01/26/1976 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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could be set at the Council's first meeting when citizen interest forms are considered. Councilman Murray asked for clarification of intended action. Mayor Anderson 4It and Councilman Keller pointed out the amendment prepared would provide merely for appointment of commission members by the Council, it would delete the specific process required in the existing ordinance. Mr. Keller thought it best to work under the existing process for the time being, then if any problem was encountered, an amendment could be considered. Councilman Williams thought there would be a problem under existing provlslons because of the numbers of people who would have to be interviewed and the amount of time involved in that process. Councilman Murray agreed that there would be a certain amount of time involved, but he thought that was the only way to do justice to the citizen involvement program and preserve the integrity of the ordinance as written. Councilman Keller asked the attorney's advice - whether a written interview could be conducted to narrow down the number of finalists for personal interview. Barring that process, he asked, could twenty from each group be picked for each commission with a more complete form filled out from which to choose nine to interview for each commission. Mr. Long answered that changes would have to be made in the code provision itself, deleting the language calling for selection through public process. And the bylaws provisions would have to be deleted or changed. He said the problem appeared to be the includsion of a selection pro- cess in the code; it would either have to be "lived with or changed." Mayor Anderson thought any change needed could be confined to the Council by- laws, perhaps by dividing the interviews between several Council members or ~ assigning certain Council members to interview for certain commissions. Councilman Murray noted that the method of selection for the women's commis- sion was a point of discussion by the task force in preparing the human rights ordinance - whether selection of members would be by the Mayor alone or whether through open application process as adopted, or nominations by groups. His interpretation of the concern expressed was that the only way to get a broad representation of the community's interests and allow diversity was to have full Council participation in an open selection process. He thought using sub- committees would be going astray from the most important concern. The Mayor said he didn't intend for subcommittees to make the actual selection, only that they process the applications for selection of finalists for full Council interview. Councilwoman Beal remembered that the method of selection was a major issue in discussions with the women's groups. She felt a commission designed to protect those who feel they had been discriminated against would not be effective unless it was a truly representative group. And it would not be representative unless it was chosen on the basis of qualifications and background and in an open pro- cess with great publicity to avoid appointment of people unaware that discrimina- tion exists. She thought it important at this time to leave the present ordinance unchanged, then work out adjustments as they are needed in working under it. Councilman Bradley referred to committee discussion on amending the bylaws with respect to selection of boards and commission, and Mr. Long explained that the action taken at that time was to implement bylaw provisions previously adopted for determining which procedures would be used for various boards and commissions. Noting the procedure for selection of human rights commissions was not considered at that time, Mr. Bradley said it appeared the Council had the option under the existing ordinance for selection of finalists for interview by the Council. The issue now, he said, appeared to be whether interview of all applicants by the - 1/26/76 - 10 3<0