The City Clerk oversees the recruitment process and memberships to boards, committees and commissions. Most boards, committees and commissions have members whose terms expire at the end of each year. The end of the year process includes an informal interview process with City Council members followed by appointments made at an end-of-year regular session City Council meeting. Letters of appointments, non-appointments and appreciation are handled by the City Clerk's office.
The City of Longmont has 22 citizen-based boards, committees, and commissions on which over 160 citizens serve. Citizen participation helps to ensure that our local government is truly addressing the needs of the Longmont community through the services, planning and decision making provided by each board. Citizen participation in local government is strongly encouraged. Citizen volunteers provide time, talent, knowledge and enthusiasm to add to that of elected officials and City Staff.
Recruitment of citizens to serve on the City's various Commissions and Committees is handled by the City Clerk's Department. Anyone interested in volunteering on a commission should contact the City Clerk's Department at (303) 651-8649. Annual recruitment occurs several times a year. See our current vacancies for more information.
The skills and commitment volunteers bring to public service is an important
resource to the community. Each board page displays a brief description of
the committee, its representatives, meeting times, agendas
and minutes. See the Directory for the listing of Boards, Committees
and Commissions.
See Types of Boards Committees
& Commissions for more information.
The majority of City boards operate in an advisory capacity to the City Council
and are made up of between five and eleven members with at least one staff
liaison and a secretary. Each board reviews, discusses and makes recommendations
to City Council on a variety of issues associated with its function. Recommendations
from advisory boards are forwarded to the City Council which has the final
decision-making responsibility. The City Council carefully weighs board recommendations
with citizen, business owner, staff, and other interested party comments to
arrive at a decision which Council believes is in the overall best interest
of the Longmont community.
In addition to the advisory boards, the City of Longmont has two quasi-judicial boards--the Board of Adjustment and Appeals and the Master Board of Appeals-- which deal with requests for exceptions to various building codes. These boards are given specific powers through State statutes and deal with specific items which, at one time, Council heard and made decisions on at its regular meetings.
Authority to act is given to specific
boards by ordinances, delgating Council's decision-making power to them. Unlike
the advisory board recommendations, the decisions made by the quasi-judicial
boards are final and can only be appealed to, and overturned by, a court.
With few exceptions, the meetings
of City Council and any of its appointed boards are open to the public. Citizen
participation is encouraged and welcomed at these meetings. Council and staff
believe that the more involved citizens are in the early stages of program
and legislation development, the better local government can meet the needs
and expectations of the community.
