Santa Barbara City Council started the tall task of filling 43 vacant positions on city advisory boards, interviewing candidates on Tuesday for everything from the Architectural Board of Review and Harbor Commission to lesser-known advisory groups such as the Mosquito and Vector Management District Board.
So far, nearly 60 applicants have applied to fill the positions available in 17 different city advisory boards. The city council will hold public interviews over two weeks, making final appointments for all positions on June 27.
Luckily, the city has plenty of applicants, some of whom brought notable experience and expertise to support their applications. The Santa Barbara Youth Council, which is intended to encourage young people to participate in government, has 14 applications for its 10 open positions. Kavya Suresh, a junior from San Marcos High School who currently sits as vice chair of the Youth Council, asked to be reappointed. “To me, it’s imperative that youth are centered in the work that the city does, considering … that these are the problems we’re going to inherit,” Suresh said. “We’re also going to have to start thinking of solutions for those problems.”