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The City of Fishers' appointments to Boards & Commissions lack diversity. But I wasn't aware until now how misrepresented our community is - and how the City Council's practices help it stay that way. Read On... 1/15
-80% of the current Board and Commission appointees are white men
-Less than 20% of appointees are women
-I believe that there is a total of three people of color on all 24 boards and commissions 2/15
-Less than 20% of appointees are women
-I believe that there is a total of three people of color on all 24 boards and commissions 2/15
-Zero appointees were confirmed as members of the LGBTQ community or a person with a disability
-Eight people sit on more than one board or commission, taking up 20% of the total seats 3/15
-Eight people sit on more than one board or commission, taking up 20% of the total seats 3/15
-One appointee who serves on both the Police Merit Commission and Fire Merit Commission as a legally required Democratic representative for political balance, does not actually qualify as a Democrat 4/15
The current City Council majority’s practice for making board and commission appointments is not transparent. There's no clear process for fairly scrutinizing Council appointments. This has resulted in boards & commissions that are grossly unrepresentative of our community. 5/15
Citizens can indeed apply to serve, and the online application is always accessible online and open to the public. There was a total of 47 applications received by citizens in 2019 and 2020! 6/15
City Council's practice must not be to review any of them. I made a request and just received the applications myself today, the day the appointments were to be finalized. 7/15
The City does not publicly recruit residents to apply for boards and commissions when there are vacancies. Public calls for applications are vital! 8/15
Diversity and inclusion are not considered
Conflicts of interest are not considered 9/15
Conflicts of interest are not considered 9/15
Minority members of the Council (like me!) are locked out of the selection process. The Majority has prerogative to slate appointments. But it's wrong for the Minority members of the Council to receive access to their slate less than 24 hrs before the vote. 10/15
To correct these practices and ensure diversity, I made the following motion at tonight's City Council meeting: 11/15
Form a nominating committee of 3 council members to solicit and review applications for the 2021 open Board & Commission seats. Majority caucus will select 2 members Minority will select 1 to determine a slate of appointees for consideration at Feb city council meeting. 12/15
This motion was defeated by party lines, 2-7. There was no discussion nor comment from the Majority, just voted down. 13/15
I understand that there will be a Council Retreat later this year (TBD) and I have been assured by Council leadership that this issue can be discussed then for 2022 appointments. 14/15
The majority of the Fishers City Council could have fixed this today, if they wanted to. But they did not. 15/15
