The Madison County Planning Commission is changing its membership size–again.
Years ago, the planning commission consisted of 11 members before being reduced to nine voting members and two supervisor liaisons. In January of 2023, the Madison County Board of Supervisors opted to shrink the board to just seven members–opting to only reappoint two of the four members whose terms were ending. Now, it’s changing size again, this time increasing to eight.
At last week’s planning commission meeting, board of supervisors’ chairman Carty Yowell said in interviewing potential applicants for the commission, three were determined to have a lot of background knowledge and experience leading the supervisors to feel they “should nab the folks that are willing to do this while the talent is available.”
The board recently interviewed four candidates to fill two vacant spots on the commission. James Graves III’s term is ending Jan. 31 and he has opted to not reapply and former commissioner Mike Snider began his tenure as a supervisor at the beginning of the month. County residents Anne Gore, Benjamin Phillips, Bryce Harty, Clay Jackson, Wayne Dyer and William Barnes applied to fill the vacancies. Barnes and Harty did not attend interviews.
Yowell said the supervisors discussed adding three of the candidates to the commission, increasing its size from seven members to eight. Commissioner Jim Smith said he didn’t like the idea of increasing the commission’s size and would actually prefer five members, but he understood the urge to get good volunteers when able and would reluctantly vote in favor of it.
Commissioner Steve Carpenter questioned if the commission had any say in its makeup at all since the commissioners are appointed by the supervisors. The size of the commission is currently in the commission’s bylaws as being seven.
Commissioner Nathan Cowan said in his opinion the planning commission can change its bylaws. He said while he could relate to taking advantage of having available talent, he would be for seven members or even nine, but not eight since it would create an even number and thus the potential for tie votes.
Chairman Zack Whitman said he would also be in favor of nine. Carpenter said he would also be in favor of more since the commission didn’t like making the switch from nine to seven.
Commissioner Pete Elliott made a motion to leave the commission at seven members. It was seconded by Cowan and approved 2-4 with Carpenter, Smith, Graves and Whitman casting the dissenting votes.
“I think it’s of no consequence,” Smith said. “If the ordinance says the board of supervisors shall appoint [commissioners], that means [the three] are our members. We have nothing to say.”
County attorney Hannon Wright said state code allows commissions to have as few as five members and as many as 15.
“There will be eight chairs here Feb. 1,” Yowell said.
Smith suggested amending the bylaws to state the commission will consist of five to 15 members as established by the board of supervisors. It was seconded by Carpenter and approved 5-1 with Elliott dissenting.
During its meeting Wednesday, the board of supervisors voted unanimously to add Gore and Jackson to the commission, with Dyer appointed to complete Snider’s unexpired term.
