According to city officials, the application was amended to require a short bio and a conflict of interest questionnaire, while the handbook includes updated eligibility requirements, such as that applicants cannot have committed a felony or be related by blood or marriage to a council member.
“It’s not that that hasn’t been there before; it just wasn’t brought up to date to [what are the] best practices of cities and towns,” Mayor Lori Klein Quinn said in an interview. “And so since this has been a year of change, we wanted to go ahead and get this updated.”
Interest in serving on a board or commission has also risen, according to city officials.
“I think I credit that with our demographics changing and new people coming in; they want to be involved,” City Manager David Esquivel said.
Quinn said she hopes to recruit and attract younger people to serve on boards and commissions.
The city collects applications for boards and commissions year-round, keeping them on file for two years. During its Oct. 3 meeting, the council appointed new people to serve on several of the boards and commissions.
Council members were also appointed to serve as liaisons between City Council and the various boards in the city.
According to city officials, Council Member Derek Townsend is the liaison for the board of adjustments; Council Member Dane Dunagin is the planning and zoning commission liaison; Council Member Mark Stoll will be the liaison for the Tomball Economic Development Corp.; Quinn will be the liaison for the tourism advisory committee; Council Member Randy Parr is the liaison for the Tomball Regional Health Foundation; and Council Member John Ford is the backup liaison.
“Our median age in the city of Tomball is decreasing from what it was years ago,” Stoll said. “And so we need the younger people to get involved, because this is where they live, and if they want to have an input and say on the future of Tomball, then they need to get involved.”
Esquivel and Quinn also said they are looking into how to get audio recordings of board and commission meetings online.
“It’s going to take a little time to get those done, but that is the ultimate goal,” Esquivel said.
