Meeting of the legislative rules committee, the board of representatives as of 603 p.m.

March 24th, 2026.

Uh, and I note that I see representatives blank, oudreau, camparelli, hughes, hyatt, lapine, myself, Stone, and Weinberg in attendance, as well as President Shaw.

I believe that is it.

Representatives of the board.

If there are any other representatives of the board that are present that I haven't called attention to, please, of course, let your soul be known.

Chair McEwen.

Yes.

Uh, can you make rep Walston a participant?

All right, thank you.

And Rep Walston.

I'm in.

Hello.

All righty.

So at this time it seems that we have all voting members of the committee in attendance, so I declare we do a quorum.

And we're proceed with the first item on the agenda, which is LR 32.016, an ordinance for publication to repeal the appointments commission for Article 17 of chapter six, including section six dash one two one through six-124 of the code of ordinance submitted by Mayor Caroline Simmons.

Uh, and in attendance, we also have uh several invitees, including Chief Fox.

Hello and welcome.

Uh turn to be pronounced that correctly.

I'm sorry, I didn't hear you.

Gars, did I pronounce that correctly?

Yes, that's correct.

Thank you very much.

Um, and so with that, um, before I kind of open the floor, um would any of our invitees Chief Fox, you want to sure.

Um, so we do have a presentation that I put together, and maybe Barbara might be able to share that on the screen or probably supposed to be.

Sure.

So while that's being brought up, um, thank you all for taking the time to review this item.

I'm joined by attorney Lee, who's here to help answer any of the legal questions that come up as it relates to the charter.

But perfect.

Here is our presentation.

Yep.

Oh, can you beat me to it?

Perfect.

So the first slide is really an overview of how the commission was created and when the commission was created.

And I'll share that initially when this was created in 2021, it was designed to facilitate and clarify the appointments process with the goal of addressing a high number of vacancies and higher and expired seats, as well as doing everything that the city could residents who were either unaffiliated or independent voters and not attached to either the two major political parties.

So it was designed to be a nine-member body and consists of seven members appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the board of reps and two voting members from the board of representatives.

So this next slide is an overview of the reality.

So the commission was created before our time, I think with a worthy intent of doing the of achieving the goals that I just laid out.

However, in practice, it was a more challenging task for members of the commission to do what the commission was set out to do.

So this chart breaks down in the month of in the year of 2025, the attendance rates and the inability essentially um, in many cases to get a quorum at the actual appointments commission.

And it was of course our priority when we came in to fill expired seats and vacancies, which we have had success in doing since we started four plus years ago.

So ultimately, the decision to repeal this commission is a result of in practice.

The commission was adding a bureaucratic layer that wasn't assisting with the expedition of filling seats.

Next slide, please.

Thank you.

So this slide is really an overview of what's taken place since we started.

So since December 2021, when we started, our administration has appointed with, of course, the appointee authority of the Board of Reps, 186 residents to boards and commission.

As in terms of demographic breakdown, 68% have been men, 31% have been women.

Close to half of those have been Democrats, while 34% have been Republican, and 15% have represented either unaffiliated or an independent working party, whatever they a person identifies as.

So we are in the process of filling the 43 terms that were expired.

We have 33, 43 terms expired as of last fall winter.

So we're in the process of working through that.

And then I added this anecdote around the number of registered voters in the city of Stanford.

There are 76,000, over 76,000 registered voters, and that breaks down with Democrats representing 42% of those registered voters, Republicans 19%, and unaffiliated 37%.

So you can see the breakdown of how voters are registering within the city.

That's as data as recently as this week.

So for the next slide, the appointments commission.

This breaks down a lot of information around how we've tried to recruit new people into the process since we took office.

So one of the ways we've done that, and again, this was in conjunction with the board of reps, but we did modernize the actual portal that residents were using to apply to boards and commissions.

So we now have an opportunity.

People can, and in a couple slides, I'll show that to you if you haven't had a chance to see it, but people can upload their resumes online, they can complete their information easily online so that it isn't either a paper form or an extra step needed to be taken in order to share resume information.

Since we took office were unaffiliated or identified as unaffiliated or independent.

So in terms of the goal of the appointments commission, which was to do our best to recruit people from outside of the two political parties.

I think that demonstrates a track record of being able to do that with the new system.

So next slide.

Since we took office, as I mentioned, we tried to streamline the application process.

I'm not going to go through this too much more, except that one thing we did do based on it, a real interest on the part of the board to be transparent about who's sitting on these boards from a demographic standpoint.

We were a we worked with our legal department and we're able to add in check marks.

It's like a job application.

So people can choose to share their demographic information, which again is new in this portal.

So we're able to check that.

Again, that's a sub-selection.

So it's not binding exactly, but we do now have that process in place.

We have 31 active boards as of February 2026.

This first line of graphics details 29% are women who are sitting on boards and commission, 71% are men.

And then it gives you a breakdown of how many we've appointed since taking office, 186%, and again, party affiliation and gender.

This is live on our website every month.

We update it to reflect all of the new appointments that have been made by the board of reps the previous month.

So the next few pages just gives a snapshot on what the website demonstrates for people who are interested in serving on a board of commission.

So you'll see it breaks down the different names of the commissions and every highlight highlighted link.

You can hit that link and you get more you're led to more information.

The same goes the police commission.

Mayor Simmons has appointed all those members of the police commission.

Um this one was really just this next slide was really to demonstrate what it looks like when there are vacancies on a board.

It you can hit tabs at the top of every page to immediately be taken to vacancies so you get a sense of which boards have vacancies.

And on the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, we currently have two vacancies.

So happy that concludes the formal presentation, but happy to answer any questions.

I will simply summarize by saying we absolutely thought that in repealing this ordinance, it would help to streamline the system that as it exists.

And we feel confident that the work we've been doing over the last four years were at a good cadence.

I mean, monthly, we've been um those of you who I know that President Weinberg sits on the appointments commission and his um committee, so has seen that we've been putting anywhere between eight and 10 residents forward each month that you all approve at your monthly meetings.

So the cadence that we have kept, we feel confident is meeting the needs of ensuring that the expired terms and the vacant terms are be are being addressed.

Thank you very much.

Uh those are informative.

Um, in terms of process, I'd love to give an opportunity to the other invitees to speak, and then I'd like to open the floor generally to everybody, and then we can field questions to any of the invitees.

Um, it's based on the questions.

Um so uh attorney Lee, I don't know if you plan to make any remarks or or if you just kind of were in attendance for for questions.

Hi everyone, yeah, I'm here for questions.

I don't I don't have any remarks.

I the repeal ordinance is pretty straightforward.

Um repeals, you know, all of the provisions related to the appointments commission.

Um there is a it doesn't affect any pending obligations or obligations that have been incurred.

Um that's pretty much it.

I mean it's a straightforward repealer, and there's no doesn't impact any decisions that have been have been made under um uh under this uh ordinance.

Um we just move forward if it's repealed um without the commission.

Thank you.

Um okay.

In that case, uh Chair Gerst, if you have any comments that you'd like to show or any remarks, regards.

Excuse me.

Sure.

Um, I'm actually the former chairperson.

I resigned when I heard that they were going to repeal the ordinance to create this commission.

And um we we tried to have as many meetings as possible.

Um we had um three vacancies on the commission that were never filled.

We had one expired seat, and one of the um one of the members um had a family issue, and she wasn't able to attend most of the meetings.

So that was, you know, those were the biggest um hurdles that we were working with.

But um, we did have several meetings.

Um we did um you know, nominate the chairperson, the vice chair, and the secretary.

And um as far as the numbers go, um as of 12 125, there's actually a hundred and nine um uh vacant seats.

There were 73 expired seats that that did expire on 12.1, but then there's also uh the holdover seats, uh, which was 35, and then there was one um seat that um on the planning board that uh the member uh resigned.

So um looking at looking at the spreadsheet, we felt it was difficult to navigate on the website to see um you know the vacancies, it just takes a lot of time to go back and forth.

So we established that we would use the Excel spreadsheet that I believe was created by the border reps for the border reps, and that's a lot easier to view at a glance.

Um all the information right in front.

Like you can look at um, I don't know if you have the spreadsheet to pull up, but all the information is is there.

Um it shows what seats are vacant, what party the members from the date they were appointed and the date of their expiration, the term expiration.

But when I counted um unaffiliated voters or unaffiliated seats that were filled as of December 1st, there's there was only three unaffiliated um members to all these boards.

So if one of our primary responsibilities was to work on unaffiliates, I I feel that if we had the proper um people in seated that could help us, um, I feel like there could be a lot more um unaffiliates and all if you actually read the charter, we're we're not limited to um work with unaffiliated, but we're also it doesn't define that we can't work with um democrats or or um republicans or in the independents, but um during the time that I was on on the uh uh commission, um many people um in the public thought there wasn't transparency because there was seemed to be confusion with um whose name was being put forward and who is who was not being put forward.

So um in one of the meetings, um, it was said that you know it's very hard to find HPAC members, and um I personally know someone that applied for HPAC twice and they were turned down.

So um there was also the whole issue with the holdovers and you know people asking why you know these seats aren't being filled and put you know names put forward.

Um so we just wanted to try to create more transparency, we wanted to try to help to um keep the pipeline filled to try to um you know engaged um people that possibly could you know fit well on a certain board or commission.

Um if you think about it, like I don't think you know there is some a redundancy with like the interview process because if the if the parties are going to interview and then the commission would interview and the mayor interviews and then the border reps interviews, I mean who wants to sit around, you know, or attend for interviews for a volunteer position, but I felt that we shouldn't have to interview, that we just gathered the resume and the information and we pass that forward to um all parties involved, the mayor, um the political parties if it didn't come from a political party, and then um we also um wanted to create like a palm card that we could hand out at different events because per the charter there were to be um public events, um, I think it was one one per quarter um to try to engage the public, and um we never got to that point.

Um, I feel like our hands were tied somewhat when we made some request and um we either didn't hear back for a while or um you know no action was uh taken or responded.

But I feel like I feel like if there was enough people on the commission that they can definitely you know create more awareness, um, engage more people and have more people put through the pipeline.

Well, thank you very much, Mr.

Gars.

I appreciate the remarks.

Um, so with that, just so that we can kind of open the floor a little bit for questions for our invitees.

Do I have a motion to approve item LR32.016?

No.

Thank you.

Uh so I have a motion and a second.

So the question before the committee is whether to approve uh item LR32.016.

Does anybody wish to seek the floor?

Representative.

Uh, through you, may I ask uh Ms.

Fox a question?

Um according to your report, um since Mayor Simmons took office, uh she is appointed confirm 186 uh people to be to our volunteer boards and commissions of that 186.

How many of them were sourced from the appointments commission?

None to my knowledge.

Okay.

So one of the principal objectives of the point of the appointments commission was to be essentially a third organized conduit along with the RTC and the D and the DCC to feed um to feed viable candidates.

And it sounds like that objective was in the four plus years is was not achieved in any way.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Does anybody else wish to seek the floor?

Vice Chair Camparelli, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair.

Um I guess I guess what I was hearing from Mr.

Garst, and I'd I'd like him to affirm or deny what I'm saying, is that they didn't have staff.

You guys were not a full commission.

You didn't have Huang.

Um and you were not given the go-ahead to do your quarterly or the resources to do your quarterly searches per the ordinance.

Um so I don't know how you would have achieved the goal.

It doesn't sound like a goal wasn't achieved.

It sounds like a commission wasn't fully formed.

Um yes.

Um I was um appointed to the board November of 24.

We did meet um November and December of 24.

But with people not showing up with not having um, you know, with having vacant seats, our hands were tied.

It was it's like an eight-cylinder car running on three and a half cylinders, and we just um had a lot of a lot of effort from um the former uh board of reps that were um on on this commission, Jeff Stella and Tom Kaczynski.

Um they worked really hard to try to get this going.

And for some reason, we I think the RTC um didn't have a large enough pool to pull names for the appointments commission.

I'm not sure on the DCC side or why the administration hadn't put names forward.

Um we did get a new member, Phil Maglinik.

Um, I believe it was November of 20 of 25.

Um, and and he was you know very helpful and you know, wanted to get things going.

And um one of the the member that didn't uh participate because of family issue in the last like four months, we didn't hear back from her at all.

We didn't hear anything that was going on.

Um, she didn't reply to tax or anything.

And then when the 32nd board came in, I had asked um you know the administration who are gonna be the board of reps that are going to help us out, and uh we never heard back and that that never went anywhere.

So kind of had these hurdles and had her hands tied.

Thank you for that.

The other thing that I I sort of heard you saying, um, and I want to understand a little bit more of it.

Sounded like you you were saying that you felt the interview process was a little bit redundant, but that there were several things that that the commission could do in aiding the mayor's office, um, and also aiding the public, aiding the public in more transparency and aiding the mayor's office in having these events and guides like the the guide that you were just talking about, which I think is actually in our legislative record.

Um Chair McEwen had it put in there, and and I had never seen that before, so I was really grateful that you you brought that forward.

Um so my question to you is I I think you were saying you sort of think that it should be reimagined a little bit rather than go away.

Yeah, um with you know that many vacant seats, uh I feel like um, you know, looking at what happened over the the previous years and how many vacancies there were and names really not coming forward, um, people not knowing what you know really the boards or um commissions are about.

Um, you know, we were gonna have a plan to do a social media campaign, um, the events um engage, you know, um Edmore um um uh neighborhood meetings to try to get people in involved and um we just we just didn't have enough people to to carry you know to pull it off.

But yeah, I felt I felt like we really could help um with the transparency, um, focus on the unaffiliated voters, um, work to fill the pipeline, um, gather the paperwork and just you know fill any gaps that you know maybe you know with the administration that you know maybe they get tied up and you know they're busy, so a commission that would basically assist the mayor's office rather than rather than uh add another layer of of interviewing.

Correct.

Um, I ask uh Miss Fox a question.

Can I call you Bridget?

Of course.

Okay, um if if the commission felt or seemed more like what Mr.

Gars is describing, in what way do you feel like that would add a layer of bureaucracy?

Great question.

I I will just start by sharing that in addition to Mr.

Garst, our office nominated and had approved six members of the appointments commission over the four years.

So I I will share in summary that the group that decided to resign was over frustration regarding the lack of direction that the commission was taking.

So we took great care when we first started of appointing people we thought could take something that was perhaps not terribly well defined in how to move this forward, but had track records in the community of organizing people and finding ways of recruiting members, and that group felt frustrated over a series of years where they ultimately decided that it was just what I shared, another bureaucratic layer.

So to answer your question, Karen, uh we feel confident that the mayor's office and the mayor herself and a future mayor will be able to use their bullet pulpit as the mayor does at all times.

For those of you here, the mayor in the community, one of her go-to talking points is always around the opportunity to serve the committee, the community through boards and commissions and membership on those boards.

So her reach is as great as or bigger than what we felt the commission could help do.

And then of course, with the established two political, very well organized committees within the community, the RTC and the DCC, they also help amplify the messaging.

So I I will remain on the position that we just simply don't feel that the structure that's in place is a structure that is additive to this process, it's not additive at all.

So we don't see a world where we could create a commission out of what's in place now or a future commission that would actually benefit the process.

This is gonna sound so disrespectful, and I swear to you, it's not meant to be.

Um if you if you were not able to get enough names to fill this commission, doesn't that in itself say there's a problem?

But we did have names initially filling this commission.

So there are times over the past four years where the commission was, if not fully um, you know, having every seat full, it was close to it.

They certainly had enough people for quorum, but again, the frustration that came from their meetings was that they ultimately felt that they were not contributing to the mission of the commission.

So that was the feedback that we received.

Is that more about the structure of the commission or the people that were in the commission?

I I felt confident that the people we put in those positions, including Mr.

Gars were purely capable of helping to create something, but if you read the ordinance that you all have, it is a challenge to determine how exactly a commission should be born from that language.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

I yield.

Thank you, Vice Camp Riley.

I have next up uh Representative Le Pine.

Thank you, Chairman Cowan.

Um if I can ask a question through you of Mrs.

Fox.

Um, thank you.

Uh so Bridget, I just uh along that line.

I'm just it so it sounds like one of the key points of failure was participation for a variety of reasons.

Uh another one is the the output or value that it brought, which wasn't much.

And then there's this area of redundancy because we have an administration right now that I think, as you put it, I would agree is making a real effort to produce the numbers that you put up on the screen showing the balance against the population of the city by committee.

Maybe the commission is or isn't the answer going forward.

You're you're the administration's position is it's not.

Um if there's a future administration that doesn't share that commitment, where it's not redundant that they're committed to transparency and committed to balance representation across commissions.

What then stands in the way?

Is it just the board of reps approving those appointments?

Is that the check that you're looking to stand in place there?

Can you see an additional layer or role without a without relying on if we're not talking about the Simmons administration?

Sure.

I I think that the role of the board of representatives is to continue to work alongside a mayor's administration in ensuring that boards and commissions are populated and functional.

So I see that as a role that everyone plays in this who are already in elected roles.

But populated and functional may not be equal to transparent and balanced, right?

I mean, look at the board of reps right now.

It's it's a hundred percent one party, right?

There's an administration that's taking that to still mean that we have to find a balanced set of appointments in commission.

40 to zero doesn't necessarily ensure that there's going to be a balanced point of view on the board of reps to make sure those appointments are balanced.

So I'm just I just want to I don't know that a commission is the right road.

I just am worried that it works today because there's an administration committed to it.

And so maybe that becomes redundant with having this.

But what happens if there's an administration that isn't?

Does this commission play any kind of helpful role?

So I will answer that by sharing that the city's major boards and commissions have been functioning for decades.

And what I have observed in this role is that if we do not have quorum or fully staffed, and when I say staff by residents on these boards, then certain functions of government no longer operate.

So when you do not have a quorum at your I I can give the example of the Social Services Commission, each month the Social Services Commission is responsible for hearing um fair rent complaints.

And if we do not have that have a functional group of people, for whatever reason, it's a five-member commission.

It's a real issue for residents in this city to not have services and not get answers.

So I think there's a push-pool here where by the function of government, if these different boards and commissions are not functional, then you you, as members of the board of reps, or that body and the mayor's office will receive the pressure from inside city government here at 888 Washington Boulevard, we have city employees who are dependent on the work of boards and commissions to keep their work moving forward.

So there's a natural tension that just incentivizes this work to keep moving forward as it has since the beginning of Stanford.

Okay.

All right.

Thank you so much.

I yield.

Thank you, Representative Le Pine.

Next I have Representative Boudreau.

Thank you.

Uh, there's been kind of a couple different sort of benefits to the appointments commission that have been proposed.

There's the idea of you know outreach to independence, uh, because we don't have that for the DCC and the RTC.

Um there's also been kind of the idea of the appointments commission as a check on an administration that is maybe less um committed to uh this uh these appointments of the Simmons administration uh is and I guess I don't really see how having a commission really advances either of those goals.

Uh to Miss Uh Fox's point from before um the mayor has a better pulpit uh to reach out to independence than a commission does.

Um I think the problem with the idea of having it be a check on the mayor as uh representative Le Pine was referencing, is that it's kind of controlled by the mayor.

Uh, means the appointments commission is all appointed by the mayor.

Then they could undermine the appointments and commissions or the disappointing people they like to that.

So I guess I don't really see the appointments commission effectively advancing either of the goals.

But that's kind of concerning to me because I do think that those are both valid goals.

So I think maybe there's more work than just a straight repeal on this that needs to be done, where we need to really look at kind of an alternative reform to the appointments process that's more comprehensive than just a repeal.

I'm sorry, you yield.

Yeah, I got it.

Okay, don't manage it.

All right.

Sorry, thank you so much.

Um I I think some of the points I wanted to highlight, um, Representative Boudreau had mentioned in terms of the goals of the commission itself.

I just wanted to give my perspective being just on the appointments committee for the last four years, and how much we have seen, how much progress we have seen uh in terms of the uh the uh folks coming through for uh for different positions, votes and commissions.

Um and I felt like there was a very good coordination with the uh the uh VCC, like I know the appointments committee chair Candy Yeager works through a lot of the process, um, and I'm sure there's a process in the RTC, which I'm not very familiar, but we do we did see candidates for the some of the big boards as well.

So I I'm assuming they have a very robust process as well.

And we've seen how much of the an affiliated positions are being filled.

Um I personally I just always thought that being uh the board of representatives being in that appointments commission is a conflict of interest, uh, because you are trying to get somebody on that commission, and then here you are coming, you know what I mean?

Like I I just didn't see didn't sit well with me to begin with.

Um I understand the notion of yes, okay, we're talking about this administration, but what if something else, you know, a different administration has a different view or a form of filling, but we can say that about all the processes, right?

Like we we can only speak with what we have now.

Um we can establish processes now that that we think is going to succeed and and and work well, and you know, when we're on if we're not there next term or whatever, like it's it's something that we can't control.

So um I always thought that, you know, I and I know that it, you know, there was always you know hard for people to be on the commission, and and I've seen people that I've known personally know of people that have resigned because of the the frustrations and not being able to work and get get through the the type of work that was um originally intended to accomplish.

But I feel like seeing what progress we've made in the last four years, I'm pretty optimistic that you know we can continue to do that um without having an additional layer.

And you know, if there is something that we're seeing, I mean they the updates are available in the website, and I'm sure um our chief of Staff Fox will come speak to us, you know, if we want to talk about more of the you know how how things are going.

And and we are seeing candidates every every month in our appointments and the positions being filled.

So personally, I'm pretty optimistic that we can continue on.

And and I mean, if there are if there are positions not being filled in this commission, like and why I just think it's a bigger why are we making a bigger effort to like create something that's kind of like not working, rather just have those people that are available in that commission to put them on other boards and commissions when they can actually contribute uh and be successful and feel like they are actually contributing something.

So that's the perspective that I want to give.

Thank you, Chair.

I yield.

Thank you, President Shaw.

Representative Hughes, did you still wish to seek the floor?

Uh no, thank you.

Thank you though.

Thank you, Representative Hughes.

Um Bridgett, did you still have any additional remarks?

Uh Mr.

Garst, you've got the floor if you'd like to make some additional remarks.

Yes, thank you, Chair.

Um so on my time on the commission up until December 1st.

And I don't know who was put forward in the new term, but there's only three independents seated um on out of 186 seats.

I mentioned there's three unaffiliates.

So as far as, and I don't mean to be disrespectful, but as far as like the mayor's reach, I'm not 100% sure if that's working.

Or has worked.

Thank you, Mr.

Garst.

Representative Weinberg, you have the floor.

Yeah, I'd like to just make if I might four points.

First, um I looked at the um the uh appointments committee meetings uh uh from uh January 2025 through this coming one tomorrow night.

Um and there have been by my count, there have been 12 um total of 80 uh appointment uh nominations put forward by the mayor, 43 of them Democrat, 25 of them Republicans, and 12 of them either unaffiliated or independent or however however they have it to be marked.

So I'm a little confused by uh by uh Mr.

Garst's um assertion about about three, maybe he's using a different time period.

I'm using the 15 month period uh from January 2025 through the meeting that's scheduled tomorrow night.

My reference point is uh is the agendas of the uh appointments committee um meetings.

That's point number one.

Um point number two that I'd like to make is um there's another what I think is a terribly underused pipeline opportunity, and that's us, the members of the board of representatives in the last year.

I've recruited, if you want to call it that, three three people who have been um confirmed for the uh for positions on the volunteer boards and commissions, uh one for harbor management, one for zoning board of appeals, and I'm trying to think what the third one was, who actually is an unaffiliated voter.

Um if we had all appointed three, you know, pushed forward three candidates, you guys can do the math.

Um you know, this might be another situation of we have met the enemy and it is us.

So I think that if we're doing our jobs the right way as as representatives of our district, we're talking and meeting with constituents all the time.

Every time we meet with a constituent, every time we interact with a constituent, is an opportunity to talk about the city's volunteer boards and commissions.

And I know if I can motivate three in a year, David, you can do it at least at least twice that.

Oh thank you.

Okay, that's that's point number two.

Um next point is I just want to give another example of what Bridget was talking about before about how the city frankly doesn't function, the city government frankly doesn't function if the boards and commissions aren't um aren't functioning, and particularly if they don't have enough uh to uh quorums and do the and do their charter required work.

And I'll just give an example because I know as well and it's the personnel commission since I served on it for many years.

Um if the city, if the administration wishes to create a new classification, a new position in this in the city government, that has to be approved by the personnel commission.

If a future mayor chooses not to make sufficient appointments to the personnel commission so that it can have a quorum and make those decisions, then that mayor can cannot staff that that new that new position.

If the city, if if the mayor, if the administration wants to hire someone and bring them in above the midpoint of that positions, that classification salary range that requires the approval of the personnel commission.

Again, if the future mayor's administration wishes to do that and chooses not to fully staff the personnel commission, so it can have a quorum, then that mayor is not going to be able to do that.

So I think while I understand the logic of the fear of a future administration being recalcitrant about making appointments, um in reality, these commissions by charter play important roles that if they're not those roles are not fulfilled, there's no other route to accomplish them.

Okay.

And then the last point I wish to make, apologies for make doing this taking up so much time, is um what else happens if an administration in the a future administration is not committed to filling positions on these volunteer boards and commissions and doing it in a in a balanced in a balanced way.

Um the uh reports that are now provided online um provide a great deal of sunshine uh for the public at large, for the press, and for our this board of representatives to hold future administrations accountable uh for filling seats.

Are there ways to um make those uh those web pages more user-friendly?

There are always ways to make web pages more user-friendly.

Um, and we you know, and um and we can do that uh going forward.

Um I'd be uh I I could understand the value of um of requiring information, like the information that's on that's already posted on the web pages that requiring future administrations to continue to provide that information publicly, um and in the aggregated form that then it already exists.

Um so those are the ways that we can protect against future council trench administrations with that idea.

Thank you, Representative Lemberg.

Vice Chair Caparelli, you have the floor.

Hey, I just want to make one more comment.

I I feel like we're we're acting now like it's been really easy to appoint people to boards and commissions, but for the last four years, you know, when we've had expired seats, some of them from 2016, 2017, 2018, we've stated that they're expired and there's nobody to fill them.

So to me, that implies that we need help as a city.

And from what I can see, what we have in place right now is not working for multiple reasons.

Um even if it was working, I hear what Bridget is saying about you know certain redundancies in the interview process and things like that.

So I really feel like what this committee needs to do is to work on what it possibly might look at look like if we reformulated the commission, um and discussed its purpose.

I'd also like to hear from some of the other people that were on the commission.

I'd like to hear from the person.

I I believe it was uh director Canonis that formulated the commission, was it?

I believe so.

Okay, so I don't know, I feel like we have a little bit more work to do, but I do hear what you're saying, Bridget.

And do you yield the floor?

Yep.

Yes.

Is there anyone else wishing to seek the floor?

Okay.

Um I have um some thoughts as well.

Um it is very helpful to kind of have this presentation.

Uh so thank you, Bridget, for doing that.

It's also helpful to hear from Mr.

Gars as well as to his perspective and experience.

I think that I I share.

I mean, well, in my professional life, I I get paid to worry about worst-case scenarios and the future proof.

Um, and though I think I can certainly get behind the fact that you know the commission in its current form, its current iteration is redundant and maybe not necessarily the value add, uh, as Bridget had said, I think that you know, I have less concerns about um repealing it now with the current administration because there's a demonstrated commitment to transparency, and there's a track record of achievement in the pursuit of that transparency and filling vacancies.

That being said, six administrations on the line, that may not be the case.

And that's where my concern pretty much lies.

I think that if the if the commission was originally formed, I think the mission partially to get representation outside of the traditional political parties and also increase transparency.

I think as you can see from the website, which I've seen, I proved in quite depth.

I think that the transparency is certainly there.

I think it's quite easy to see what positions are available.

I think it's quite easy to see what the commissions do, and at least in a summary form.

I don't know what all the commissions do, even after having read that, but you know, you can always inquire um and get more details.

Uh, I also think that um so I think that transparency mission has been achieved with the practices with the reformulation of the website and the practices the citizen administrations has put in place of publishing uh the data that we have now, which I think it you had mentioned is updated monthly, um which is impressive.

Um I think that if we were to repeal the commission, it falls even more so on the appointments committee, even more than it is already, which you know it does have this function, uh, to have that oversight to ensure that we have transparency to ensure that we have representation, uh, and that's why we have a nomination and a confirmation process.

Uh so with that being said, I think that the data that we get now is great.

My concern is that it is in fact voluntary and that there may be a mayor down the line that doesn't feel that it's important or valuable to provide that information, which makes the appointments committee's discharge of its role a little more difficult, uh, in my opinion.

Uh so I would love to see, you know, I'd love to work with the administration to codify some of the existing practices such that it doesn't overburden uh the administration, and also I'd like to see um some more data codified on applicants in an anonymous and aggregate form.

I think it's not appropriate to have individualized data on applicants, whether or not they're move forward to nomination, you know, published in any way, but I do think it would be helpful to say, you know, these are the demographics of the applicants we're receiving, uh, and then you know, obviously, this isn't the concern now because we're not seeing that down the line, if that starkly differs from the applicants that were seeing nominated, that is a way that the board can discharge its role and oversight to better understand where there might be places of concern.

Um so that that's where I am now.

I'm not necessarily um opposed to the uh the repeal of the commission, but I do think we should we should partner it with the codification of the requirement that we get.

I I think monthly is great.

I I don't even know if that's necessary.

I think an annual report would be fantastic.

Um I'd love to see, I'd love to see that come together.

And I think that doing that now while we're focusing on it would be great.

And I do understand by Chair Camparelli's position that you know, she feels like more discussion.

I I know uh representative Weinberg also mentioned that you know we can look at this process holistically as well and see what else you know we can do to improve it.

Um that being said, uh did I see you raise your hand?

You did you did?

Sorry.

Um and so after we kind of exhaust discussion, I think it may be appropriate to postpone this item um so that we have more time for approval discussion.

Uh and that's that's the all the comments I have.

Representative, you um excuse me.

Um just to be clear.

So we're you're looking at your comment.

Well, and I appreciate the answer.

Um, is to possibly codify the information being gathered as part of the city charter.

The code of ordinance, yeah, all ordinance, yeah, yeah, yes.

In other words, instead we aren't discussing we are we are discussing the the uh uh repeal of the article 7T um of chapter six, but in that respect, you would like to see instead, or you would like to see an addition to the information being gathered now as a codified set of uh ordinances that we would then keep uh that uh ability a lot.

That that's what I would propose, and I think that you know, obviously, we would have to work at the administration to understand what data is appropriate, right?

Uh what data can be collected, you know.

So I don't know what that universe looks like.

But yes, that's that's okay.

I just try to make that clear you I just have two final clarifying points on some of the comments that have been made.

One is that the context under which this ordinance was written was immediately following COVID-19 and the crisis that ensued in city governments across the country.

So if you look back on the activity of the appointments committee at that time, it was not there was an absolute pause in what was happening and completely understandable.

I would never think that an administration would be spending a ton of time trying to focus on that when the crisis was as large as it was.

So I think there was uh a definite moment in time where perhaps the number of expired seats caught up with the administration in the city based on uh an external factor.

So I think that's also part of this because remember, for decades and decades, this city was functioning well with our boards and commissions and filling them without this additional commission.

So I think that's just an important piece to remember when you're looking at the dates of when the commission was formed and the context of why partially some of that thinking was happening at that time.

And then secondly, the investment our team has made in its is getting in the weeds, but the name of the portal that we use is called Granicus, and that is the web portal that people now use to apply.

That again is new to the city in terms of some of the additional enhancements we've made.

So that will last into perpetuity unless you know they have advanced, we're using a platform that other cities across the country are using for boards and commissions as well.

And so as they get better at what they're doing, it will also make our lives better.

But the technology that's available to cities across the country, including Stanford, has made some of this transparency much easier to address than in the past.

So we do have to, we've had to work with them on having pay for these additional enhancements and some of the data that's shared, as you mentioned, is not data that can be shared publicly, so we have to be very sensitive to those pieces, but I want to assure the board that in the future when you're talking about some of the key parts of this work and what the commission set out to do, I think we've done a good job in the establishment of this website to make and pulling that data on a monthly basis to address one of the key components of what that commission was set out to do.

Uh Representative Hughes, you have the floor.

Thank you.

And I just want to clarify.

So the commission now no longer uh does it no longer have enough members to hold the quorum.

Correct.

Okay, thank you.

And so, yeah, I just wanted to say that you know, I'm I'm fully comfortable with voting in favor of this ordinance tonight.

Um, I think given that the commission doesn't have enough members for a quorum, um, you know, that that's not going to streamline um filling vacancies on boards and commissions, um, which I think should be a priority of this board.

Um, so I would I don't know if uh I what uh the next step or plan is, but I I definitely think that you know probably the best step would be going forward with this ordinance.

Um but that's that's my thought, just because I think there's there is urgency to fill these vacancies, and I think you know, an additional commission on top of it um is a definitely is another layer of bureaucracy.

Um whether it's you know, interviewing candidates for commissions and boards or you know, getting a permit for something.

I think there's ways that you know, as a city government, we gotta be you know more streamlined and more uh move faster and move quicker as the private sector does when it comes to interviewing and hiring.

Um so that's my thoughts, and I yield thank you, Chairman Kewan.

Thank you, Representative Hughes.

Um I don't see any other folks seeking the floor.

Um being unable to make motions myself.

Um I I still think that it would be.

Uh Vice Chair Caparelli has made a motion to postpone.

I assume point of order.

Yes.

Uh, by postpone, does that mean recommit?

Uh no, it will be different slightly in that if we're I assume Vice Chair Millary, are you looking to postpone definitely or indefinitely?

I'm just looking to postpone, not forever.

Okay.

So that would put this on our next agenda.

And is that the motion you're seconding?

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

So put it for clarifying.

Yes.

Uh so I'm understanding perfectly.

A motion to recommit would send this back to steering who could then put it back on our agenda, whereas the motion to postponed just automatically puts it on next month.

The only functional difference meaning that steering could instead put it in and kill it there, but this forces it onto our agenda next month.

Is there anybody that wishes to seek the floor with respect to the motion to postpone?

Asking that because we time to write it down.

Um try this by um roll call, I think.

Um Representative Weinberg.

Yes.

Representative Stone.

Yes.

Representative Le Pine.

No.

Representative Hyatt.

I no Representative Hughes.

No.

Representative Boudreau?

Yes.

Representative Blank?

Yes.

Vice Chair Caparelli.

Yes.

And I also go in favor.

And I think everybody voted, so there would be no abstentions.

That's six votes in favor, three against.

The motion passes.

And I think until our March meeting.

April.

Thank you so much.

March of the twenty-seventh.

Yes, sorry, apologies.

Thank you.

Our April meeting.

Okay.

Um, with that, I don't believe there are any other items on the agenda.

All right.

Uh, do I have a motion to adjourn?

Thank you.

I have a motion and a second.

We are adjourned as of seven.

Oh six PM.

Thank you very much for your attendance.

Uh both of our members and for our invitees.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you,