Further efforts are being made to merge city commissions by Mayor Chapman and Vice Mayor Vaitla
By MADELEINE YOUNG — city@theaggie.org
On Wednesday, Feb. 7, the city council held a workshop to discuss the council’s expectations related to its advisory commissions. This comes after the Davis City Council’s unanimous approval to develop a draft resolution establishing the consolidation of several of the city’s commissions on Jan. 30.
The council consensus on Jan. 30 was that they would like to look at the scope and structure of advisory commissions, which led to the Feb. 7 meeting where staff summarized the recommendations made by the subcommittee.
During the Jan. 30 council meeting, Assistant City Manager Kelly Stachowitz provided an overview of the recommendations to the councilmembers. Stachowitz stated the subcommittee’s interest in aligning the commissions with the needs of the city council in order to allow the council to have the full depth of information necessary to make decisions on policy issues.
“Just as the city organization evolves to reflect different times and issues, so too can the city’s advisory commissions,” Stachowitz said.
The general plan was then introduced which was said to “represent the committee’s vision for the future,” according to Stachowitz. The general plan is meant to task certain commissions with community engagement and information gathering to bring back to the council.
Vice Mayor Bapu Vaitla and Mayor Josh Chapman, who are both on the subcommittee, proposed that these recommendations explain the process of the consolidation of the different city commissions
“The subcommittee recommended asking certain commissions to spearhead the community outreach component related to specific elements of the General Plan,” Vaitla said. “We also suggest that any commissions not linked to a specific element play supportive roles in the General Plan update process. Overall, we feel that commissions are well-placed to gather information on our community’s vision for the future.”
In reviewing the structures of commissions, the subcommittee undertook research including: reviewing each commissions’ assigned tasks, meeting with chairs and vice-chairs of each commission to gain a better understanding of how to improve commissions and considering council needs related to upcoming policy discussions amongst other research.
“This focus on the General Plan update, as well as the consolidation and streamlining recommendations, responds to concerns the subcommittee heard from chairs and vice-chairs about lack of direction and linkages to council decision-making,” Vaitla said. “After the General Plan update, the commissions would continue to function in their respective roles with revised authorizing resolutions.”
The draft would include recommendations for the merging of similar commissions in order to address the “evolving needs and interests since the last commission update” which was in 2006, according to Vaitla.
“We hope that the restructuring will elevate the ability of commissions to provide high-priority advisory support to city council, as well as ensure that our General Plan process is well-informed by a representative view of community needs and visions for the city’s future,” Vaitla said.
Written by: Madeleine Young— city@theaggie.org
