Kennewick staff and council discuss strengthening boards and commissions recruitment, oversight and reporting

Deputy City Manager Lisa Beaton and City Clerk Crystal Johnston led an Oct. 28 discussion with Kennewick City Council about the city’s boards and commissions, focusing on five advisory bodies that most directly advise council: the Arts Commission, Block Grant Advisory Committee (CDBG), Historic Preservation Commission, Parks & Recreation Commission and the Planning Commission.

Beaton summarized each body’s statutory basis, typical duties and recent activity, noting some boards have had repeated cancelled meetings when they lacked business. She said recruitment and maintaining quorums have been persistent challenges and described steps staff has taken to improve outreach and candidate materials. "We've tried to recruit people with a better understanding of what they're signing up for," Beaton said, describing clearer job descriptions, more complete application materials and streamlined reappointment procedures for incumbents who are the sole applicants.

Nut graf: Council and staff focused on practical changes to increase commission effectiveness—better recruitment, tailored interview questions, annual work plans and stronger staff‑commission‑council touch points—rather than immediate structural consolidations.

Council members recommended more direct engagement between council and commissions. Council Member McShane and others said one-off workshops (the planning commission met in a workshop earlier this year) were helpful and suggested requiring each commission to present an annual work plan and year‑end accomplishments to council. Several council members urged revising the interview question set to be commission‑specific and allowing targeted follow-up questions during interviews.

Staff proposed launching "Kennewick University" in 2026 (formerly Citizens Academy) as an outreach and recruitment tool, and suggested that staff liaisons and commission chairs provide an annual presentation to council to improve transparency about each commission’s work plan. Other topics raised included reducing meeting frequency for boards that have sparse workloads, selectively interviewing applicants (screening to focus interviews on the most qualified candidates) and exploring combined commissions where missions overlap.

Ending: Council provided direction to staff to circulate proposed commission‑specific interview questions, work‑plan templates and a recruitment timeline; staff said they will return proposed changes and a schedule for annual commission briefings to council for review.