(A) All appointments made by the Council shall be made in open session. The Council may not consider the qualifications, competence, performance, character, fitness, appointment or removal of a member of the Town Council or another body and may not consider or fill a vacancy among its own membership, except in an open meeting. Final action making an appointment or discharge or removal by a public body having final authority for the appointment or discharge or removal shall be taken in an open meeting.
(B) Appointments to vacancies on Town Council. A vacancy on Town Council shall be filled by the Council for the remainder of the unexpired terms.
(1) A candidate for appointment to a vacancy must complete and return to the Town Clerk an application for appointment, on a form approved by the Town Council and available from the town's website and the Town Clerk, by the application deadline established by the Town Council or the Town Clerk.
(2) To be qualified for appointment to a vacant Town Council position, a candidate must affirm the following on the application, under oath or by affirmation:
(a) The candidate is or will be 21 years of age as of the date of the application deadline; and
(b) The candidate resides within the town limits of Boone and has resided within the town limits of Boone for the 30 days prior to the application deadline, so that the candidate would have been qualified to vote in a Town of Boone municipal election had an election been held on the date of the application deadline.
(3) The Town Clerk shall reject any application in which the candidate fails to affirm that the candidate meets the requirements of the foregoing divisions (B)(1) and (B)(2).
(4) Procedure for appointment.
(a) Voting for appointment to a vacant Town Council position shall first proceed by the nomination and ballot method:
1. The Mayor shall first open the floor to nominations. Nominations shall be made by Council members from the applicants properly before the Council, but a nomination shall require no "second." Once all nominations have been made, the names of nominees shall be put forward by the members and debated. Upon the conclusion of the debate, the Mayor shall propose each name in alphabetical order and the members shall cast their votes. A nominee receiving a majority of the votes cast shall be appointed.
2. Each Council member shall be entitled to one vote for each position. If there are more than two nominees and no person receives a majority of votes in the first vote, the applicant receiving the fewest votes shall be excluded from further votes, and a second vote shall be taken. Unless excused from voting, each member of the Council must cast a vote in each round of voting. Voting rounds may continue in this fashion until a candidate receives a majority of the votes or only two candidates remain for consideration.
(C) Vacancy in Office of Mayor. In case of a vacancy in the office of Mayor, the remaining members of the Council may appoint a successor for the unexpired term.
(D) All other appointments. The Council shall use the following procedure to appoint individuals to various subordinate boards, commissions, task forces, advisory bodies or committees, but this shall not apply to the designation by the Council of one or more of its own members to participate or act as liaison to boards, commissions, task forces, advisory bodies, committees or other entities of its own creation or designation or appointment of one more of its own members to participate or act as liaison to other bodies not created by the town.
(1) At least two months before any anticipated vacancy on any board, commission, task force, advisory body or committee (the "body") due to the expiration of a term, the department head staffing the body shall notify the Town Clerk of the expected vacancy. For vacancies created by resignation or removal for failed attendance, the department head shall notify the Town Clerk as soon as practical.
(2) At least 20 days before the Town Council meeting when the action is to be taken, the Town Clerk shall cause to be published on the town's website notice of the vacancies on town boards, commissions, task forces, advisory bodies and committees for which appointments are contemplated, with the date when action on the appointments is expected. So long as the advertisements soliciting interest for an appointment to a body fully and accurately describe criteria for membership that applies to multiple appointments to that body, the Town Council may fill more than one position on the body from the applications which are received, without regard to the time the vacancy occurs.
(3) Any person seeking appointment to a body, including individuals seeking reappointment to the body and student representatives to the body, must complete and submit to the Town Clerk an "Application for Appointment to a Board, Commission, Task Force, Advisory Body or Committee" on a form approved by the Town Council and available from the town's website and the Town Clerk.
(4) The Town Clerk shall include in the Board book for the meeting where the appointment shall be considered:
(a) A copy of each timely application received for the appointment;
(b) A current roster of the membership of the body in question, with terms shown; and
(c) A copy of the selection criteria, if any, established under state law or town ordinance, such as the Unified Development Ordinance.
(5) Should an application be submitted too late for inclusion in the Board book, it shall be included in the Board book of the Council’s regular meeting the following month. Unless a person’s application is provided in the Board book, the person shall not be considered for the appointment, but this provision shall not prevent the Town Council from delaying appointment of the position in question until a later meeting.
(6) Except as superseded by state law or otherwise directed by other town ordinance, a person must be 18 years or older to be eligible for appointment to a board.
(7) Except as superseded by state law or otherwise directed by other town ordinance, people who reside in the town shall generally be favored for appointment to town bodies over people who reside outside the town. However, when an applicant does not reside in the town, but has particular skills or experience that make appointment of that applicant desirable, the applicant may nevertheless be appointed.
(8) The Town Council shall generally avoid appointment of any one person to more than two bodies. In addition, no person other than a Town Council member shall be allowed to serve on more than three concurrently existing town bodies, including boards, commissions, task forces, advisory bodies, committees or other entities. Any person inadvertently appointed to more than three bodies shall be given an opportunity to resign from a sufficient number of bodies to meet this limit, but after notice, if the person fails to effectuate the resignations by notice to the Clerk within 30 days, the Town Council shall designate the bodies upon which the person shall continue to serve, and the designation shall operate to remove the person from all other bodies.
(9) Council member may request that applicants for a body be present at the Council meeting during which the appointment is expected to be made so that the applicant may be questioned by members of the Council as to the applicant’s qualifications. Even if no request is made, it shall be proper for Council members to directly contact applicants to discuss the applicant’s interest in and qualification for the appointment.
(10) At the meeting during which an appointment is to be made, the Mayor shall first open the floor to nominations. Nominations shall be made by Council members from the applicants properly before the Council, but a nomination shall require no “second”. Once all nominations have been made, the names of nominees shall be put forward by the members and debated. Upon the conclusion of the debate, the Mayor shall propose each name in alphabetical order and the members shall cast their votes.
(11) Each Council member shall be entitled to one vote for each position, and when multiple appointments are made, each member cast each vote for a different nominee. Voting shall continue until a nominee receives a majority of the votes cast, whereupon that person shall be appointed. If more appointments are to be made and an insufficient number of nominees receives a majority of votes, there shall be successive votes until the requisite appointments are made by majority vote. In each successive vote, any persons receiving a majority of votes in the previous round and the applicant with the fewest votes from the previous vote shall be excluded from further votes. If no person receives a majority of votes in the second vote, the applicant receiving the fewest votes in the second vote shall be excluded from further votes, and a third vote shall be taken. Unless excused from voting, each member of the Council must cast a vote in each round of voting.
(12) Members of a board, commission, task force, advisory body, committee and other entity (hereafter, “the body”), except in cases in which a particular term of service is specified, are appointed for the duration of the body. However, if the duration of the body is indefinite, unless the Town Council specifies a different term of membership, membership will be for three years and may be renewed for one additional three-year term. Unless otherwise specified by the Town Council, no person may serve on the body for more than six consecutive years, but a person may be reappointed to the body following a one-year period of non-membership. Unless the Town Council takes specific action to excuse the absences and reappoints a member of the body after being informed by the Town Clerk of the member’s removal, a member shall be automatically removed for failure to attend three consecutive meetings or for failure to attend 50% of the meetings within any 12-month period. Absence due to sickness, death or other emergencies of like nature shall be recognized as excused absences, and shall not be included in the attendance calculations nor affect the member’s status on the body; except that, in the event of a long illness or other cause for prolonged absence, the member shall be replaced. The Town Clerk shall notify any member who has been removed. In addition, a member of the Town Council may propose removal of a member for any cause related to the performance of official duties, but before removal on that basis, the member shall be given an opportunity to appear before the Town Council to address the issues involved.
(13) Except for age and residency requirements, any of the foregoing provisions may be waived by a four-fifths majority vote of Council where deemed necessary in light of exigent circumstances. The Council recognizes that the urgency of filling such vacancies may vary depending upon the circumstances of the vacancy.
(Ord. passed 6-15-2006; Ord. passed 4-17-2008; Ord. passed 6-19-2008; Ord. passed 10-29-2008; Ord. passed 6-18-2009; Ord. passed 4-15-2010; Ord. passed 8-17-2010; Ord. passed 2-19-2015; Ord. passed 3-18-2021)