IN SEARCH OF NEW BLOOD FOR CITY ADVISORY BOARDS

Cape Girardeau needs new blood on its city advisory boards, Councilman Richard Eggimann says.

A special committee composed of Councilmen Eggimann, Dr. Melvin Kasten and Tom Neumeyer will meet soon to consider the issue.

Back in August and early September, the city encouraged interested citizens to turn in forms indicating which boards they would be interested in serving on.

Three hundred fifty-six people responded.

Respondents were most interested in serving on the parks and recreation, golf and convention and visitors bureau advisory boards.

"I think 356 is a tremendous response," said Sherri Finley, the city's public awareness coordinator and a big proponent of citizen involvement.

"We have citizens out here who are willing to get involved and make some of those tough decisions the city needs their input on," said Finley.

But when it comes to filling positions, those serving on city committees generally get reappointed.

At its Oct. 16 meeting, for example, the council had five positions to fill on two city advisory boards.

The five people whose terms were set to expire were reappointed to new terms.

That concerns Eggimann. He wants to appoint new people to the boards instead of reappointing the same citizens over and over again.

Eggimann has suggested limiting board members to two consecutive terms or expanding the committees.

He said a person could still serve more than two terms on a board, just not consecutively.

But Eggimann acknowledged that it would be hard for the council not to reappoint citizens who want to continue volunteering their time on advisory boards.

Expanding the boards might be a better solution now, Eggimann said.

Adding some new people could lead to new ideas and approaches to city issues. "We need to use as many of these people as we can," he said.

"I think the more people we can get involved, the broader the base for decision-making," he added.

Kasten, however, doesn't have any problem with reappointing individuals who desire to keep serving on advisory boards.

Expanding the boards poses a problem, he said. "You get a board that is too large, it is not functional."

Neumeyer agreed that the size of the boards shouldn't be increased. But he said he would support term limits as a way to involve more citizens in local government.