Sister Cities Committee votes to send proposed trust to city trustees for review

At its meeting, the Portsmouth Sister Cities Committee voted to send a draft of a proposed Sister City Trust to the Trustees of the Trust Funds for their review and to schedule a meeting with that board. Committee members also authorized committee staff to make minor, non‑substantive edits while reserving substantive changes for full committee review.

The trust draft — finalized by committee staff and circulated to members — is intended to establish a fund that would allow the Sister Cities program to accept donations for items such as receptions for visiting students and other sister‑city activities. "This gets it in front of them, virtually, so that we can start accepting donations to do things like receptions for visiting students," the staff member who led the draft said during the meeting.

City attorney Robert Sullivan cautioned that the trustees must vote before any action is final. "No. I would say until the trustees have voted, the trustees have not voted," Attorney Sullivan said, noting that approval by the Trustees of the Trust Funds is a separate step before the City Council’s final approval.

Committee members moved and seconded the request to forward the online version of the draft to the trustees and schedule a meeting with the trustees’ chair. A friendly amendment to permit only minor, non‑substantive changes by committee representatives during trustee discussions was accepted; the committee agreed that any substantive change would be returned to the committee for a vote.

Next steps are scheduling the trustees’ meeting and, if the trustees approve, placing the document on a future City Council agenda for final approval.