February 11, 2025

Tips for New Regulatory Board Members

Tips for New Regulatory Board Members

Being appointed to a Regulatory Board can be a very fulfilling opportunity to use your professional expertise regarding public protection. However, sometimes, this can be a difficult transition. For most optometrists, participation in professional organizations is because we feel strongly about our profession. Although this is a good attitude to have, there is a distinct difference between representing the profession’s welfare and representing the public’s welfare.

Your role on the board is not as an optometrist. You are a public member with optometric expertise. That expertise is the value you bring to the table.

Initially, your default thinking will be in protecting the profession, and understandably, it’s the only reference you’ve known. But that’s not your job as a regulator. Making the mental transition from ‘profession promoter’ to ‘public protector’ can cause a period of cognitive dissonance and can be uncomfortable, especially if you will be making decisions that may be viewed as counter to professional advocacy agendas.

Remember, your job is to protect the public served by your licensees.

Once you have a clear understanding of your role as a regulator, the rest is easier. Here are a few tips to use as a new Optometry Board member:

  1. BE PREPARED FOR BOARD MEETINGS

    Review Board materials ahead of time. Outline your questions and thoughts to organize your comments for Board deliberations. Be familiar with the statutes and rules you will be working with. Bring them with you! Pay attention and stay alert. The legality of your decisions depends on this.

  2. BE FAIR

    The public and every person coming before the Board has a right to expect each Board member to handle their matter fairly, competently and reliably. Determine whether you have a conflict of interest. “Any public officer or employee who has, or who’s relative has, a substantial interest in any decision of a public agency shall make known such interest in the official records of such public agency and shall refrain from participating in any manner as an officer or employee in such decision.”

  3. REMEMBER YOU ARE ALWAYS “ON THE RECORD”

    Be mindful of your conduct and everything you say at a Board meeting. You are being recorded and minutes are being taken. Assume everything is a public record and that things will always come back to haunt you.

  4. AVOID EX-PARTE COMMUNICATIONS

    As a Board member you may occasionally be contacted by the public, the press or a party about a pending matter before the Board.  If you are contacted by a member of the public or the press, you should proceed with caution and avoid commenting on matters pending before the Board. For general policies, procedures and information, direct them to Board staff.

  5. HAVE A BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF THE OPEN MEETING LAW

    The driving policy behind the Open Meeting Law: That meetings of public bodies be conducted openly and that notices and agendas be provided for such meetings which contain such information as is reasonably necessary to inform the public of the matters to be discussed or decided.”

  6. BE CAUTIOUS IN EVERY EXECUTIVE SESSION

    An “executive session” means a gathering of a quorum of members of a public body from which the public is excluded.  Executive sessions are the exception and not the rule during public Board meetings. The situations that qualify for an executive session are: for legal advice with your attorney, personnel matters, or discussion or consideration of records made confidential by law.

  7. HAVE A BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF PUBLIC RECORDS LAW

    What is a public record? As a rule, “all records required to be kept are presumed open to the public for inspection as public records.” For your purposes as a Board member, you should have the working assumption that everything you create, use or have access to in carrying out your duties as a Board member is a public record. This can include e-mail communications, recordings of meetings, letters, etc.

  8. UNDERSTAND THE ROLE OF THE BOARD’S LAWYER

    The Attorney General’s office serves as legal counsel to most State Boards. As a Board member, you will receive legal advice and guidance from the assigned Assistant Attorney General (AAG) to the board. That AAG may also be advising and working with the staff for the Board, department or agency. For some agencies and Boards, their assigned AAG may also assume the role of a prosecutor on behalf of the State on cases before the Board for disciplinary actions or other matters. In these situations, once a complaint has been filed and that AAG assumes an adversarial role, he or she may no longer provide legal advice to the Board on that particular case or matter.

  9. ENJOY YOUR TIME AS A PUBLIC SERVANT!