appointees. These interviews will also be publicized in paid newspaper announcements and in official city letters to the interested parties.

2)The setting for these hearings will be informal (conference room setting) so as to encourage a relaxed environment for the candidates. Additional interviewers might be asked to join Council in asking questions. The public in attendence to observe the interviews will be invited to submit their questions on index cards at the begining of the interview that may be used by Councilors in our questioning.

3) Following the public interviews, councilors will, of course, meet in closed session to discuss and make the final decisions. We will have had the benefit of immediate, relevant citizen input and, thus, can better respect the public interest.

4)This proposal for such innovation in our council procedure fulfills our own Counicl objectives to create more opportunity for public education and transparency in our appointments on important city boards.'"

"'Council could introduce this new procedure in a pilot project when it interviews the candidates who have applied for appointment to the Board of Architectural Review (BAR), then evaluate its effectiveness for possible application to other boards. This plan could be a model for making appointments to others boards and commissions such as the School Board, the Planning Commission and Housing Authority Brd. and others.

Some of you may recall the encouraging recent experience within our community of following such procedure in the selection of a new circuit court judge. I think the result proves the value of such public participation in official appointments.'"