I personally think it would be cool if you could get "recommendations" from other players. This could be abused by people with a lot of friends, but maybe you could only get recommendations from Arches/Staff/Police/Well known members on the forums? All players could comment under an application, but comments from the people I listed would be taken the most seriously.
Maybe, staff members could fill out a comment based on this format:
1. Have you interacted with this player in-game? yes/no (so if staff says no, their opinion may not be 100% accurate)
2. Have you witnessed this player being mean to others in chat or any other environment? yes/no
3. Rate this players application from 1-10, 10 being the best and 1 being the worst. 1-10
4. Do you have any reason that this player should/should not become a staff member? no/reason...
5. Do you have any other comments on this player or their application? no/comment...
This application is a quick any easy way for staff to help whoever is deciding if the player should become a staff member, and it is a quick and easy way for that person go to through the comments and decide if that player should be promoted or not. The owners often spend most of their time online working on the server, so they do not get to know the players as well as the staff does, so this can help them really decide if these players are worth promoting.
Another idea is that if a staff member has something negative to say about this player but they do not want that player to know what they are saying is that they can privately message whoever is in charge of deciding for that position but at the beginning include a link to the forums page where this person applied and say something like: "This is my comment on the application of ____ to become ____, which I do not want that player to see." This can make sure that staff is completely honest about that player and not staying silent or not mentioning all bad things about that player.