Central CBAC tells county it needs clearer rules, more recruitment and better onboarding

Central CBAC co-chairs TJ Anderson and Daniel D'Amelio told the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners on July 8 that advisory committees that review departmental budgets need clearer procedures, more active recruitment and standardized onboarding so members can participate effectively.

The co-chairs summarized findings from a year-long review and a participant survey, and recommended a countywide policies-and-procedures guide, clearer timelines for appointments, standardized presentation templates for departments and small code edits to remove ambiguous language and permit the board to update how CBACs are constituted.

Why it matters: CBACs advise departments and the board on budget priorities. The co-chairs said unclear rules and uneven support are reducing participation and may leave committees operating out of step with county code, which could affect the legitimacy and usefulness of advisory input to budget decisions.

Anderson and D'Amelio said their review identified systemic gaps in recruitment, onboarding, training and the appointment process. They recommended the county produce a written guide for CBAC members that would include role descriptions, onboarding checklists, conflict-of-interest guidance, vacancy procedures and quorum rules. They also urged a stronger, ongoing recruitment effort that partners with neighborhood associations, nonprofit groups and other local stakeholders.

The co-chairs proposed several specific code changes they said would reduce confusion: allowing appointment terms shorter than the current three-year default, clarifying that central CBACs must follow the same rules as other CBACs, changing language that creates a perceived separate class of participants versus members, and explicitly permitting the board to appoint an existing advisory body to serve as a CBAC where practice has done so for years.

On membership numbers, the co-chairs recommended lowering the stated minimum membership from seven to two and increasing the maximum to 11. They said the change is intended to avoid a situation in which a single remaining member can act without public meeting requirements, while also allowing smaller committees to submit reports without being technically out of compliance.

The co-chairs also asked the board to formally recognize two longstanding combined CBACs (for departments described in the report as DCA and DCM) and to update library-related code so that a library advisory subcommittee may officially serve as the library—s CBAC when that has been the practice.

Amara Perez, director of the county—s Office of Community Involvement (OCI), told commissioners OCI has begun implementing program changes and will start a year-round recruitment push, expand onboarding workshops from a single session to multiple sessions (County 101, Budget 101, and community building), and move to appoint members three times per year so new members can join at useful points in the budget timeline.

Commissioners asked about timing, demographic reporting and the legal implications of code changes. Several commissioners said they supported moving some technical fixes quickly to bring practice into compliance with existing code, while letting process-improvement proposals be tested over the next budget cycle and then considered for code updates. The board and OCI agreed to work together on a timeline and to bring draft bylaws and code edits back for review.

The co-chairs noted outstanding record requests and legal uncertainty: they said it has been 62 days since they presented evidence to the board that more than 60% of CBAC reports this year came from committees with fewer than seven members, and that more than 10 people currently serving on CBACs may be serving in ways the co-chairs described as not aligned with code. They also said it had been 42 days since they asked OCI to confirm central CBAC membership and that they had sought an advisory opinion from the Oregon Government Ethics Commission.

Board members and OCI staff agreed to continue framing short-term code edits that address legality and to treat other recommendations as operational changes to be piloted and evaluated over the next budget cycle. No formal action or vote was taken at the briefing.

Looking ahead, OCI will finalize a policies-and-procedures guide and proceed with year-round recruitment, expanded onboarding, and quarterly appointment cycles. Commissioners asked OCI to provide demographic snapshots of full CBAC rosters, not just new appointees, and to present a recommended schedule for which code changes require immediate action and which should be deferred for evaluation.