CITY OF PACIFICA
COUNCIL AGENDA SUMMARY REPORT
3/27/2023
1 SUBJECT:
Process and timeline for review of Commission and Committee Charters RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Discuss and provide direction to the City Manager about the process and timeline for review of Commission and Committee Charters
STAFF CONTACT:
Kevin Woodhouse, City Manager
650-738-7409
[email protected]
BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION:
City Commissions and Committees (C/Cs) serve as advisory bodies to the City Council, with members appointed by the City Council. From time to time as a best practice, the charters which establish the purpose of these advisory bodies should be reviewed and updated to ensure the bodies are fulfilling the purpose that aligns with the Council’s goals and priorities. In spring 2022, the City Council approved a Council Priority for the Fiscal Year 2022-23 workplan to review and consider potential updates to all C/C charters, beginning in spring 2023. In addition, because the City Council is currently undertaking a comprehensive strategic planning process to establish Mission, Vision, and Values statements for the City, and multi-year Goals and Strategies, it is an opportune time to also undertake a review of C/C charters to ensure alignment with the Strategic Plan.
Background
The City’s current C/Cs are (in alphabetical order):
• Beautification Advisory Committee (BAC)
• Economic Development Committee (EDC)
• Emergency Preparedness & Safety Commission (EPSC)
• Library Advisory Committee (LAC)
• Open Space and Parkland Advisory Committee (OSPAC)
• Parks, Beaches, & Recreation Commission (PBR)
• Planning Commission (PC)
In addition, there is a Youth Advisory Board (YAB) that is currently selected and coordinated by staff in the Parks, Beaches, and Recreation Department, is not subject to the Brown Act meeting laws, and is focused on planning youth activities and special events. The PBR commission has a designated liaison to the YAB.
In preparation for launching this Council Priority, staff has begun to research and consolidate background information about the formation, purpose, and other relevant details about each C/C. The purpose of this agenda item for the March 27, 2023 City Council meeting is to receive direction from the City Council about the process and timeline for undertaking these C/C charter Pacifica City Council 2
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reviews. Specific decisions about each C/C’s charter will occur at the time of Council review of each C/C’s charter in the future and is not intended for discussion at the March 27th meeting.
For background and context for this item, the City Council should keep in mind the following:
• C/Cs are staff-intensive: While intended to provide advice, recommendations, and assistance to the City Council, administering each C/C in accordance with the Brown Act, researching and preparing agenda reports, and conducting periodic recruitments requires dedicated staff resources;
• Governance Role of C/Cs: The Pacifica Municipal Code (PMC) states in Sec. 2-2.101 “The Council shall establish commissions and committees as desired to assist and advise the Council in the conduct of City business.” Further elaboration about C/Cs’ roles to “assist and advise the Council” is described in the C/C Handbook as follows:
Commission/Committee Role
The primary role of City commission and committees is generally to provide advice, recommendations and assistance to the City Council and to promote increased public input and citizen participation in the determination of City policies and program implementation. It would be impractical and too burdensome for the City Council to review and consider all specific issues related to all program areas of the City, so the Council often relies on commission or committees to guide its decision making.
The specific role of City commission and committees is to review and make recommendations to the City Council on matters within their scope of responsibility as defined in the Pacifica Municipal Code and the Resolution which establishes the commission or committee. Commission and committees are basically a citizens' advisory arm of the City Council, focusing their attention on specific programs of the City, although certain commission and committees may take final actions in certain prescribed areas. More importantly, commission and committees serve as a vehicle to provide public input into City programs and policies in order to broaden public involvement and to streamline the amount of City Council review of these matters.
On specific matters referred to it by the City Council, the commission or committee would normally serve as the initial reviewing body of the City...
Questions for Consideration
In order to help guide the Council’s discussion of process and timeline for this undertaking, staff has prepared the following points/questions for consideration and input.
1. How should the Council identify what should be reviewed and potentially changed for each C/C’s charter? The City Council determines what C/Cs are necessary for advisement in the conduct of City business, and each C/C’s scope of responsibility (although certain Planning Commission functions are prescribed in state law).
Councilmembers, in their C/C liaison roles, may have ideas for how a C/C could better fulfill its advisory role. In addition, C/C members themselves may have their own ideas about how to better advise the Council. Therefore, this charter review process will likely need some sort of input and feedback process between each C/C and the City Council.
This could be structured in several ways, each with different timing impacts:
a. C/C discussion > staff analysis > Council direction > staff prep of final documents and Council approval;
b. Staff analysis > Council discussion > C/C discussion > Council direction > staff prep of final documents and Council approval;
c. Council & C/C joint study session discussion > staff analysis > Council direction > staff prep of final documents and Council approval.
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The City Manager is seeking Council input on which process to undertake, or an alternative process identified by the Council. Note that the Council could select a different process for each C/C, catered to each C/C’s current situation. For example, OSPAC has already discussed their recommended charter revisions for Council consideration.
2. Does the Council want to identify a uniform list of charter-related questions/topics for staff analysis and C/C discussion before Council direction? Identifying a uniform list of questions/topics, such as the ones listed below, could help bring structure and limitations to the work to be done.
a. While wholesale revisions to C/C’s purpose are not being requested, what focused suggestions to amend the Council-directed scope of responsibility can be made, particularly to align with the City’s Strategic Plan? b. Does the C/C have the correct number of members, considering quorum and/or recruitment challenges (if any) and representation?
c. Are there other challenges consistently encountered with the C/C’s areas of responsibility?
3. Should this review process include staff work related to updating numerous administrative aspects of the C/C advisory system? There are potential improvements to administering the C/C advisory system that could be studied and implemented concurrent with charter review. Some of these work items would be more staff intensive than others, but also could help achieve better process efficiencies moving forward. These include:
a. Update the C/C Handbook;
b. Revisit the recruitment timelines and term expirations for C/Cs to increase recruitment efficiencies;
c. Revisit the purpose and structure of Council liaisons to C/Cs; d. Address a process and timeline for annual progress reports from C/Cs and annual C/C workplan approvals by Council;
e. Address allowing virtual C/C meetings (dependent on state law, meeting room/technology, etc.);
f. Clarify training expectations and budget for C/C members (e.g., mandatory ethics and Brown Act training, other professional development)
4. Should this review process be phased with one or two C/Cs at a time and, if so, in what order? Alternatively, are there some C/Cs that may only warrant a limited and quicker review, such as a focused review of the number of members and representation? As described in #1 above, reviewing charters for every C/C is likely to be time consuming. Given the many workplan priorities, undertaking these reviews one or two at a time, or limited reviews, may make the most sense. If the Council agrees with this approach, the City Manager recommends the following preliminary schedule:
• By end of June, 2023: OSPAC and LAC charters review. OSPAC has already made a recommendation for Council’s consideration, so could begin with staff analysis and Council discussion about that recommendation. The current Libraries-related Council priority workplan has the LAC reconvening in spring to refocus on new libraries project outreach concurrent with installation of the new library self-service vending machine at the Sanchez Library;
• By end of September, 2023: BAC, EDC, and EPSC charters review; Pacifica City Council 4
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• By end of December, 2023: PBR and PC charters review.
ALTERNATIVE ACTION:
The City Council could also consider the following alternatives:
1. Do not undertake a review of C/C charters at this time due to many other high-priority workplans the City currently has underway;
2. Undertake only one or two priority reviews at this time;
3. Undertake only limited and quicker reviews at this time.
RELATION TO CITY COUNCIL GOALS AND WORK PLAN:
The work of Committees and Commissions helps fulfill all City Council goals, therefore reviewing and updating their charters is related to all City Council goals, and is a Council Priority on the FY2022-23 workplan.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no fiscal impact related to the recommended action. Subsequent work to research and prepare recommendations for Council consideration in the future for each C/C charter review will require a moderately significant amount of staff and City Attorney’s office resources.
ORIGINATED BY:
City Manager's Office
ATTACHMENT LIST: