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A recent combined Planning and Zoning Commission meeting with the Arlington City Council. (O.K. Carter | Arlington Report)
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Deciding to become more involved in participatory democracy at the municipal level does require a little work — sometimes more than a little — but there’s no lack of opportunities.

Consider Arlington. If one is not inclined to run for an actual council office, there are lots of other opportunities. The city has 16 assorted boards and commissions that advise the City Council on everything from housing and health to zoning and parks, generally with two-year terms. In addition, Mayor Jim Ross has created 13 advisory councils. Most boards meet monthly, others as infrequently as twice yearly. One, planning and zoning, meets twice monthly.

Let’s start with those boards and commissions and a short explanation of duties.

Animal Services Advisory Board: Oversees operations of the animal shelter and encourages responsible pet ownership. Nine members.

Arlington Convention and Visitors Board: Tourism advocacy. Twenty-five members.

Arlington Higher Education Finance Corporation: Promotion of higher education and educational opportunities via private and charter schools. Seven members.

Building Code of Appeals: Reviews requests for exemptions to existing regulations. Thirteen members.

Citizens Bond Committee: Reviews and recommends projects for bond programs. Nineteen members.

Emergency Physicians Advisory Board: Medical control of the city’s EMS and ambulance programs. Eleven members, including representatives from every hospital receiving emergency patients.

Greater Texas Cultural Education Facilities Finance Corporation: Conduit for nonprofit organizations involved in cultural and education-related activities. Seven members.

Health Authority: Oversees state and public laws related to public health. Membership varies but includes an at-large appointment.

Housing Authority Board of Commissioners: Oversees operations of Arlington Housing Authority. Five members.

Landmark Preservation Commission: Reviews buildings, structures, sites, districts, areas, places and lands in the city related to historic landmark status. Nine members.

Library Advisory Board: Focuses on library services and administration. Ten members, including one youth representative.

North Texas Higher Education Authority: Furthers educational opportunities for students by providing funds for student loans. Six members.

Parks and Recreation Board: Operation, maintenance and use of parks or public spaces. Ten members including a youth representative.

Planning and Zoning Commission: Reviews zoning requests and recommends zoning districts. Nine members. Meets twice a month. 

Unity Council: Monitors equity and equality efforts, and the promotion thereof. Ten members, including a youth representative. Meets monthly.

Zoning Board of Adjustment: One of few quasi-judicial — not advisory — boards. It reviews, approves or denies appeals of zoning decisions that can be reversed only by a court. Thirteen members.

Here’s a link to the city’s website with individual information links to every board, plus access to an application form. The council and mayor make the appointments from those applicants. Though the formal deadline is May, applications can be filed any time and vacancies are filled year-round.

In addition, there are also occasional limited life task force boards, such as the Comprehensive Plan Update Steering Committee, applications to which are being sought right now.

Those informal mayoral advisory councils? Those are the Asian Advisory Council, Black Advisory Council, Education Coalition, Jewish Advisory Council, Latino Advisory Council, LGBTQ Advisory Council, Mayor’s Committee on People with Disabilities, Muslim Advisory Council, Older Adult Advisory Council, Unity Council, Veterans Affairs Task Force, Women’s Advisory Council and Young Adult Advisory Council.

If interested, call the mayor’s office at 817-459-6122 to be referred to the appropriate advisory council chair.

Arlington City Council member Bowie Hogg said the system for making formal city board appointments is well-defined. First, online applications are copied to council members.

“Boards and commissions have positions allocated for each council member,” Hogg said. “The mayor is allowed some extra spots for at-large positions, and he does appoint the chair of each board. The bigger, more recognized boards like planning and zoning have numerous applicants, while some of the specialty boards like the emergency physicians, or zoning board of adjustments, and others, have a small number of applicants. We could always use more.”

Some council members, like Hogg, personally meet with every applicant they appoint. Some take a more informal approach.

The experience of people serving on city boards also varies.

Planning and Zoning Commission member Tom Ware, a retired home repair company owner, has always been fascinated with municipal land use and development. Though P&Z meetings can be long — and sometimes confrontational — he finds the experience interesting, though not always entertaining.

“Some developers, a minority, think the city should be grateful for any kind of new development and they’re surprised to discover not so,” Ware said. “Usually, after polite education, things work out.”

Ware, now in his second term on P&Z, said only a couple of decisions during his terms have been reversed by the council, though that was typically after development plans had been tweaked.

His primary motivation for serving is a simple one. 

“I owe a lot to Arlington, and I wanted to give something back,” he said. 

Randy Hendricks’ first board appointment was to the Landmark Preservation Commission.

Before retirement, Hendricks was a corporate financial officer.

“I was used to the private sector where we have to produce quick results,” Hendricks said. “Things in government tend to lag on and on in endless discussions and sometimes nothing ever happens. For me it was like dropping from 100 miles an hour to 10.”

Hendricks’ experience was not duplicated, however, by Cyndi Golden, a retired anesthesiology nurse and a member of the city’s first Unity Council. That original council made 57 recommendations across five pillars, Golden said, which included education and workforce, housing, health and wellness, and criminal justice and economics. 

“Some of those disparities were resolved quickly — the hiring of chief equity officer, a full-time chaplain for police — but other issues like housing were harder, though we did recommend a workshop to help people manage finances or apply to buy a home,” Golden said. “We organized workshops to teach minorities how to bid for city contracts. What helped was that our requests to the city were reasonable.”

Some problem areas the Unity Council examined were tougher and continue to be, Golden said. The group discovered two ZIP codes, 76010 and 76011, that had the city’s highest infant mortality rates and lowest life expectancies. 

“Sometimes they couldn’t get to JPS because of transportation, sometimes because of economics and sometimes because they just didn’t want to go,” Golden said. “It doesn’t help that the county is the main public health care provider. We’ll keep working at it. In the meantime, I think the Unity Council will make a real difference because we continue to focus on real statistical evidence we can measure.”

O.K. Carter is a columnist at the Arlington Report. You can contact him at o.k.carter@arlingtonreport.org