Civil Rights Board appoints members to subcommittees, keeps bimonthly full meetings

Chair (Civil Rights Board) appointed Director Burpee to the educational subcommittee and appointed Director Sippling and Director DeBoer to the ordinance review subcommittee at the Aug. 6 meeting.

Board members said the two standing subcommittees are education and ordinance review; the nomination committee remains in place but is not expected to be used immediately. The chair said the board has the authority to appoint up to three members to a subcommittee so long as the subcommittee does not meet a quorum of the full board in its own meetings.

Director Burpee said she is "truly, I'm interested in both" subcommittees but accepted appointment to the educational committee. Director Moore Doyle volunteered to step down from the ordinance review subcommittee to allow others to participate. The board agreed that the education subcommittee will act in part as an outreach committee, describing its role as developing and executing a plan "to take the ordinance as it is written and create a plan of educating the community".

The ordinance review and educational subcommittees will meet every other week; the chair said the next subcommittee meeting is scheduled for the following Monday at 11 a.m. and may be virtual or hybrid. The full Civil Rights Board agreed to keep its regular full-board meetings on an every-other-month schedule for now; Director DeBoer said the board can call special meetings if items require faster action: "...we could also always do the special meeting, right, and call that if there's a decision that needs to be made." Vice Chair Lukeman said the subcommittees must communicate progress so the September meeting will include substantive items rather than planning-only updates.