Foster City council weighs streamlining committee appointments and disbands audit committee by direction

Staff presented an overview of Foster City’s advisory bodies—planning commission, audit committee, Citizen Sustainability Advisory Committee (CSAC), parks & recreation, traffic review and youth advisory—along with estimated staff hours to administer them. Council discussed four options for appointments: keep the full‑council interviews, create two‑member subcommittees to vet applicants, move parts of the interview process to written questions, or adopt stricter timing limits for follow‑ups.

Several members questioned the audit committee’s value, citing difficulty filling seats and limited staff benefit. The council directed staff to prepare a resolution to disband the audit committee and to propose a process for ad‑hoc selection committees or a special meeting approach for appointments. Members favored keeping committees that yield demonstrable community or program benefits (for example, CSAC’s role implementing the Climate Action Plan and the parks advisory group’s role in project vetting).

Why it matters: reconfiguring advisory bodies and the appointment process affects civic participation, staff workload and the city’s ability to recruit volunteer members. Council requested staff return with proposed ordinance/resolution language and options for limiting interview time and standardizing candidate questions so appointments are more efficient.