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Council splits on planning and police advisory appointments after disputed interview procedures
Summary
Council approved some recommended appointments but declined others and debated whether interview procedures were followed. Planning Commission reappointments split the council; Police Citizens Advisory Board appointments drew objections for lacking council liaison participation.
The Loveland City Council spent more than an hour on appointments to boards and commissions, approving many recommended nominees while deferring or rejecting others after several councilors and members of the public challenged whether the interview process followed the city’s Boards and Commissions Handbook.
Council members approved multiple appointments across boards (library, parks, cultural services, disability advisory and others) largely by unanimous roll calls. The most contentious debate concerned the Planning Commission and the Police Citizens Advisory Board (PCAB). Some council members and several public speakers urged waiting to allow a newly seated council liaison to take part in interviews or to re-run interviews that lacked a council liaison or the committee chair.
On the Planning Commission: the council considered three recommended appointees. It voted to table a motion to delay all planning-commission appointments for two weeks; that motion failed. The council then approved one nominee, Greg Dewey, and voted down two others (Sarah McKeen and Lena Thompson). Several council members said the boards-and-commissions handbook left gray areas about who should sit on interview panels when a board chair cannot participate; the City Attorney said the vice chair often stands in but noted the handbook could be clarified.
On PCAB: public speakers and at least one council member objected that the Police Department’s interview panel did not include the council liaisons and that a now-former councilor later ratified the selections. The council approved three PCAB nominees (Travis Conklin, Shane McWaters and Bill Kurtz) by individual roll-call votes; Councilor Black announced she would not support the PCAB appointments because she said council liaisons were not involved in the panel.
Councilors repeatedly said they would direct staff to review and clarify the boards-and-commissions handbook so interview panels and the role of liaisons are unambiguous. Several public commenters urged careful treatment for long-serving volunteer chairs who believe they were excluded from interviews.
The council also appointed new council liaisons: Councilor Laura Lightkovich as primary liaison to the Police Citizens Advisory Board, with Councilor Foley as alternate; Councilor McFall was nominated as the new Planning Commission liaison.
