SOUTH PORTLAND – During a special workshop on Monday, the South Portland City Council discussed the best way to fill committee vacancies and whether an appointments committee should be created to assist in that endeavor.

Earlier this year the council approved changes to the city ordinances allowing councilors to appoint anyone from any district, but City Clerk Susan Mooney said this could cause an issue if there were more than one vacancy per committee.

In a memo to the council prior to the workshop, Mooney said it “would not be in our best interest to have two councilors calling the same applicants,” which is why she suggested the creation of an appointments committee or perhaps a rotating schedule to give councilors an equal chance at nominating qualified applicants.

During the workshop the council seemed to be in agreement that it did not want to create a new appointments committee. Instead the majority was in favor of creating some sort of web page to which councilors would have access to see who has applied for which committee.

Councilor Patti Smith said it would be much easier for councilors to check a web page to see who’s available for a particular committee, rather than contacting the city clerk’s office and asking who has applied and to get the application form emailed to them.

“I want to have full committees and we need a tool that’s easy to use so that we can provide the best match possible,” Smith said.

Mooney said there are some privacy issues with applications for committee appointments, but said it might be possible to create a web page that only councilors and a few members of the city staff would have access to.

Mayor Gerard Jalbert suggested that Mooney contact the city attorney to find out more specifically what the privacy restrictions are and to then come back to the council next month with a plan for a shared access web page.

– Kate Irish Collins