“We’re turning away people when we have more than enough people [in town] to fill those spots,” Commissioner Peter Thibodeau said Tuesday evening when the town board began a discussion about a topic he suggested, residency requirements for advisory boards.
In the end, the other commissioners mostly agreed with him that preference for the boards should be for town and extra-territorial jurisdiction (ETJ) residents. They informally agreed that all the boards except the planning board and board of adjustment, where there are state requirements for members, will have a maximum of two members outside the town limits and ETJ and a minimum of zero. The decision is subject to revision after a public hearing in September and a formal board vote.
Thibodeau’s request for a discussion was apparently sparked by the recent appointments for the Youth Advisory Board, where the nine members are appointed each summer. Five of the 19 applicants live in Raleigh and one in Franklin County, eight attend Wake Forest-Rolesville High, six attend Wakefield High, three attend Franklin Academy, one attends Ravenscroft and one is homeschooled.
But it has been evident when the board has appointed advisory board members in the past that several applicants live outside the town limits or ETJ, and there are at least a handful of outside residents now on advisory boards. All boards except the board of adjustment now have nine members who serve three-year terms and can be reappointed for a second term.
“One of the reasons we’ve always included people from outside,” Town Manager Mark Williams said, is that when the town was very small “it was hard to find people inside town to serve.” Also, he said, the town’s service area for parks and recreation and the senior center in particular has been much larger than the incorporated area. He added that Wakefield is considered the “greater Wake Forest area.”
“Wakefield is Raleigh, it’s not Wake Forest,” Thibodeau said. “In my mind those rules were made up when we were a much smaller town. We’re past the time when we had to go outside to fill those boards.”
“There are tons of people who live outside our ETJ,” including those in the Stony Hill and Purnell Road areas who have Wake Forest addresses and consider themselves part of the greater Wake Forest area, Commissioner Margaret Stinnett said. Later she said those neighborhoods to the west of town “have been a part of Wake Forest forever and ever and will never be in the corporate limits because they are in the Falls Lake watershed.”
“There are people who live in Granville and Franklin counties who have Wake Forest addresses,” Williams said.
After Commissioner Chris Kaeberlein said he “did not see the need at all to bring in people from Raleigh and other areas to serve on our boards,” Stinnett pointed out “The cemetery board is a prime example of having a hard time to find someone to serve.” Two of the current members live outside town but have several family members buried in the cemetery and very much wanted to serve. In the recent past, one long-time member was the son of a woman who donated a large amount to the cemetery for beautification.
Williams said his suggestion would be to allow for outside members if there is “a great resource” who is willing to serve. His example was an arborist who lived in Youngsville but felt ties to Wake Forest and wanted to serve on the tree board.
Williams continued to point out the town services are used by a lot of people who live outside town. Thibodeau responded by saying he attends most festivals in Raleigh but that does not give him the right to sit on a Raleigh board. “It shouldn’t be a gateway.”
After agreement on residency, the commissioners and mayor turned to the Youth Advisory Board and Stinnett noted the other commissioners could have voted for different applicants last month. Also, she said, getting those board members to work together is challenging because they often have never met before, it is at least the second meeting before they can elect officers and October before they can start discussing the year’s program. She said she would like some continuity – some who are serving a second term – to help the newcomers adjust better.
Parks and Recreation Director Susan Simpson agreed. The new members “don’t understand why we have to take minutes” and why they have to follow an agenda and rules. “There is a lot of education that has to happen.”
Mayor Vivian Jones said she would prefer to appoint only sophomores, juniors and seniors, and she suggested they expand the board membership to as much as 15 to be able to give more young people the experience.