Councillor requests review of city's appointment policy for agencies, boards, and commissions
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Windsor will review how it appoints citizens to its agencies, boards, and commissions (ABCs) at the request of a councillor looking for possible process improvements.
During this week’s council meeting, Ward 9 Coun. Kieran McKenzie asked city staff to compare Windsor’s appointment policy and process to those of peer municipalities and report back with best practices for council consideration.
“There’s been a lot of feedback in the community about the process that we undertake for appointing people to our agencies, boards, and commissions,” McKenzie told the Star after council’s Monday meeting. “Listening to that feedback and looking at what goes on in other communities, there are some differences in terms of what we do here in the City of Windsor.”
McKenzie said he wants to see if council added diversity to the city’s ABCs this term, since one of council’s objectives was to improve equity and diversity.
“I’d like to know what we might not be already doing that could fall into best practices and give council the opportunity to consider whether or not there are avenues to improve that process,” he said.
Currently, city staff put together packages containing applications and resumes for all ABC hopefuls. Administration does not provide council with any recommendations. Councillors discuss their options and vote on their preferred applicants during an in-camera striking committee meeting, and then approve those choices during a public council meeting.
Some of council’s recent ABC appointments raised eyebrows. Some in the community decried council’s decision to appoint a white citizen to what is so far an all-white Windsor Police Services board. Council’s decision not to reappoint three multi-term members of the development and heritage standing committee also came as a surprise to some, as did the Windsor Public Library board appointment of a Freedom Convoy supporter who has advocated for stricter book selection in public schools.
McKenzie said that while some individuals he was hoping would be elected to serve on ABCs were not chosen by the council majority, “that’s not necessarily my concern.”
“My concern is that we are following best practices, and that we’re looking at different ways — and we’re always looking at different ways — where we can improve the things that we’re already doing.”
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