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Willing to serve: While some city boards grow, others struggle to fill seats

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Photo by Erin Nelson.

Most Homewood residents know the City Council, and many probably also recognize active boards like the Planning Commission and Parks and Recreation Board. But how many know what the Housing Code Abatement Board or the Medical Clinic Board do?

The city of Homewood has a number of residents volunteering their time on lesser-known boards and commissions. They run the gamut from boards with regular meetings and projects to groups that may not meet for years at a time.

Some of those boards, like the Beautification Board, have recently been trying to step up their work. However, not all of them can fill all the available seats.

For instance, the Homewood Downtown Redevelopment Authority had four vacancies for months, despite repeatedly reopening the application period.

“That’s not good. And here we are, we’re opening it again,” City Council President Bruce Limbaugh said in June, after the council had once again called for applications. “But maybe there’s an opportunity there to redefine what they’re doing.”

One of those HDRA seats was filled July 8, but the other three were still waiting for applicants as of August.

A number of factors weigh into how easily each board recruits people and completes goals, including visibility, service requirements and a clearly defined mission.

Limbaugh said he would give the city a “good B-minus” on board involvement now.

“I think so many of those boards that are important to us are really serving aggressively and actively, and they don’t hesitate to offer their opinions,” he said.

WAYS TO SERVE

For each aspect of the city’s work, there’s likely a corresponding board or commission that helps advise the city on related issues.

The Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Adjustments, for instance, have separate areas of authority over new development within Homewood and deciding whether projects, from a homeowner’s new back deck to construction of a new hotel and retail development, meet city codes.

These are two of the boards Homewood residents most often come into contact with, whether they’re making a request for their own property or giving an opinion on others. Still, five-year BZA member Beverly LeBoeuf said many people don’t understand how the process works or the areas where the board must, by law, vote by the letter of the code rather than personal opinion.

“It’s a different perspective. When you’re in the audience, I think you’re more specific, but when you’re in the BZA, you have to look at the whole picture, not just what these people want but how it’s going to impact the people next door, the people behind them and 50 years from now,” LeBoeuf said.

The Library Board, Parks and Recreation Board and Arts Advisory Council are also highly active, Limbaugh said, with members giving input on priorities and projects. The Library Board, for instance, has been a major driver in the plans to construct a new addition to the library later this year.

The Homewood Board of Education is another familiar sight for most residents with kids in the school system, and Limbaugh said the obvious impact of the BOE on the quality of the schools means people are often eager to participate. The last opening, which was for the Ward 2 seat in May, had four applicants.

Other city boards include:

The city also appoints citizens to serve as liaisons to related organizations outside Homewood, such as the county’s Mental Health Authority.

Limbaugh said the City Council makes all board and commission appointments except the Planning Commission and the Beautification Board, which are appointed by Mayor Scott McBrayer.

STEPPING UP ACTIVITY

Members on several of Homewood’s boards and commissions have been increasing their efforts in recent months.

The Beautification Board is the newest addition, revived in summer 2018 after a long period of inactivity. Member Laura Stansell said the Beautification Board’s first projects have been adding more municipal Christmas decor, including a new downtown Christmas tree added in 2018, and trying to create a regular Beautification Award to reward business owners who make their properties more attractive.

“I think sometimes people don’t see the value in beautification projects in terms of what they do for a community,” Stansell said, adding that people are more likely to take good care of an attractive area.

Going forward, they want to pursue projects that coincide with the city’s overall plan for Homewood development, including more attractive monuments for city entrances.

“We’re still really in the early phases,” Stansell said. She also noted that the people they approached to join the board were eager to help out.

The Environmental Commission and Preservation Commission both are undertaking big projects this year. The Environmental Commission will complete a survey of Homewood’s tree canopy condition and has a larger tree planting budget, while the Preservation Commission is pursuing grants through its new certified local government status.

The Preservation Commission wants to survey and do preservation and repair work on Union Missionary Baptist Church with its initial grants.

The Homewood Downtown Redevelopment Authority, which has overlapping membership with the Commercial Redevelopment and Industrial Development boards, has been working on reinventing itself, member Katy Lincoln said.

The board has traditionally met about economic development issues, Lincoln said, but the city’s five-year contract with Daniel Communities, signed in late 2017, transferred much of those efforts to the outside firm’s hands.

The HDRA for many years only held specially called meetings to discuss a specific city topic, such as a development bond issue, Lincoln said. However, they’ve been working on defining their role and getting more organized in the last year.

“Everybody wanted to do a little more than meet when there’s a special session involved,” she said.

Lincoln said they hope to be able to assist Daniel Communities’ work and also take on other development projects.

“We’re still kind of on standby for what our role will be,” Lincoln said.

Photo by Erin Nelson.

EMPTY SEATS

While they’re on standby, the HDRA is also trying to fill three at-large seats with new members. The seats were first opened to applicants in December and the latest deadline to receive applications was set for Aug. 26.

The Board of Adjustments and Appeals (BAA), which hears appeals to Board of Zoning Adjustment cases, has seven vacancies and the Educational Building Authority has two. The Historic Preservation Commission, Arts Advisory Council, Cable Commission and Housing Code Abatement Board each had one vacant seat as of late August.

Limbaugh said boards like the BAA and the Medical Clinic Board require particular expertise, with the state requiring BAA members to have construction expertise.

“Where are you going to find seven people that have construction experience, that all live in Homewood, that are all willing to serve and that, oh by the way, y’all may not meet once every 18 months on an as-needed basis?” he said.

They also meet very infrequently, which is a factor in getting people to apply, he said.

“No one wants to go to a meeting just to hold a meeting. ... They might meet twice in a year and then not meet for another five years. So it’s hard to get people to serve in that type of situation,” Limbaugh said.

The Housing Code Abatement Board, like the Beautification Board, is a formerly inactive group that revived about two years ago, member Jeremy Love said. The board addresses cases of properties that are public nuisances or may be condemned due to unsafe or neglected conditions.

Love, a Rosedale resident, said he joined the board because he wanted to “bring some solutions” to the dilapidated properties in Rosedale that caused neighbor complaints. The board meets roughly six to eight times a year, depending on when they have cases, and it does have a vacant seat.

“I guess people just don’t feel the need to apply right now,” Love said.

He said most people don’t know about the abatement board or understand how the process works, and he would like to see more education and more engagement. Even two years in, he said the board is still just getting started.

“We’d like to have more members so we can have more people involved in monitoring cases, gathering reports and making decisions,” he said. “… I always believe that people need to be more engaged in their local government and more informed.”

Even in the highly active BZA, LeBoeuf said she could only recall one vacancy that received more than one applicant.

Limbaugh agreed there’s still work to do on involvement.

“The active boards that make significant contributions, people really do want to serve. I mean, people fight to serve on the Park and Rec board. They don’t get paid a penny, it’s just love of youth sports and that aspect of the community,” he said. “… We’re a little uneven, but there are popular boards and there are desirable boards, and then there are occasional boards, and the occasional boards are the ones that not a lot of people know about. But we’re working on it.”

FINDING QUALIFIED, ENGAGED MEMBERS

Limbaugh said the city wants to find ways to fill those empty seats.

This summer, the council discussed becoming more active in posting open applications on the city website and on social media, and Limbaugh said he wants the City Council and existing board members to lean on their network of neighbors and friends to find potential volunteers.

“We know that we have citizens that want to be activists … and somehow we’re not quite connecting with some of those folks,” he said.

Lincoln said it seems like people have to be actively searching for a way to participate on a board in order to find openings, and it isn’t reaching new audiences.

“I don’t know how the word gets out that there are positions,” she said.

It’s also about making sure those volunteers are right for the job.

“The key is not just appointing bodies. The key is appointing qualified human beings that are engaged,” Limbaugh said.

Serving on a board or commission of any size is a way to “stick your toe into what public service is about,” he said. He started out on the Board of Education and, after two five-year terms, decided he wanted to do more in the city.

LeBoeuf said she started out as an observer of the city’s boards, writing for the Homewood At Large blog, before she felt familiar enough with the process to serve on the BZA herself. She would like to see more diversity among board members, both in gender and race.

Stansell said participating on a board in your area of interest or expertise can be a great way to be a voice for your neighbors and play a role in shaping the city.

“I really think it gives folks more ownership of their community,” she said. “… We support the mission of city government and we help them in terms of what citizens want because we’re the voice of the community.”

LeBoeuf also said that for those who can’t commit their time to serving on a board, simply showing up for issues they care about — from tree planting by the Homewood Environmental Commission to development plans discussed by the Planning Commission and BZA — helps make sure those board members are hearing residents’ voices.

“You want the participation,” she said.

A list of current board vacancies can be found at cityofhomewood.com under “Board Vacancies. The city clerk’s office handles all applications for open seats.

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