Hanford council sets process to pick 11-member Measure H oversight board, agrees to rank all applicants

The Hanford City Council on Feb. 13 agreed on a public, multi-step process to select 11 members for the Measure H Oversight Board, directing staff to collect ranked applicant lists from each council member and schedule interviews for a narrowed pool.

City Finance Director Chris Tavares told the council that 27 applications had been received by the Feb. 13 close and outlined a two-phase process: council members will each submit ranked lists of applicants, staff will compile those rankings to identify roughly 15 interviewees, and council will interview that smaller group at a special meeting. “Each council member shall review all applications,” Tavares said, describing the proposed workflow and scoring options.

The council emphasized transparency and practicality in selecting members to oversee the voter-approved Measure H transactions-and-use tax and its expenditure plan. Tavares and Finance Manager Destiny Borba proposed that interviews be 10 minutes long with up to five questions, scored afterward. Staff suggested scores be averaged,…