Lane County has dozens of elected governing boards, filled with mostly unpaid citizens who oversee cities and towns, school districts, fire and ambulance departments, soil and conservation districts — the list goes on.
Typically, members of these boards start their work with little or no training. They have just one employee who reports to them — the head of the entity they govern. They meet for hours on end in sometimes cramped and often poorly ventilated rooms with indifferent lighting. Usually, their meetings attract little notice and few visitors — unless a hot issue erupts. And if it does, they sit through hours of often-enraged comment from members of the public.
Still, these boards are charged with making real decisions that have a real impact on the lives of people throughout the county. And boards that are working well usually share the same attributes, according to speakers at the City Club of Eugene’s meeting Friday, Feb. 27…