- This is the City’s Parks, Recreation & Natural Resources Commission. Most of the time we refer to them as the “Parks Commission”. They are, from L-R in the front row: Randy Jacobus, Lee Elliot-Stoerling, Geri Napuck, Michale Moriarity, and student commissioners Jennifer Dworak and Elise Garton. In the back row, L-R: John Brill, Ian Mackay, Jeffrey Gerst, Rob Barrett, Tom Bierman, and student commissioner William Wahlers.
- In addition to the Parks Commission, the City Council also appoints members to 6 other citizen advisory commissions: Planning Commission, Arts & Culture Commission, Heritage Preservation Commission, Flying Cloud Airport Commission, Conservation Commission and the Human Rights & Diversity Commission.
The purpose of citizen advisory commissions is to assist the elected officials and city staff with the administration and management of the City. The commission play a very important role in sharing their skills and judgment with city government. They sometimes act as valuable gate-keepers for the City Council. An issue at the airport that came directly to the City Council, for example, would be very likely be referred by the Council directly to the Flying Cloud Airport Commission. They would do this for two basic reasons. First, the Airport Commission is full of people knowledgeable about aviation. They have a head start over the Council in being able to review and recommend solution to problems at the airport. Another reason the Council would refer an airport issue to the Airport Commission is that the Council’s docket is already full of issues with community-wide impacts. The Council doesn’t have the additional meeting capacity to take on detailed airport issues. So it’s a matter of not only expertise, but also of sharing the workload too.
One of Mayor Young’s priorities for the new year is to improve the level of connectedness between the City Council and the City’s advisory commissions. We’ve done a good job over the years of arranging times for commissions to periodically update the Council on their activities, but we’ve not taken the relationship much beyond the standard update. The Mayor wants more frequent give-and-take discussions with commissions and wants their input on the City’s larger goals and objectives.
We are currently asking our commissions what they think of this idea. We’re gathering their thoughts, feelings and ideas. We’ll craft a new protocol for the Council to consider implementing later this spring.
