Help Wanted: County Boards and Commissions
Is there an issue you’re passionate about? A problem you can help solve? A community you’d like to help succeed? We may have the perfect niche for you.
Santa Clara County has more than 75 boards and commissions. Some have a long history, like the Planning Commission, established in 1929. Others, like the Race and Health Disparities Community Board, established in 2020, reflect cultural shifts. Several, including our five property assessment boards, have technical prerequisites for membership.
The common thread is that all are “staffed” by community members who volunteer to contribute their expertise and insight, helping our County’s professional staff to be even more effective, with a deeper understanding of issues and needs.
As a County Supervisor, it is both my responsibility and pleasure to nominate or vote on applicants to serve on our various boards and commissions. Most appointees come from San Jose, which makes sense given that it’s the County’s largest city and the seat of government. With more than half of the County’s total population, San Jose also has the greatest demand for our safety net services.
But to reflect the County as a whole, it’s important to engage constituents from all 15 of our cities and towns, and our unincorporated areas. Government works best when the public is fully engaged – when we have talented people who can share their skills and experiences.
Our boards and commissions – organized alphabetically (from Advisory Commission on Consumer Affairs to Youth Task Force) – focus their work in a number of ways: by topic (e.g., emergency operations, elections, equity, land use, public safety, roads, treasury oversight); by demographic (children, seniors, the unhoused, veterans, women); by geography (Cupertino Sanitary District, Los Altos Hills County Fire District).
I’ll be honest. It can take a little work to find just the right fit for an individual, in part because the boards and commissions have different, sometimes proscriptive, requirements regarding qualifications or residency. Also, the County’s applications portal is not as user friendly as I’d like, and the process can seem unduly cumbersome. But please, don’t let that stop you!
You don’t have to be old enough to vote – or even drive – to participate. I recently had the privilege of appointing Mountain View High School freshman Kendall Nord to the Youth Task Force, made up of 15 high-school aged youth who make policy recommendations and work to find solutions that will improve the lives of young people in our County.
I encourage applicants of all ages, from every corner of the County, so that our work responds to the full range of needs. My district – District Five – includes nine of the County’s cities. I recently had the privilege of appointing Benaifer Dastor, Cupertino resident and longtime community volunteer, to the Commission on the Status of Women.
Whether it’s at the local, state, or national level, the success of our institutions depends on real participation from folks who roll up their sleeves and wade in with ideas, knowledge, and lived experience. At the County we have many opportunities for constituents to help us foster robust and thriving communities.
More information on our boards and commissions, including how to apply, is available online. Thank you!