By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
The process of electing board members for the county’s senior services may be, well, old.
So the Wood County Committee on Aging is considering changing its bylaws to no longer require that board members be elected.
Alisha Nenadovich, executive director of the Wood County Committee on Aging, said the agency is always looking for a diverse board – and that the review of bylaws this year may result in some changes.
“The bottom line is, I want a broad representation across the county,” she said.
John Calderonello, a former member of the board, reported in November that the annual election of board members again had “a dearth of voting,” with only about 150 votes tallied. That means the other 27,000-plus seniors in the county did not participate in the election.
The current election process makes ballots available at all the senior center sites in the county during the last week of October. But few seniors cast ballots.
“Seniors did not know how important or what the responsibilities of a board member were, and were hesitant to vote as they didn’t know most of the candidates,” Calderonello said.
He also pointed out that since serving on the WCCOA Board is a voluntary position, some possible candidates are not willing to go through the election process.
“The committee debated whether this was finally the time to not ask volunteers to go through an election that no other Wood County government board or commission does,” Calderonello said. He estimated there are 30 to 40 other boards in Wood County – all which do not have elected boards – which have a large number of residents dependent on the services they provide and which have large budgets supported by taxpayers.
It was suggested that instead of an election, a county official such as a judge interview prospective candidates from the community for the seats open each year. Wood County Probate/Juvenile Judge Dave Woessner currently does this for the Wood County Park District Board.
But some on the board were reluctant to scrap the election process. So if the elections were to continue, the following suggestions were made to improve voter involvement, such as:
- Add a UR code to the newsletter with a voting app. The code would bring seniors to a site where all the information regarding the voting, dates to vote, and candidate backgrounds would be available.
- Have the candidates record short videos targeting the concerns of their district, to be played at the senior center sites and available on the website.
- Make available at each senior center a short description of the responsibilities of board members, such as attendance at monthly meetings, events, fiscal obligations, committees and travel.
- Have home meal deliverers deliver and collect the ballots. There are more than 150,000 meals delivered each year, with 70,000 congregate meals served last year. Meals would be an ideal occasion to distribute information regarding the election of board members.
During Wednesday’s meeting of the board, Wood County Commissioner Doris Herringshaw swore in the new and returning board members. Following is a list of the 15 members, as well as how they came to be on the board:
Elected: Ray Echelbarger, Northwood; Bernie Goskey, Bowling Green; Charlie Harper, Plain Township/Bowling Green; Jim Miles, Washington Township/Bowling Green; Darlene Petkwitz, Cygnet; and Randy Powers, Perrysburg.
Selected: Brooke Harrison, Wayne; R. Scott Johnston, Perrysburg; Andrew Kalmar, Bowling Green; Louis Katzner, Bowling Green; Tim McCarthy, Perrysburg; Thomas Milbrodt, Bowling Green; Eric Myers, Bowling Green; and Nancy Orel, Perrysburg.
Appointed: Katie Stygles, Bowling Green State University.
Sworn in as officers were Orel as president; McCarthy as president-elect; Lou Katzner as secretary; with Tom Milbrodt as immediate past president.
