For as long as Saratoga’s Mayor John Zeiger can remember, council members have had a place on town boards as voting members, and that has never been a problem.
Currently, every Saratoga Town Council member serves on a board, and most boards have a council representative.
“It’s just been a practice ever since I have been here,” said Saratoga Town Clerk Suzie Cox.
According to one board member, however, the council representative trend needs to change.
Planning Commission member Chris Shannon recently said in a meeting that he objects to the idea of council representatives as voting members, because it essentially gives those members two votes: one on the board, and another on the Saratoga Town Council.
“I think it is totally inappropriate because they already have a vote,” Shannon said.
The Planning Commission consists of seven voting positions with staggering terms, one of which is the council representative seat, a term that reportedly lasts the duration of a council member’s term in office. Other council members have similar appointments.
Shannon said the council representative position should be made an eighth, non-voting, position on the Planning Commission.
“If you are going to have a council representative, he or she has to be an ex officio, which means he or she is a non-voting member,” Shannon said. “I think that position should be an eighth seat.”
Councilman Steve Wilcoxson, who is serving as the Planning Commission’s council representative, said he disagrees he, or other council members, has two votes just by being on a board. He said the Planning Commission and Saratoga Town Council are two separate entities.
“When I am at the Planning Commission meetings, I am there as a Planning Commission member, and I am doing what the other members are doing,” Wilcoxson said. “After that point in time, once a vote is done, I have another obligation. I have the obligation to the people that voted me into the council.”
Zeiger said the whole point of having a council representative position is so the members can report back, giving the council a way to make informed decisions.
“The whole reason having that council person on the board is so that council person can report back to the council in a council meeting,” Zeiger said.
Council member Judy Welton does deliver these updates. However, Steve Wilcoxson said reporting to the town council is not his job, adding that Saratoga Public Works Director Chuck Bartlett has already been designated to report to the town council regarding the Planning Commission.
Wilcoxson said, as a councilman, he has an obligation to vote against issues on boards he believes to be bad for the town of Saratoga and community.
“I believe it is my job as a council member to sit on that board, try to see the changes that are done, and if I don’t agree with them, I believe I have an obligation to come back to the council and explain why I don’t agree with the decision being made by the Planning Commission,” Wilcoxson said.
Wilcoxson said some Planning Commission members may be upset with his position, but has an obligation to Saratoga residents who voted him into office.
“My job and my primary function is to serve the people of the community, not to serve that Planning Commission,” he said.
The council representative position is not defined in the Saratoga ordinal code, Zeiger said after researching, but is a regular practice. Zeiger said the council representative position could be added to the oridnal code.
Zeiger said he appoints council members to some boards, just like any other board appointment. However, those council members get a board term that lasts for the duration of their time on the Saratoga Town Council.
Zeiger said, for some boards, like the joint powers boards, the recommendation comes from the board itself.
“Every board is a little different,” Zeiger said.
Council members serving as voting members on boards is not unheard of in other communities. The town of Encampment allows Encampment Town Council members to become voting members on boards. However, the town of Encampment does not have council representative positions.
Encampment Town Clerk Doreen Harvey said any council member who wants to serve on a town board can be appointed to a regular term.
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