12-Year-Old Commissioner Serves City Fills Vacancy On Board, Attends Meetings Till Dark

As the meeting of the Yachats Parks and Commons Commission yawned on, Commissioner William Kennelly-Ullman looked out the window, stretched and checked his watch.

They’d just agreed to review a traffic plan when Kennelly-Ullman raised his hand. “It’s getting dark and I’m riding my bike,” said the 12-year-old commissioner.

The panel oversees the use of the Commons Building and nearly five acres of city park.

He made sure no more votes were planned before heading home. During the school year, he often left early because meetings stretched past his bedtime.

In this coastal community of 655 people, it’s hard to get volunteers. And when William rode his bike down to the city office six months ago to apply for a vacancy, nobody could see why he shouldn’t be appointed. No law bans children from such positions.

“William’s very free to participate in discussion, and not particularly inhibited,” says commission Chairman Howard Osborn.

At times during the meeting, William, in baggy jeans and green tennis shoes, found it hard to sit still. But he paid attention. And he wasn’t the only one yawning.

After the meeting he admitted he is often bored. Discussions about matters such as where to put five new picnic tables can go on forever, he says. And he confesses he’s in over his head on budget matters.

“I was just saying, ‘yup, yup, yup.”’ But it was William who told other commissioners that if they didn’t do something with a big pile of landscaping bark, it was going to get scattered because kids on the school bus were planning a bark fight.

“There’s stuff they (other commissioners) don’t know,” he says. “Just kid stuff, I guess.”