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Cloverdale council begins formation of citizen oversight committee for new sales and utility taxes
Summary
Council directed staff to establish a citizen oversight committee to review the city—s new sales tax and extended utility user tax, asked for an application and recruitment plan, and agreed that a subcommittee should vet applicants and forward finalists to the full council.
The Cloverdale City Council on March 26 directed staff to proceed with establishing a citizen oversight committee to review receipts and expenditures of the city—s newly adopted sales tax measure and the extended utility user tax.
City staff explained the ballot language requires a citizens— oversight committee to be appointed beginning in fiscal year 2025-26 and that the council may choose a single three-member committee to cover both measures or create separate committees. Alex, a staff presenter, said the city must adopt a resolution and bylaws by June 30 and complete appointments by the end of the calendar year; the committee would review the prior fiscal year—s receipts, expenditures and the audit and report to the council as part of the budget process.
Councilor Marquez said applicants should submit letters of interest in addition to application questions so candidates can explain why they want to serve. Multiple council members favored routing initial application review to the Administration/Finance subcommittee rather than placing the full selection burden on the mayor, with the subcommittee returning a short list of top candidates (for example, the top five) to the full council if many applicants apply.
A member of the public, identified as Brooke, urged the council to require the committee to meet annually rather than once every five years so the committee provides more frequent oversight. Council members and staff agreed to consider an annual meeting schedule, at least in the committee—s early years, rather than the five-year cadence described in the ballot language.
Staff was directed to prepare draft resolution language, bylaws and an application form that will include a letter of interest, and to advertise the openings using the city—s usual channels plus outreach to the Chamber of Commerce. The council indicated it expects appointments later this year and that the Administration/Finance subcommittee will perform initial screening and forward finalists to the full council if the applicant pool is large.
The council did not take a formal roll-call vote on personnel appointments at the meeting; the action taken was direction to staff and to the subcommittee on recruitment and process.
