Council trims membership requirements for boards and commissions, plans attendance enforcement

At its June 11 work session, the Maplewood City Council reviewed proposed changes to the composition and attendance rules for several advisory boards and commissions to make it easier to fill seats and to improve attendance tracking.

Unidentified Speaker 2 reviewed earlier discussion points and proposed lowering membership counts on specified commissions. For the Human Services Commission the proposal would reduce membership from nine to seven and allow business community members to serve if they choose; council members questioned whether business input fits the commission—s mission. "You're referring to the Maplewood Community Betterment Foundation?" Unidentified Speaker 3 asked while explaining that the Chamber currently acts as fiduciary for that nonprofit.

Council members agreed to reduce the Design and Review Board—s required business members from three to two to ease recruitment. The Sustainability Commission proposal reduces required business seats from two to at least one (a seven-member commission with six residents and one business member), with council flexibility to accept a business member in lieu of a resident if needed.

On attendance, staff proposed a clear threshold to improve commission reliability: failing to attend 50 percent of regular commission meetings in a calendar year (50 percent unexcused absences) would trigger automatic removal of the member. Staff said attendance should be tracked in minutes and processed by the staff liaison, and council discussed distinguishing excused from unexcused absences.

The discussion produced a general consensus to make business membership voluntary and to lower some numerical requirements to fill commissions more reliably; no ordinance was adopted at the work session. Staff will update ordinance language and return the revised drafts for formal consideration.