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e e e ~. speaking, the refinement plan has to be in place before the tax increment districts were overlayed, in order to see what money is being raised for. Mr. Kupper said that instinctively, he agreed. Legally, he is not certain. Ms. Wooten said she assumed the refinement plan should be one of the first orders of business by the group. Mr. Lindberg said planning before imple- mentation makes more sense. However, he said there is a group that has worked for one year on developing a plan for the renewal district and they were representative of the whole area. The Planning Department has been cut back so that it may be five years before a renewal doughnut district can be considered. Ms. Wooten said that is not necessarily the case. No one is ready to disregard the group's work. The group's work will expedite basic ground work of any kind of refinement planning process. The work done by the advisory group and work done by Lyle Stewart, coupled with existing refinement plans, are going to lend themselves to a faster planning process. Mr. Lindberg asked whether it costs as much to staff a function as to staff a committee. Ms. Wooten replied that that was not yet known. Mr. Gleason said the Downtown Commission optimizes staff relationships. Mr. Kupper said he anticipates the same level of staffing and hopes more produc- tive use of staff time will result from elimination of the three boards. It might be possible to move the work plan of the commission along faster than it had been possible to move the individual plans of three boards and commissions. Staff will not have to be going back and forth to other boards. Mr. Lindberg said in a case where consolidating of committees results in a consolidation of the organizational charge, which is consolidation of function, he predicts money will be saved. But lopping off a human rights committee lops off a human rights service. Mr. Gleason said both staff function and products of their services are the issue. Formation of the Downtown Commission eliminates a tremendous overlap in operational procedures. Consolidation does reduce the support staff and admin- istrative staff time and attorney fees. Ms. Wooten said that the process had been difficult, but she is pleased staff has taken seriously the City Council goal and request of consolidation and the streamlining approach to boards and commissions. When asked how the commission would affect the permit process, Mr. Gleason said that the Parks and Recreation Department would not maintain jurisdiction and that everything will be transferred to the staff and board of the new commission. Staff needs to determine who will support parking. In response to a question, Mr. Kupper said funding for those functions will not be trimmed out of the City's budget. Mr. Kupper said Mr. Gleason had described all there was to say. The new commission can take the contract and run it in its existing form, or run it in its existing form at a lower funding level, or buy entirely different services. MINUTES--City Council Work Session May 10, 1982 Page 3