Copperton council directs staff to draft parks master plan committee resolution

The Copperton Town Council discussed forming a parks master plan committee and directed staff to return with a resolution at the next meeting to create the body and a draft charter.

Lydia Benigna, long-range planner with the MSD and the project manager for the MSD parks master-plan work, told the council the MSD would support the effort and recommended a committee of five to seven members with two council members and staff ‘there just for support.’ “We would like to get this into motion so that I may…appoint people and give you guys work to do on the committee,” she said.

Council members debated size and membership. Nathan, a town advisor who spoke frequently during the discussion, emphasized the need to limit committee authority and to anticipate Open and Public Meetings Act requirements if the body is formalized: “We don’t want these committees going out and doing things. That’s the council’s call,” he said, and recommended a charter that sets membership terms, a sunset, and removal procedures.

Members discussed several structural options including a smaller, three-to-five-person panel and making the council member a nonvoting liaison or chair so the committee could operate without triggering additional code changes. The council agreed it would be appropriate to create a term-limited, formal committee by resolution rather than immediately amending the town code and asked staff to draft the package and a resolution for the next meeting.

Next steps: staff will prepare a resolution and draft committee charter for council consideration at the next meeting; MSD will help coordinate consultant input and support staff in soliciting citizen members.