Arts commission tables bylaws review while staff proposes staggered commissioner terms

The North St. Paul Arts & Culture Commission on a November meeting tabled its biannual bylaws review and directed staff to pursue a plan to stagger commissioner terms.

Jordan Layman, the commission’s staff liaison, told members that five commissioners currently have terms set to expire at the same time in 2026 and that the commission’s bylaws originally called for staggered terms. Layman said staff and legal recommended reorganizing the expirations so that future turnover would not remove so much institutional knowledge at once. “It came to Brian’s attention that 5 people are going to be their terms are expiring in 2026,” Layman said, noting staff had drafted proposed new term expirations and timelines.

Commissioners discussed whether to act at the meeting or postpone. Chair moved to table the biannual review until the December meeting so members could consider proposed amendments and a planned workshop; the motion was seconded and the commission agreed. Layman asked commissioners to respond by Nov. 7 with any objections to the proposed term changes, saying that if approved staff would prepare a city-council resolution that would, in staff’s words, “decommission and recommission” positions with new term expirations.

Members raised procedural questions about how partial-term replacements should be handled and asked staff to include prior term history on the commission web page to reduce future confusion. Layman said the plan intends to preserve staggered expirations by having replacements fill the remaining portion of the prior term when appropriate.

The commission did not adopt any bylaws changes at the meeting. Next steps: commissioners agreed to review the draft term schedule and staff said it would return a formal resolution to the council if commissioners signaled support.