Boards and Commissions provide an opportunity for residents to participate in the decision-making process of the City Council. The primary role of boards and commissions is to advise and make recommendations to the City Council on matters within their established purpose. The interaction between the City Council and boards and commissions is important and necessary to share information and recommendations.

Staff would like to formalize a process by which boards and commissions communicate with Council. The process would include how the Council would like to receive information and recommendations from commissions.

At the last board and commission discussion Council asked staff to look at what other communities do and bring that information back for discussion. A request was sent to all the Clerks in the state asking how their commissions communicate and interact with their Councils. Fifteen cities and towns responded. Six agencies had a Council representative sit on each commission and they would provide a liaison report at Council meetings. There were nine communities that only had a staff liaison assigned to the commission. Most of the respondents indicated that they communicated to Council mostly through written reports or a staff liaison update on a scheduled basis (some annually, some quarterly).

To provide some history on past practices, the Council used to assign a councilmember representative to each commission as a non-voting member. Their role was to observe, provide information to and from the commissions and City Council as well as report information back to the City Council as needed. A number of years ago the Council decided to end this practice because at the time, they felt that the councilmembers were getting too involved in the decision-making process of the commissions rather than being the informational connection between the commission and Council.

With regards to recommendations from the commissions, with the exception of two communities who responded, recommendations are submitted by the staff liaison to a department head or the city manager for inclusion on an upcoming agenda. The staff liaison would typically present the recommendation to Council.

Staff is requesting direction from Council on how they want to would like to receive general information and updates from commissions. Possible considerations:

• Written reports on a regularly scheduled basis
• Scheduled presentations to Council
• Communication through a Council representative
• Other

Staff is also seeking direction on how Council would like to receive recommendations from commissions. Possible considerations:

• Written communication
• Written communication and presentation to Council at a Work Session
• Other

Regardless of how the recommendation is presented to Council, staff is recommending that the staff liaison submit commission recommendations through their Division Director and City Manager.

Council direction will be formalized and documented in the Board and Commission Member Manual as well as the Staff Liaison Manual which will both come to you for final consideration and possible approval.