Town Council · Boards & appointments
The appointment “shot clock” is now the rule
On October 13, the Apex Town Council put a due date on the Mayor's recommendations for the residents who serve on Town boards. Minutes later, Council filled all four open seats on the agenda by signed ballot. Here is how the new rule works, with a calculator for any date.
Residents serve on six Town boards that advise the Council or make development decisions. For years, Apex has filled those seats in two steps: the Mayor recommends an applicant, and the Town Council appoints. What the rules never said was when the recommendation had to arrive, or what happens if it doesn't. In 2026, appointments were deferred for months while that question went unanswered.
On Tuesday, October 13, the Council answered it. After a public hearing, it adopted the amendments to the Unified Development Ordinance, which covers the Planning Board and Board of Adjustment, as originally proposed, then adopted matching changes to the Town Code for the four resident advisory boards. Both take effect on adoption.
Try it
When is the recommendation due?
Pick a situation and a date. The calculator applies the 30-calendar-day rule in the adopted text.
Most advisory-board terms run two years; youth seats run one.
Compare
Three ways to handle a recommendation
The old rule, the Planning Board's suggestion of Oct. 12, and the version Council adopted.
Seats could wait indefinitely. In 2026, appointments were deferred on June 23 and Aug. 25, and recommendations were withdrawn on Sept. 15.
Offered as a middle ground. At the hearing, Council members called it a good-faith effort but said the wording could let the clock reset again and again; Council did not adopt it.
The Mayor still recommends. Board makeup, qualifications and appointment authority don't change; the calendar now sets the timing.
Who it covers
Six boards, two rulebooks
Development-related boards live in the Unified Development Ordinance; the advisory boards live in the Town Code. Both got the same clock.
Members of the Planning Board and Board of Adjustment who live in Apex's extraterritorial jurisdiction are still appointed by the Wake County Board of Commissioners; the amendments add that the Town Council may send the County recommendations.
From the hearing
“There's a due date now”
Mayor Pro Tem Terry Mahaffey pointed to state law, G.S. 160D-310, which says appointments to these boards are made by the governing board, and noted that the Mayor's recommendation step in Apex's ordinances is not changing. The goal, he said, is reliability:
“We do dozens of these a year. I want to get to the point where they come up, they're due, and we have a vote on it, something happens, we move on… The calendar now drives it with the change. Nothing else changes except there's a due date now.”Terry Mahaffey, Oct. 13, 2026 Council meeting (3:04:01–3:04:31)
Council then adopted the UDO amendments as originally proposed, followed by the matching Town Code ordinance.
Same night
All four open seats, filled by signed ballot
The recommendation no longer gets its own up-or-down vote. Council votes on one ballot for all open seats, listing every applicant a Councilmember nominated plus the Mayor's recommendation, if there is one, with a blank line to write in another name. Each Councilmember signed a ballot, and the Town Clerk read the results aloud.
Culture & Arts
Regular member, partial term to June 30, 2027
✓ FilledMultimodal Transportation
Regular member, partial term to July 31, 2027
✓ FilledParks & Recreation
Senior (55+) seat, term to Sept. 30, 2028
✓ FilledPlanning Board
Regular corporate-limits seat, term to Sept. 30, 2028
✓ Filled
Why ballots? Mahaffey explained that the UNC School of Government's guide for town councils recommends them out of respect for applicants: each member votes for the person they want, instead of applicants watching Council vote them down one by one. Members also explained their choices aloud before voting, pointing to the voices each board was missing, such as a cycling advocate on the transportation board.
The point
Timely, open and routine
Mahaffey had laid out the goal in his newsletter ahead of the hearing:
“It's important to Council that we are able to make our appointments in a timely, open, transparent and routine fashion - so our advisory boards can operate.”Terry Mahaffey, newsletter, Oct. 2, 2026
Get involved
Want to serve on a Town board?
- Read about each board and apply online at apexnc.org/177 (Advisory Boards & Committees).
- More seats come back to Council in December, including an Environmental Advisory Board vacancy announced Oct. 13.
- Planning Board applicants are interviewed before they can be considered, per Council policy.
- Questions? Office of the Town Clerk, Town Hall, 73 Hunter St., (919) 249-1260.
Bottom line
A calendar, not a standoff
The Mayor still recommends and the Council still appoints, as before, and the code now says plainly that Council is not bound by the recommendation. What changed is that every recommendation now has a date attached, and a clear next step if it doesn't arrive. On the night the rule took effect, every open seat on the agenda was filled.
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