City Council is seeking applicants for appointment to one of seven boards. Those include the Planning Commission, JAUNT, JABA, the Charlottesville Industrial Development Authority, the Community Block Grant Task Force, the Personnel Appeals Board and the Social Services Advisory Board. City spokesman Maurice Jones says those interested should call Clerk of City Council Jeannie Cox at 970-3113 or send an e-mail to coxj@charlottesville.org. Applications are due by September 1st.
Become a part of the solution — apply for a board position.
These and other boards are described on the City’s web site.
That old cliche “become a part of the solution” is pretty tired and not very true. All the boards and commissions are a big part of the problem if you think that the problem is too much government spending too much money. Also, many of the boards, particularly the Board of Zoning Appeals, the Planning Commission and the Board of Architectural Review Board are little more than rubber stamps and manipulated mouth pieces for the staff.
All the boards and commissions are a big part of the problem if you think that the problem is too much government spending too much money.
Erm. Yes. But, by that logic, so is the rest of government. If I think that chairs are a part of the problem, then I probably shouldn’t join any boards, because they’d inevitably expect me to sit in one.
Also, many of the boards, particularly the Board of Zoning Appeals, the Planning Commission and the Board of Architectural Review Board are little more than rubber stamps and manipulated mouth pieces for the staff.
Perhaps that’s how it works now, but if you were on either of those boards, would you rubber stamp everything sent to you by the staff? Or would you become — dare I say it? — a part of the solution?
I did not say the “rest of the government”. I did err to say “all the boards” and I will change that to “many of them”.
There is certainly a place for reasonable government. I accept the need for police, fire department services and the public schools as well as others. I may not be happy with the job they do (the public schools are a national embarrassment) but I do believe that it is necessary to fund them with taxes. However, telling people what color they can paint their buildings and manadating assorted inane and intrusive details that don’t impact the public safety are not worthy uses of tax revenue. Also, a huge amount of staff time, thus money, is wasted on foolish meetings and reports that accomplish zilch. Unless you think “feeling involved” is worth all that money. The “charrettes” that the staff is so fond or really charades. I think the Board of Architectural Review and the Planning Commission should both be eliminated. The BZA does have a role and I respect that funciton but the job should be performed by a court appointed panel. Right now they’re political appointees who often don’t know how to do the job.
I am part of the solution. I work full time, pay my taxes and obey the law. How many problems would we have if everyone else did the same?
Don’t forget the criteria for appointment: Be a friend of the Dems on City Council or someone they can trust to do their bidding. Most Republicans can just forget about applying and many members of the Democratic Party don’t even stand a chance.
I agree that boards and task forces have proliferated well beyond the point of usefulness — and that their primary purpose is to let “the public” “feel involved”. One of the most unfortunate byproducts of this phenomenon is that having given an idea currency by creating a board or task force almost assures the idea will be implemented at some point down the road — whether it ought to be done or not. Witness the transit station and its near decade of discussion — it’s going in — not anywhere the transit study said it should go in and it’s, what $3 or $4 milion more than expected…
We’ve got a representative democracy — we elect the people who make the decisions. The increasing number of polls we take on every imaginable subject muddies this — how dare an elected offical vote this way when the poll says they should vote that way… What we’re doing these days is very costly in both time and money.
I think we need a task force to evaluate the utility of the boards and task forces. That’s one I’d (ironically) join in an effort to be part of the solution!