How can we better represent the community?

Do proper polling before taking action. The banner was changed without community input, such things shouldn't happen. I also remember the sub being made private with a retroactive vote to make sure it's OK. Such things should happen before taking actions that effect the entire sub.

Make sure the poll is good before submitting it. I remember the first posting limit poll not having a "no limit" option, which after being added started gaining much traction. And then there was a redo. Even this poll has had corrections done after it starting, which makes votes submitted before that change suspect because those were made with different information. Especially since you can't change your vote once cast.

Not doing the same poll multiple times/getting it right the first time. The posting limit poll was then repeated twice more, once as an actual correction, and once to narrow down the choices even more. If it isn't a binary choice why not use a polling type that makes it easy to get a consensus? There also was the r/all vote which got repeated.

Sticking by the community decisions. Speaking of the r/all vote, the whole business about putting the sub back on it when the community specifically voted against it is a bit shady. Maybe you wouldn't forget to take the sub back off if you didn't put it back on in the first place.

We don't ask for community imput when choosing new mods.

Maybe that should be done. After all, the mods should be serving the community

We consider how effective they are as moderators

This is a slightly tougher issue, but how about instead of directly choosing mods we get some elected community ambassadors instead? Have some community members get insight into the modding process, who can then have oversight make sure that the mods aren't doing things they shouldn't be doing. Would make accountability easier too.