City seeking people who want to make a difference

By Lethbridge Herald on September 6, 2025.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald

The city of Lethbridge is seeking residents wanting to make a difference in their community by applying to be on one of city council’s boards, commissions and committees (BCCs).

Ryan Westerson, legislative services manager, said the recruitment campaign is now open and will run until Oct. 24

“We are looking for like-minded individuals in the community who want to service on our boards, commissions and committees like the police commission, our subdivision development appeal board, the community requirements appeal board-which is new this year,” said Westerson. 

Included in that list are also the library board, the Galt Museum and Archives board, and the combative sports commission.

“We are looking for applicants who are interested in providing their input and guidance in an advisory capacity and decision making in each of these bodies to help city council in their overall governance of the city of Lethbridge,” said Westerson. 

The office of the city clerk coordinates, on behalf of council, board-member recruitment, appointments and training, as well as the establishment and classification of new committees and assists council in developing guidelines for these bodies.

“There are no requirements outside of you must be a resident of the City of Lethbridge, be over the age of 18, have a little bit of knowledge of the kind of issues within our community as well,” said Westerson. “Most of these boards will provide you training and/or education into it.” 

He said within the subdivision development appeal board there is some provincially regulated mandated training and therefore for those successful applicants, the training will be provided. 

When talking about the response from residents so far, Westerson said they have resounding success in most years. 

“We have seen a very good increase in our applications coming in year over year. On average we are looking for about 30 vacancies in any given year, and we receive way more than that in applications each year,” said Westerson. 

He said this year they are looking to fill 25 vacancies, and they hope to receive more than 100 applications, as the more applications they receive, the better pool of candidates to look at. 

“We actually remove all identifying information of that application, it’s provided to a review panel that consists of the chair, vice-chair and two members of city council to review it and put it forward for recommendation,” said Westerson. 

All applications will be reviewed, and a decision will be made at the last city council meeting of the year in December. The terms of those new to their appointed board, commission or committee will begin in January 2026.