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Council subcommittee directs staff to return with framework to realign standing committees, including potential environmental committee
Summary
Staff mapped current standing committees and council directed staff to return with a framework aligning committees to strategic goals; members discussed combining Finance/Audit/Budget with Economic Development and creating a standing environmental/stewardship committee tied to CARP goals.
Staff presented an inventory of the council's five standing committees and their charges, noting which committees are codified in the municipal code and which live in council protocols. The named committees included Appointments Recommendation; Finance, Audit and Budget (FAB); Housing and Homelessness; Economic Development; and Rules. Staff said the Appointments Recommendation Committee is required to change membership annually.
Council members discussed aligning committee structure to the council's five strategic goals — climate and environmental stewardship, economic vitality, homelessness, infrastructure and public safety — and considered whether to combine the Finance, Audit and Budget committee with the Economic Development subcommittee to reduce redundancy.
During public comment, Todd Caller urged establishing a standing environmental/stewardship committee to monitor implementation of the Climate Action and Resilience Plan (CARP), review large capital projects for CARP consistency, and bring legislative or grant opportunities to the council's attention. Caller suggested the committee could review a staff "dashboard" tracking implementation progress.
In response, council members indicated staff should return with a concrete framework and recommended language (with examples such as Santa Monica and Santa Barbara) that defines committee charges, meeting cadence, reporting lines for commissions, and whether certain items would be quasi-judicial. One council member moved for staff to come back with the proposed framework; staff and the city attorney advised that formal motion was not required and that direction to staff would suffice. The committee set a follow-up for April 21 at 3:00 p.m. for review of FAB and Economic Development alignment and other recommendations, and adjourned the meeting at 4:28 p.m.
The committee did not adopt ordinances or change municipal code at this meeting; staff was assigned to prepare a framework and comparative jurisdiction analysis for future committee deliberations.
