The Brown County Commissioners and Brown County Council are beginning the process of selecting board members for next year.

For seats that the council must select people to fill, letters of interests and resumes are due by at 9 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 2. They can be emailed to [email protected] or mailed to P.O. Box 37 Nashville, IN 47448. Letters of interest and resumes can also be dropped off at the auditor’s office in the county office building at 201 Locust Lane.

The commissioners will accept letters of interest until Jan. 7. Those can be emailed to [email protected] or they can be dropped off at the auditor’s office.

The boards with seats that will become open at the end of the year are:

• All three spots on the Alcoholic Beverage Board. The council and commissioners each appoint one person, with the Nashville Town Council selecting the third member. Duane Parsons, the commissioners’ appointment, had already submitted his letter of interest to serve another term, commissioner Diana Biddle said at the Nov. 20 meeting. Terms are for one year.
• Three positions on the Brown County Board of Health. Linda Bauer, Cynthia Rose Wolpert and Thomi Elmore all submitted their letters of interest to the commissioners to serve another four years.
• One four-year term on the Brown County Public Library Board. The county council will appoint this person.
• All five members of the Brown County Convention and Visitors Commission. The commissioners appoint two to that board and the county council appoints three.
• A statutory change now gives the county council two appointments to the Brown County Parks and Recreation board and the commissioners get two. Biddle said she would check to see who gets the fifth appointment, but that it might be left up to the commissioners and council to decide. The county council and commissioners must appoint people from both political parties to the parks board. Previously, the county judge also had two appointments. Jay Sichting, the judge’s Democrat appointment, resigned. His term was up in 2022, so he will have to be replaced. The council’s Democratic appointment, Richard Gist, also will be up for reappointment, but is not seeking another term. The extension educator also serves on that board by state statute.
• Two spots on the Brown County Regional Sewer District board. The county council’s appointment, Ben Gold, is up this year, along with the commissioners’ appointment, Phil Leblanc.
• One spot on the Gnaw Bone Regional Sewer District board. Charley White’s term is up at the end of this year. The commissioners appoint all members.
• One spot on the Hamblen Township Fire District board. Michael O’Neil’s term is up. Biddle already had a letter of interest from him to serve again.
• All three seats on the Property Tax Assessment Board of Appeals. They are for one year.
• All three seats on the Brown County Fire Protection District board. Biddle said that the board needs to be realigned to make sure that members represent Jackson, Van Buren and Washington townships. Members of that board also are not allowed to be serving with a fire department. The commissioners make all appointments.

A new statute also directs how the county’s redevelopment commission is appointed. Those appointments are now at-will, Biddle said. “Terms are one year or until a replacement is appointed. We can reaffirm the appointment or we can change the appointment,” Biddle said. The commissioners have three appointments to that board and the council has two.

The commissioners also will have to make appointments to the county’s community corrections board, but Biddle said she was working on going over that list with that board. “After talking with (interim executive director) Terry West, I think we’re a little behind on some of the reappointments,” she said.

O’Neil’s term on the county’s public defender board as the Republican judge appointee is also up this year, but that appointment will now be made by the Indiana State Public Defenders Board. The judge and commissioners will now get one appointment each to that board.

No new appointments will need to be made to the Helmsburg Regional Sewer District board for 2020. Harrietta Weddle’s term on that board is up at the end of next year.

Last year, resident Sherrie Mitchell asked if the commissioners could put together a list of criteria for people to serve on these boards to make it easier for citizens to volunteer and get involved.

Commissioner Jerry Pittman said he had looked into what other surrounding counties had on file, and that only one county had anything in writing. Basically, it said all appointees had to file a letter of interest and that the board or a representative may interview applicants if more than one letter is received. In election years, appointments are made in January so that any new officeholders have a chance to weigh in, the other county’s policy said.

The commissioners made no decision on a policy for this county.