05/14/15: Finding a place to serve your city

This op-ed appeared in The Virginian-Pilot on the date shown.

ONE OF the many ways citizens can engage in our democracy is by serving on one of the many boards and commissions appointed by city councils.

Virginia Beach appoints citizens to approximately 60 boards and commissions, Chesapeake approximately half that. Norfolk is in the middle, with appointments to about 45. Portsmouth does not maintain a full list of its boards and commissions on its website, although it does publish a vacancies list. All four of these cities have applications available online for anyone who wishes to serve.

Suffolk’s website makes it difficult for citizens to quickly see all of the appointed boards and commissions. Citizens must scroll through three pages of details about each of them. While members are listed, there is no information on when terms expire. Worse, I could not locate any information on how a citizen could apply to be appointed.

In the individual cities, many of these boards and commissions make decisions that affect daily life. Given the variety — environmental, recreation, poverty, city planning and public arts, for example — there is one for nearly everyone.

The second- highest profile governance board in Norfolk is the School Board.

Although Norfolk voters chose last November to elect its members, the first election will not take place until next year. Meanwhile, the terms of four of the seven members expire on June 30. As the result, the Norfolk City Council will be making appointments for these four positions for terms that last three years.

The process for moving to an elected school board has been messy. The Norfolk City Council adopted a plan to elect by wards.

That ordinance, adopted at the Jan. 27 meeting, is now the subject of a petition drive.

Better Together Norfolk seeks to have the ordinance repealed and replaced with a plan to elect School Board members both from wards and at-large. As I’ve written before, I support an at-large elected School Board, but if this mix is the best we can do — and in this political climate, it probably is — then I support that choice.

In the interim, I’ve seen nothing from the council about it intends to appoint these four new members. Will the council continue to, as it has done in the past, appoint at-large? If so, isn’t that an indictment of the council’s preferred electoral plan? If members appoint the four by wards, which of the five wards will be left without representation?

It would be nice if we knew which way they intended to act at the as-yet-unannounced public hearing in June.

I’d urge anyone in Norfolk interested in serving on the School Board to apply. Application forms are available on the city’s website or from the city clerk’s office.

If the School Board doesn’t interest you or if you live outside of Norfolk, there are many other opportunities to serve your community. Take a few minutes, peruse your city’s website and apply. Your community needs you.