Johns Creek council signals support to trim advisory panels, combine construction appeals and soften attendance rule

Allison, a city staff presenter, opened the council’s annual check‑in on advisory boards and commissions and asked whether the council was satisfied with the size and scope of each body. She laid out current membership, meeting frequency and recent attendance data and posed three staff questions: preferred board sizes, what to do about a persistently underused Construction Board of Appeals (CBA), and whether the city’s strict attendance removal rule should be relaxed.

Mayor (speaking as the presiding official) said the council should move toward smaller panels for better deliberation, adding, “I think our pack is too large,” and suggested an initial cap of 11 members with an eventual target of nine for some panels. Several council members echoed that view: Larry said 9 was “the right number” and recommended stepping down large bodies from 15 to 11 and then to 9 in later cycles to avoid immediately displacing current volunteers.

On the Construction Board of Appeals, council members and staff discussed whether to fold its duties into the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) because the CBA has had trouble filling volunteer slots and sometimes never meets. Staff warned that the CBA’s role is referenced in the city charter and that any change could require a charter or code amendment. Council asked staff to analyze legal and procedural implications and return with options.

Council also debated the attendance removal rule, which currently removes a member after three missed meetings in a calendar year (two warning steps then removal on the third unexcused absence). Several members and public commenters described cases where travel or illness left otherwise engaged volunteers vulnerable to removal. The mayor and others said they would not count emergency medical events, hospitalization or death in the family as unexcused but resisted broad exemptions for work travel. Staff said it would draft a code amendment or policy with narrowly defined excused‑absence categories and a clear enforcement process so discretion is not concentrated in a single staff person.

Council reached informal consensus to proceed: staff will draft code language to (a) phase down RPAC membership, (b) analyze merging the CBA into the BZA and identify any charter or ordinance changes required, and (c) propose narrowly defined excused‑absence rules and an implementation process for council review.

The council asked staff to return with draft ordinance/code language and implementation timelines before the February appointment cycle.