Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Board Mergers topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Historic Cemetery advisory board open to merger; committee to study broader consolidations
Summary
Raleigh staff and a Parks Department liaison said the Historic Cemetery Advisory Board is open to merging with the Historic Resources and Museums Advisory Board, and the special committee asked staff to identify other consolidation opportunities and return with recommendations tied to the strategic plan.
Charles Craig, assistant director for Raleigh Parks and staff liaison to the Historic Cemetery Advisory Board, told the committee Wednesday the cemetery board is open to consolidation and that much of the board’s original work is complete.
"The Historic Cemetery Advisory Board is completely open to a merger or whatever your pleasure on what to do with the Historic Cemetery Advisory Board," Craig said. "When the board was formed, it was around understanding the maintenance, the preservation, understanding how to preserve and move, such a sacred historic site into a lasting, beautiful location to visit. We have done that. ... So that is our new mission, is getting the word out, continuing to promote it, but the main core of it has been accomplished."
The committee used the cemetery example while discussing broader concerns about board proliferation, attendance and mission overlap. Staff reported the volunteer survey included a question about potential mergers; about 20% of respondents said they saw value in a potential merger, and staff highlighted several suggested consolidations from the comments, including bicycle and pedestrian with transit, human relations with policing or substance-use advisory functions, and historic resources taking on cemetery concerns.
Several council members asked staff to return with a more systematic review tying boards to the city’s strategic plan so the committee could identify logical “buckets” for consolidation, assess board size and subcommittee structures, and propose a process for any mergers. Council members warned that mergers should consider board size and staff capacity; one councilor noted combining several citizen-affairs boards into one body could create an unwieldy membership and recommended that merged boards be structured with subcommittees where appropriate.
Staff told the committee they had already discussed the cemetery question with the historic cemetery board and with staff liaisons and would prepare merger recommendations and a proposed process for the committee to review before forwarding any action to the full council.
