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HomeMy WebLinkAbout9C - Replacement Schedules for Committee and Commission Vacancies CITY COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT AGENDA ITEM: MAY 3,1999 9C BRET WOODSON, ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER CONSIDER APPROVAL OF ADVISORY COMMITTEE APPOINTMENT SCHEDULE DISCUSSION: Historv At the 1999 Annual City Council Workshop the City Council discussed the role of advisory committees, including the length of terms and the amount of terms a person could serve consecutively. The eventual decision, which was approved at the February 16, 1999 City Council meeting, creates three year terms for all advisory committees (Planning Commission (PC), Parks Advisory Committee (PAC), and Lake Advisory Committee(LAC)). The term limits for the PAC and the LAC are six years (two terms). The term limit for the PC is nine years (three terms). Current Circumstances The City Council currently fills vacancies on the PC in July, the PAC in September, and the LAC in October. The following procedures are used to fill vacancies to these committees (as listed in the City Council Bylaws): 1. Notice is made public and interested individuals may be contacted and encouraged to apply. 2. The City Manager and the City Council Liaison to that particular committee, along with the committee chair shall interview all candidates and make a recommendation to the full City Council. 3. The Councilmember who is the liaison to the body shall present the recommendation to the City Council and the Council may accept or reject the recommendation. If the City Council rejects the recommendation, they shall appoint someone else or decide to reopen the vacancy to the public seeking new individuals. Due to the above mentioned changes in terms and term limits, plus the inconsistency in dates when appointments are made, staff feels it would be appropriate to bring some consistency and structure to this process. Staff proposes to advertise and fill all vacancies at one time in late summer with City Council approval sometime in September. The effective date for all appointments would then be October 1 of each 16200 Eagle Creek Ave. S.E.. Prior Lake, Minnesota 55372-1714 / Ph. (612) 447-4230 / Fax (612) 447-4245 AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER ISSUES: AL TERNA TIVES: RECOMMENDED MOTION: REVIEWED BY: year. If a committee seat becomes open during a term, the seat will be filled using the same advertising and interview process. That individual will serve the reminder of the vacant term unless decided otherwise by the City Council at that time. The Assistant City Manager would be responsible for coordinating this process, including: publicizing the committee openings, advertising as appropriate, and coordinating the interview process with the Council Liaisons, etc. By filling committee vacancies at one time we will be able to advertise at the same time for all committee vacancies and hopefully attract, through increased publicity efforts, a sufficient number of qualified candidates desiring to serve on all advisory committees of the Prior Lake City Council. For example, this August we will be able to advertise for approximately 2 - PC seats, 3 - PAC seats and 2 - LAC seats. If we are going to move to this type of system it is important to insure both committee stability, as well as the ability to solicit new members with new ideas. In other words, we would not want to replace all 7 LAC members in one year. Therefore, for us to begin this process we will need to put together a new chart that indicates when all of our existing members were appointed, when their term expires, and when their term limit comes to an end. In order to do this, and still keep the above issues in mind, some committee members current terms and term limits will need to be reduced, and in some cases extended to get us on a good starting point to move forward. This proposal would then be discussed with each of the advisory committees to make sure that they understand the process and when their respective term comes to an end. (1) Approve the Advisory Committee Appointment Schedule as Outlined in the Staff Report and direct staff to bring back an implementation plan for City Council approval. (2) Continue to fill Vacancies as we are doing now. (3) Table this issue and provide direction to staff.