Memorandum                    

City of Lawrence

City Manager’s Office

 

TO:

Thomas M. Markus, City Manager

FROM:

Diane Stoddard, Assistant City Manager

DATE:

February 22, 2018

CC:

Casey Toomay, Assistant City Manager

RE:

Follow up from Work Session on Advisory Boards/Committees

 

On August 8, 2017, the City Commission held a Work Session to discuss advisory boards and committees, the subject of which is an initiative in the city’s strategic plan.  Following that meeting, staff provided a memorandum summarizing general direction provided at the meeting.  This memorandum provides an update to those tasks that were outlined at that time. 

 

Advisory Board Work Session follow-up tasks and status: (completed items are reflected with a check mark and items requiring City Commission direction are flagged with a star)

 

ü  Return the draft policy for formal consideration as submitted with the addition of term limits for advisory boards and addressing Commissioners serving on advisory boards.

 

«  Explore consideration of appointing alternates to boards.  Provide a staff report on this issue.

o   Staff has prepared a memo.  Staff suggests Commission discussion on this topic and additional direction for next steps. 

 

 

«  Examine whether the Sister Cities Advisory Board could discontinue its status as an advisory board of the City, while retaining the important link to the City and not sending the wrong message to our international partners.  A resolution was suggested as a possible alternative. 

 

Sister Cities Advisory Board -  The Sister Cities Advisory Board is an advisory board of the City, but the group also maintains its own non-profit 501(c)3 status in order that it can collect dues and other revenues which are not handled by the City.  While it is important for the City to maintain a connection with and sometimes active involvement in Sister Cities, staff believes that this group could function more effectively and efficiently without being an advisory board of the City.  In the past there have been challenges with establishing a quorum for meetings, which could be avoided if they were separate from the City and determined their own membership. Additionally, there are some potential liability issues for the City relating to some of the functions of the organization and its finances over which the City has no control.  In order to maintain the important connection and communication with the City, a staff liaison could be assigned to attend meetings.  

 

 

 

ü  Return consideration of merging the Joint Economic Development Council into the Public Incentives Review Committee.

 

 

ü  Return consideration of repealing the obsolete boards:  Lawrence Advisory Board on University Student Issues, the Downtown Parking Advisory Board, and the ECO2 Commission.

o   These Boards and Committees were formally eliminated in the fall of 2017.

 

It should be noted that additional work has been done by advisory boards/committees to either create new bylaws or alter existing bylaws to come into conformance with the new advisory board policy.  Work on these items will be ongoing.