The following topics are pending examination by the Council Subcommittee on Board and Commission Policies (kept here mostly as a reference):

• Potential changes to the Council meeting voting mechanism for appointing commissioners – Currently, Council performs multiple up/down votes on each applicant individually, which is very time-consuming and inefficient.  If placed on an agenda, the subcommittee will consider methods such as paper ballots or ranked-choice voting may improve the process.
• Potential changes to the BPAC and H&HS commission terms – Currently, all commissions have staggered terms across a four-year cycle, so that changes to membership aren’t dramatic in any given year.  Only the BPAC and H&HS commissions lack properly staggered terms.  This is potentially damaging to the continuity of the commissions, and the BPAC has requested that Council examine this and possibly fix it in time for the 2012 appointments, at which time four members are termed out or up for replacement.
• Publishing contact information for commissioners – Currently, only commissioner names are made available to the public, and public contact with commissioners is expected to occur only at commission meetings or through the staff liaison.  This may act to restrict a commissioner’s role in providing public perspective on issues.  If placed on an agenda, this question will be examined to see if some individual public contact information should be made available.  Additionally, a commissioner specifically requested that if changes are made to this, then Council should provide direction on what expectations Council has regarding an individual commissioner’s responsiveness to a request for contact.
• Work plan review – Currently, work plans are created by boards and commissions, and they are approved as a consent calendar item by Council.  This can lead to workplans only getting a perfunctory review.  If placed on an agenda, the subcommittee will examine whether a body such as the subcommittee should take responsibility for reviewing workplans and making recommendations as part of the consent calendar item, and whether or not workplans should continue to be a consent calendar item.
• Expanded subcommittee role to include disciplinary issues – Currently, there is no body in place to address commission disciplinary issues that rise to the attention of Council.  This leaves it to the mayor to address disciplinary in an ad-hoc fashion.  If placed on an agenda, the subcommittee will examine whether or not the subcommittee’s mission should be expanded to not only recommend rules changes, but also to recommend enforcement actions when rules are violated.