WHITEHALL — Whitehall City Council member Steve Sikkenga proposed the city begin putting term limits on planning commission and other city boards at Tuesday’s meeting. This suggestion snowballed into a series of suggestions and arguments about who can serve, the application process, better civic education and more.
City manager Scott Huebler said the only drawback to adding limits on how long people can serve on each board is “there usually isn’t a large pool of applicants.” People serving on these boards currently make the choice annually if they want to continue serving, per the mayor’s request.
Councilmen Scott Brown and Tom Ziemer both agreed with Sikkenga, and said they would prefer the council have a say as to which applicants get picked to be on the boards. Councilwoman Debi Hillebrand brought up that some people are serving on multiple boards. She said she hopes for more community members to volunteer for boards and for increased community engagement. She also suggested that council should restrict the number of boards that people can serve on.
Councilwoman Tanya Cabala responded the city should promote more public civic education available either on the city website or Facebook page, which Hillebrand supported. Cabala also requested that more advertising be done for available seats on boards that are looking to be filled.
Due to the different opinions on this topic, it will be placed on the next meeting’s work session, on Jan. 15, 2024.
