07 January 2008

You Can Pick Your Friends…

But you can’t pick the next CA President. That is up to the Columbia Association Board of Directors. Hiring the next CA President will probably be the most important decision of the currently constituted board and the board elected this spring.

Did you want to provide input into the new CA President’s Job Description? Your last chance will be during the January CA Board Meeting (27JAN08). Currently, the CA Board has rejected public input beyond resident’s speakout. The draft job description can be read here. According to the CA Board of Directors timeline, this draft will be finalized in two weeks. Take a good look at the timeline. The only prescribed public input occurs when the field of candidates is narrowed to 2-4 people, one year from now.

I would think that a board that has positioned itself as the vanguard for openness and transparency would encourage public participation during each stage of the process. Apparently this is not the case.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why is the Board afraid of public input? Don't they represent the public?

Anonymous said...

Those among you who have been following the Board and it's personalities would have thought you were Alice in Wonderland and had fallen down the rabbit's hole and the world turned up-side-down at this weeks Board Operations Committee meeting. The board members who have been the champions of transparency and public inclusion were hiding behind the corporate due diligance curtain. Arguing that it is the sole responsibility of the Board Members to select the next President. While the members who are seen as defending the corporation were on the side of inclusion and transparency from the beginning of the selection process yes that the public should have input before the Board makes the final decision. The Committee even needed to be reminded that the full Board voted that there would be a Citizens Selection Committee included in the process. The Charter for this committee will be discussed at the 1/14 Bd Opns meeting. The fear is the Bd Opns Cmte will not give this citizens committee any real charge for the committee. If you want to have input on the charges I suggest you attend the 1/14 meeting.