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Council Meeting Minutes December 14, 1993 Page 10 Council Business. continued To remedy the situation, the group discussed procedures for referrals to committees. The group agreed that when a Council request is identified, the staff liaison to that commission should create a directive statement to clarify Council concerns and requested information. Staff would present this statement to Council at its next regularly scheduled meeting. Council would then adopt or modify the language so that the request goes to the specific committee in the Council's own language. In order to prepare this statement, staff could informally contact the Councilmembers to clarify their request and would enable the issue to be further refined before Council review. The City Attorney would, if appropriate and/or necessary, be requested to review the directive statement and its concerns from a legal perspective. The statement would not go to a committee until it is adopted by Council in a written form. In special circumstances when there is a time constraint, a procedure would enable language to be run pass individual Councilmembers. However, Rebelein does not suggest that this would happen frequently. Benke feels that allowing a two week timeframe for staff to prepared the directive statement allows Council members to clarify their intentions and requests. Also, the group addressed the appointment of commission chairpersons by either advisory commission members or the Council. Rebelein noted a questionnaire prepared by Pat Lindquist which asks that question of whether commission chairs should be appointed by Council or elected by their own commission. Rebelein added that a commission could make their recommendation for a chair by explaining its reasons for that appointment. Council would then review those reasons. Another discussion issue was the consideration to create an effort to encourage senior citizens and student members to serve on committees. Rebelein felt that this issue was researched previously, and found to be unworkable and possibly illegal. The real issue is not encouraging those groups to serve on committees, but to insure the City receives input from these groups. She suggested that the CSC could review how the City could better assure that all ideas from special groups are considered. She noted that because this statement is not in written form, she feels Council should not give direction to the CSC on this subject, but directed staff to create an issue statement. Gunderman appreciated the time and effort made by the group to create this recommendation. He questioned whether Council is being fair to commissions by asking their opinions on the subject of chair appointment. He feels the issue of chair appointment is strictly a Council issue, because of the knowledge and experience a Council has to make that decision. Benke feels the processes outlined by Rebelein to address these issues are excellent. He questioned whether the CSC should be instructed to revisit the issue of chair appointments. Gunderman originally requested review of the issue and feels the group has provided the requested information. Gunderman feels strongly that chairs should be appointed by Council and those chairs be given appropriate training. Rebelein noted difficulties associated with a Council request to a commission when that Council has strong opinions regarding a specific issue. Council Business I Advisory Boards and Commissions Issues I I