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Mariposa County staff asks Coulterville advisory committee for input on dissolving local planning panels
Summary
County staff told the Coulterville Planning Advisory Committee the Board of Supervisors is considering dissolving some dormant planning advisory committees and replacing project review with public town halls; committee members and Supervisor Shannon Powell said they prefer keeping committees active if staffing can be solved.
Danielle Bradshaw, clerk of the Mariposa County Board of Supervisors, told the Coulterville Planning Advisory Committee on the meeting record that the Board has directed staff to consult committees about potentially dissolving some planning advisory panels and replacing them with a notice-and-town-hall process for development review.
Bradshaw said the county has many committees that are inactive and that staff spends significant time recruiting members and preparing meetings for bodies that sit dormant. "When you have a dormant committee... it ends up taking a lot of staff time," Bradshaw said, describing recruitment and Brown Act notice obligations and noting the Board had asked staff to return to committees for input before any decision.
The clerk described an alternative the Board is considering if committees were dissolved: a policy where staff would notify the public of a development project and hold two town halls or workshops to gather public comment, then fold that input into recommendations sent to the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors. Bradshaw said any resulting policy would specify when town halls would be held and how recommendations would be transmitted to the Board.
Supervisor Shannon Powell, who represents the district that includes Coulterville, said she has "absolutely no plan whatsoever to eliminate any of these committees," but she acknowledged staffing shortages have kept some committees from meeting. Powell urged greater local outreach to recruit members and said the county is exploring internal restructuring to designate a staff person to manage committee minutes and administration rather than eliminate committees.
County staff and the committee discussed procedural constraints that affect dormant committees, including the Brown Act's quorum rules and the county's notice and appointment timeline under the Maddy Act for filling vacancies. Bradshaw and staff said those procedural steps can delay project review if a committee lacks a quorum; staff argued that a town-hall model could be used to gather community input more quickly in some cases while still preserving public transparency.
Committee members asked about how vacancy notices are circulated; county staff said vacancy notices for Coulterville are mailed to the Coulterville post office and other local bulletin points, and encouraged residents who need a paper application to contact the Clerk of the Board for a mailed copy. Bradshaw said she will collect the committee's comments and present them to the Board of Supervisors when the Board again takes up the subject.
The committee did not take a formal vote. Bradshaw told the committee "there's no vote required on this; it was really to gather your guys' thoughts," and she said she had noted the committee's preference to remain active and would include that position in the materials to the Board.
Ending: County staff will include the Planning Advisory Committee's comments in a future Board package. If the Board proceeds with any policy change the committee will be notified; staff recommended members monitor county postings and the Clerk's office for vacancy notices and to request mailed applications if needed.
