Alachua County and the city of Gainesville are seeking residents to fill vacant positions on various volunteer advisory boards.  

Of the 27 different boards, the city currently has 13 open positions. The county also has 13 open positions on its 42 boards. 

In a press release, the county said the boards are ways for residents to give back to their community by participating in their government’s decision-making process. 

Local county and city government agencies rely on advisement from each board in order to set policies and make decisions on various topics, including affordable housing, economic development, environmental protection, human rights and county finances. The Equity Advisory Board has been a recent addition within the last two years.  

Gina Peebles, Alachua County’s assistant county manager and chief of staff, told Mainstreet that The Climate Advisory Board’s citizen input was recently leveraged at last month’s climate summit. 

According to the county’s advisory board report from last month, 211 members volunteer on the boards throughout Alachua County. The county offered 289 positions when Mainstreet last reported on vacancy numbers.  

Members can serve on multiple boards with terms and frequency of meetings varying in length depending on the depth of projects being worked on. 

Ethan Feldman serves on four different advisory boards—currently the most at one time—and Melanie Barr is the longest-serving board member in her 15^th term on the Historical Commission. 

Peebles said how quickly positions fill up varies based on how long they’re advertised.  

“We’ll leave them open until filled,” she said. “Sometimes we get multiple applications if the position is advertised for several months. If there’s one candidate for one vacancy, we’ll put it on the commission’s consent agenda and it gets approved automatically at the beginning of a commission meeting. Multiple applicants will go on regular agenda.” 

Positions that do not require previous experience in a particular field and just “the willingness to be involved and provide input,” Peebles said, are called at-large vacancies.   

Alachua County currently has an at-large citizen vacancy on the Economic Development Advisory Committee for a four-year term. Members will advise the County Commission on issues related to economic development while developing policy recommendations promoting sustainable economic development activities. 

Other positions require members to be city employees or have previous experience in certain fields such as law or medicine. As of 2022, the city requires board members to be Gainesville residents.   

To view open advisory board positions for Alachua County, click here. For open advisory board positions for the city of Gainesville, click here. 

For information regarding the positions and volunteering, contact Peebles at 352-337-6279 or gpeebles@alachuacounty.us.