Commission to pilot new decision‑making guidance on select topics this summer

Commissioner John Lemkul, chair of the Big Tent committee, opened the meeting by saying the committee would continue work on a "decision making project" aimed at developing tools to improve Commission decisions and that the group’s objective was to identify topics to test the guidance on over the summer.

Morgan, a staff member leading the project, summarized version 3 of the guidance, describing three buckets of prompts: identifying the problem and objectives; identifying essential supporting information; and identifying areas of agreement and uncertainty. She said the science policy interface group suggested a short preliminary assessment to judge whether topics are timely, salient and actionable before they reach the agenda, and presented a condensed format intended as an on‑the‑fly reference for commissioners and staff. "The point here being, that we wanna work together to assess areas of agreement or disagreement relative to the objectives…" Morgan said.

Commissioners debated examples for a test drive. Steve Parker said land transactions and hunting‑season rulemaking could serve as simpler and more complex trials; Barbara Baker urged adding an explicit prompt to the guidance to determine whether a question belongs to the Commission or should be delegated to agency staff. Several commissioners favored starting with items already on the "year‑at‑a‑glance" to avoid biasing future decisions. Morgan and Commissioner Lemkul agreed to review the committee’s suggestions and propose specific topics after consulting the year‑at‑a‑glance and subject matter staff.

The committee asked staff to post the guidance with meeting materials and to provide compact printed reference copies for commissioners. The group did not take a formal vote; the plan is to test the guidance informally and revisit results in the fall.