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New Parks advisory members briefed on powers, limits and meeting rules
Summary
Members of the Boulder Parks and Recreation Advisory Board received an onboarding briefing covering the charter and code authorities that define their advisory role, meeting procedures, communications rules and limits on performing administrative functions.
At an onboarding session, the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board was instructed that its powers and limits flow from the city charter and the Boulder Revised Code and that board duties are advisory, not administrative.
The briefing matters because new board members will be deeply involved in budget and capital recommendations; the staff said understanding legal limits and meeting rules reduces inadvertent violations of open-records or open-meetings laws.
Allie, director of Boulder Parks and Recreation, told the board “the charter actually expressly prohibits you from doing the work of parks and recreation,” adding board members should not perform operational tasks such as lifeguarding or GIS work. Allie said the charter requires the advisory board to make recommendations on disposition of parkland and to review certain permits and leases.
Andrew “Bernie” Bernstein, acting chair for the meeting, and staff walked new members through meeting procedures: monthly regular meetings, special-meeting notice requirements, quorum rules (four members), consent-agenda practice, and the agenda-setting process that the chair, vice chair and the director use to schedule items. Scott Schottenberg, deputy director, described the agenda-setting committee’s role in prioritizing items and the practical limit of meeting time: “we have found this board meeting starts at 6 and that after 9, it's not productive.”
Staff emphasized communication rules. Allie and other staff explained that board members may speak to the public as private citizens but must not present personal views as the board’s position unless the board has formally agreed on a consensus. The clerk’s office provides separate training on open-records and open-meetings requirements, Allie said.
Staff also advised practical communications steps: use the PRAB admin email for department-related requests so staff can track and respond, and copy the director on staff requests so workload expectations are managed. The group discussed the use of dedicated board emails and the fact that messages received by board members may be subject to open-records requests.
The session closed with an overview of agenda item types—consent items, action items requiring votes, matters from the department (project updates) and matters from the board (informal items that may spawn future actions)—and guidance on how to request items be placed on future agendas.
