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Government Affairs Committee debates 2026 standing-committee structure, leaves decisions to incoming council

5348993 ยท June 17, 2025
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Summary

Committee members discussed proposals to reassign licensing and parks duties among standing committees for 2026, considered dissolving the Board of Public Parks and Forestry Commission and folding its duties into Transportation Affairs, but ultimately deferred final decisions to the incoming, smaller council.

The Government Affairs Committee discussed possible changes to the city's standing-committee structure for 2026 at its June 17 meeting, including moving licensing and permitting work to a different committee, transferring parks and publicly owned-property oversight to Transportation Affairs, and renaming Transportation Affairs if those duties are added.

Staff presented an analysis of committee workloads from 2022'23 and described three proposals: move licensing and permits to Community Affairs to rebalance workloads; dissolve the Board of Public Parks and Forestry Commission and transfer its duties to Transportation Affairs; and rename Transportation Affairs to cover all publicly owned properties. The staff memo noted real-world practices vary among municipalities.

Alders offered a range of views: some favored minimal change or letting the incoming council decide, others urged preserving citizen participation on commissions and avoiding dissolving resident-led commissions unless they are not functioning. Several members noted the council will shrink in size and that the next council should decide how to allocate duties.

Committee members also raised scheduling changes (staggering meeting times and dates) as an option to allow alder members to attend more committees. Staff said the 2026 meeting schedule will come to committee in October and encouraged members to bring scheduling ideas then.

The committee did not adopt any structural changes and left the issue for the incoming council and for future committee consideration; staff said the workload analysis would be available for the next council.