The League of Women Voters of Naperville (LWVN) believes the City of Naperville needs a revamped process with increased transparency for filling vacancies on municipal advisory boards and commissions.
Protocol for appointments
Currently, the mayor makes appointments to fill Naperville’s 19 boards and commissions, and selections are confirmed by city council.
Only the mayor can review submitted applications, conduct interviews, and consider candidates outside the applicant pool to fill vacant positions. Council members are given a written biography of a candidate two weeks prior to a vote.
LWVN’s transparency study
The LWVN completed a 10-month study on appointment transparency, as the full statement is available on the organization’s website.
LWVN representative Becky Simon listed the group’s six recommendations for Naperville at Tuesday’s city council meeting during public forum.
- Requiring an application for all appointees to municipal boards and commissions
- The application process be well understood by and accessible to all eligible Naperville residents
- Council members be able to see applications to municipal boards and commissions
- Stakeholders should have input in the mayor’s process for making nominations to municipal boards and commissions
- Making limited parts of application information publicly available
- Having a standardized and well-defined interview process
Mayor Scott Wehrli said he had a “great dialogue” on application transparency with the President of the LWVN Susan Craighead.
“I took a lot of the information very much to heart and will be reviewing the entire process from top to bottom with our professional folks to make sure we all are on the same page,” said Wehrli. “There will be more transparency with regard to the application process, including how often an application expires.”
Why did the LWVN conduct this study?
The origin of the study can be traced back to a May 2022 city council meeting, where people voiced their concerns about two potential advisory board appointments from former Mayor Steve Chirico.
The names of both had been leaked. Typically, appointments are vetted before names are released publicly. In this case, the early release of the two potential appointees’ names caused a flurry of online petitions, letter-writing campaigns, and social media arguments.
Upcoming board and commission appointments
On May 30, over 40 positions will be up for appointment on the city’s boards and commissions.
18 first-term seats and 11 second-term seats will expire. Nine seats on the Liquor Commission will run out.
Three unexpired terms are now vacant as those people now sit on the council, and five vacancies were left by Chirico.
The future of appointment transparency will be a topic of discussion at a future council meeting.
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