Durango City Council approved numerous appointments to city boards and commissions at its regular meeting Tuesday, including to the recently formed Financial Advisory Board, after councilors conducted interviews with applicants for 32 positions last week.
The new Financial Advisory Board members are Doug Lyon, Roger Zalneraitis, Anthony Savastano, Jasper Welch, Emma Millar, Jessica Wheeler and John Ballew. Thomas Barney was appointed as an alternate to fill in if needed.
Woodruff read notes from his interviews with the recommended appointees to describe what stood out to him as favorable qualities.
Notable attributes included experience in civic service, including on City Council or existing boards and commissions; passion in various areas, ranging from business management and navigating capital projects to recreation, open space and trails; open space education and children’s programming.
Councilors shared consensus on most recommended appointments to various boards, although Councilor Gilda Yazzie abstained from one vote to appoint two applicants to the Historic Preservation Board, citing concerns over one of the recommended appointees.
And Councilor Olivier Bosmans abstained from voting to approve the recommended seven appointments to the Financial Advisory Board. He said he wants to see the full list of applicants, because he wants to make an informed decision before he approves appointments.
“I think as councilors we needed to see all the applicants so that we can evaluate which applicants we consider best,” he said.
He said he would like to see resident Kathy Metz appointed to the Financial Advisory Board because she could bring a “wealth of information” and historical and organizational knowledge to the financial board.
Councilor Jessika Buell said she, Councilor Dave Woodruff and Devon Schmidt, the city’s acting chief financial officer, were assigned to interview applicants for the Financial Advisory Board and unanimously agreed on the seven recommended appointees.
Mayor Melissa Youssef said City Council intentionally created interview teams of two council members per team to conduct board and commission interviews, but every councilor had the opportunity to review applications.
And Mark Morgan, city attorney, chimed in to advise councilors against debating the merit of certain applicants over others.
“I want to caution you guys on having an open debate about personnel decisions. You’re in really, really treacherous waters,” he said. “I think it’s appropriate to (mention) someone’s accolades (for a motion), but if you’re going to start debating one person versus another, I’m going to suggest that you go into executive session to do it.
“And I further suggest just don’t do it at all because you’ve been through this process that you established to get to this point,” he said.
The boards and commissions appointments were a major part of the meeting on Tuesday.
Youssef said in a previous interview this month that City Council assigned councilors to teams of two in order to streamline the applicant interview process.
Previously, interviews for boards and commissioned were conducted by City Council as a body, which took a lot of time and often went past the scheduled period because some candidates inevitably dropped out, she said.
The search remains in progress for applicants for several board positions, including the Local Licensing Board that no one had expressed interest in joining, the mayor said.
Remaining vacancies and other appointments approved on Tuesday include:
- Board of Ethics: Members David Smith and Katherine Burgess had their positions continued while the city continues the search for ethics board applicants.
- Business Improvement District: Carly Thompson.
- Creative Economy Commission: Seth Furtney.
- Design Review Board: Emily Chastain was appointed and one position remains open.
- Durango Airport Commission: Thomas Barney.
- Election Commission: Vanessa Ruggles.
- Firefighters Old Pension: Cris Garcia and Tom Kaufman.
- Historic Preservation Board: Tracy Reynolds, James Rothwell and Craig Struble.
- Library Advisory Board: Janet Oliver.
- No appointments were made for the Local Licensing Authority, which has one open position.
- Planning Commission: Alma Evans and Sarah Pritchard.
- No appointments were made for the Retirement Board and two positions are vacant.
cburney@durangoherald.com
