Did you know that the City of Westlake has four boards and committees that include resident members? A couple of them have vacancies!
1) AUDIT COMMITTEE – The newest committee to be established is the Audit Committee (required by Florida Statues Section 218.391). This committee, which will consist of one (1) City Council member and four (4) Westlake residents, will select a certified public accounting firm to perform the City’s annual financial audit. Ideally, the four residents will have backgrounds or experience in accounting, finance, auditing, business, management, or other related fields.
The selection of the accounting firm will comprise reviewing and approving Requests for Proposals (RFPs), evaluating submitted proposals, conducting interviews, and, ultimately, recommending a firm to the City Council.
Stay tuned for how to apply as the committee gets established!
2) ART IN PUBLIC PLACES BOARD – has two (2) vacancies, for an alternate member and a student member! This is THE board you want to be on: they rarely, RARELY, meet, and when they do, it’s to discuss art that will beautify Westlake and hopefully set it apart aesthetically from other similar municipalities.
Refresher: for all non-residential development projects with construction costs over $1,000,000, the developer must either contribute 1% of said construction costs to Westlake’s Art Acquisition Fund or provide artwork having an appraised value of 0.75% of the construction costs to their development.
This Board/fund is responsible for Adam & Eve at the Westlake Tax Collector’s Office; Orange with 3 Blossoms at James Business Park; and Fresh Burst at Westlake Palms!
Next up, the Board could be looking to install arty bike racks, a bus shelter, and maybe figuring out how to get a time capsule project going! APPLY HERE.
3) EDUCATION ADVISORY BOARD – is meant to build a strong partnership between the City and its schools, provide educational opportunities for students and residents, and to promote and facilitate success of enrolled students.
These board members are entering a very exciting time as Westlake’s new elementary school gets built and readies to open. Their next meeting is September 17th where we can expect a lot of updates on this new school and learn all about those resident input meetings we’ve heard about.
4) PLANNING AND ZONING ADVISORY BOARD – serves to “advise the City Council” on planning and zoning related matters. But the Board itself includes every. single. one. of Westlake’s City Council members. It has only a single Westlake resident as an alternate (i.e., nonvoting) member. So I guess the City Council is making recommendations to itself? Lone resident alternate board member Bobby Farber has been publicly asking to get more residents on this Board. I have to agree!
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