Committee agrees to formalize guest‑speaker process and use quarterly roster

The Community Development & Engagement Committee voted to formalize how guest speakers are scheduled after members said invitations had been made unevenly and without committee input.

Chair (speaker 3) said the issue was not the list of potential speakers but the decision process for selecting them. Committee members proposed a quarterly cadence in which each member brings names of proposed speakers and the group approves a short roster for the next quarter. Staff agreed to produce a written process and include it in the September packet for committee review. "Once 0.25 come together here, present a list of potential speakers, then you as a group can decide," staff said, urging members to coordinate before meetings.

The committee discussed practical limits—time for presentations and whether to prioritize city departments or community nonprofits—and asked staff to set a template (five minutes per presenter, plus 5–10 minutes for Q&A) to prevent the agenda from "snowballing." Committee members agreed to compile names for October–December and to revisit the cadence after a trial period. Staff said it would return a draft process next month for the committee to edit and approve.