Lawhorn’s Lawrence: Thanks for the advice

Back when I was much more of a rookie on this job, there was a particular city board that I became intrigued with: the Special Alcohol Advisory Board.

I’m not certain that was its official name, but it was what everybody referred to it as, and I was certain of this: There was no special alcohol involved with the city and county commission meetings I was covering every blessed week.

It was clear, that’s the board I need to be covering.

Hundreds of volunteers who serve on city and county advisory boards pose for a group photo March 6 at the Cider Gallery, where they were honored by public officials.

Come to find out, the Special Alcohol Advisory Board is not as much fun as it sounds. It simply makes recommendations on how the city should spend the proceeds of a special tax that the state charges on alcohol.

The Special Alcohol Advisory Board is no more. It has morphed into something called the Social Service Funding Advisory Board. (I don’t think the name change had anything to do with the scene I made when learning of the Special Alcohol Board’s true purpose, but I can’t be for sure.)

But fear not. If you like to give advice, Lawrence and Douglas County is your type of place. And apparently, there are lots of you who do like to give advice. The city has 47 advisory boards or task forces and makes appointments to fill about 360 spots on both its own boards and joint boards that the city has representation on. The county has about 30 advisory boards and appoints about 150 members.

City and county officials came together recently to honor all the people who serve on those boards with a catered reception at the Cider Gallery in East Lawrence.

“So many of our meetings and your meetings are full of mundane items,” Douglas County Commissioner Nancy Thellman told the crowd. “But it is amazing how those mundane items add up to something that is really important.”

What’s mundane to one person, though, is a riveting three-hour advisory board meeting to someone else. Here’s a smattering of the types of boards you can serve on and the advice you can offer: how to run the city’s airport (Aviation Advisory Board); attracting visitors to town (Convention and Visitor Bureau Board); how to promote diversity and discourage discrimination (The Lawrence Alliance and the Human Relations Commission); how to have relations with international cities (Sister Cities Advisory Board); how to run the city’s bus system (Public Transit Advisory Committee); how to prepare for the worst (Douglas County Emergency Management Board); and how to wear green eye shades and operate 10-key adding machines (Sales Tax Audit Committee.) Actually, I’ve just been told the green eye shades are optional these days. The board monitors whether the city is spending its special sales tax revenues in accordance with how voters approved them to be used.

But maybe hearing from frustrated contractors and developers is more your idea of a good time. Well, cinch up that tool belt and dive in. There is a nearly endless supply of boards that rule on appeals related to the building and development industry. There are: the Board of Zoning Appeals/Sign Code Board; Building Code Board of Appeals; Contractor Licensing Board; Electrical Code Board of Appeals; Fire Code Board of Appeals; Mechanical Board of Appeals; Plumbing Code Board of Appeals; and the TV Remote Control Board of Appeals. All right, you caught me. I made that last one up, but the rest are real, and most of them have both a city and a county version of the board.

There is one thing all advisory boards have in common: None of their members get paid. This truly is about donating time to your community. In a world where, it appears, many of us don’t even have time to vote in local elections, you’d think finding volunteers for these positions would be difficult. That’s true sometimes, but you’d probably be surprised at how many people do call up wanting to serve. And you never know what may spark that interest.

Janet Grant once found herself at a Douglas County Board of Zoning Appeals meeting because she wanted to know how close you could park a fifth-wheel trailer next to a property line. After the meeting, she asked if the board ever had any vacancies. The response: You know, we just happen to have one coming up.

That was eight years ago, and Grant has been on the zoning board ever since.

“I do it because I’m interested in seeing the county develop in a good way, and these types of details are important,” Grant said.

That seems to be the motivating factor with almost every board member.

“I can’t think of a better way to improve a community than to give back your time,” said Gary Knudsen, a member of the city’s Aviation Advisory Board.

And almost anyone can be an asset in some area, many board members said. Some, like Knudsen come onto a board as an expert. He’s a retired aircraft safety inspector. Others dive in and learn on the way. Ryan Devlin, a member of the city’s Traffic Safety Commission, said he was honest when then Mayor Mike Amyx asked him if he knew anything about traffic safety. (I asked my wife that once, and I sure wish I had known she carries a gavel in her purse.)

“I told him not much, but I knew I could learn, and you always just have to remember that you are trying to make the best decision you can for the city,” Devlin said.

Most of these boards aren’t making final decisions, but rather just recommendations to the city or county commissions. But that shouldn’t take anything away from their importance.

“We couldn’t do our work, if you didn’t do your work” County Commissioner Thellman told the group of board members at the recent reception.

I’m sure she meant that, and I think every elected official would second it. I’ve spent more than 20 years here covering either the City Commission or the County Commission, and I’ve seen the important role the boards play.

For example, it is not uncommon for a City Commission meeting to include four or five items from the Traffic Safety Commission, or five or six items from the Planning Commission, or the Historic Resources Commission. Often times those items are on the city’s consent agenda because those commissions have already vetted the projects and unanimously agreed on a recommendation. Sure, city commissioners conduct their own due diligence, but most times they are able to approve those items with one, simple, quick vote because they have a trusted board that already has gotten down in the trenches and wrestled with the mundane details.

If there weren’t volunteers that played that role, I shudder to think how long meetings would last and . . . well, let’s say it this way: We would have to have breakfast, lunch and supper catered in to meetings to sustain us, and a Special Alcohol Semi-Truck would have to make a delivery to keep a certain member of the media sane.

For that, and a whole lot of other reasons, I’ll temporarily appoint myself as an advisory board member and issue a quick recommendation: Thank a board member when you get the chance.

— Each Sunday, Lawhorn’s Lawrence focuses on the people, places or past of Lawrence and the surrounding area. If you have a story idea, send it to Chad at clawhorn@ljworld.com.