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Mayor and City Council April 1, 2004 Page 2 <br /> <br />of the appointments are made by the state or national group, rather than by anyone at the local level. <br />The criteria for appointment to the various committees also varies. In addition, the criteria for <br />removal of a member also varies; often times, there are no criteria for removal (and therefore, the <br />person cannot be removed). In some cases, members serve "at the pleasure" of the appointing <br />authority. In other cases, lnembers can be removed only if they lose their office. <br /> <br /> The Council has not yet required that elected officials, when serving on various committees, <br />must represent or vote according to an adopted City position or policy. There currently is no <br />provision in the Charter or the Eugene Code that requires elected officials to adhere to City policy <br />when serving on either the City's committees or the committees of other organizations. The closest <br />action taken by the Council was in 1989, when the Council adopted Resolution No. 4139. That <br />Resolntion requires, in part, that any City representative who testifies on legislative or regulatory <br />matters before the federal or state government on behalf of the City must testify according to the <br />adopted policies of the Council. Resolution No. 4139, § 3 (1989). (The resolution, however, also <br />states that it is not intended to prevent or "abridge the rights of individuals to testify in their own <br />names." Id. § 8. ) <br /> <br /> Although the Council has not yet imposed such a requirement, we believe that the Council <br />legally could take action to require an elected official to represent officially adopted policy~ under <br />some circumstances, but not others. The two principal sets of circumstances are (1) when the City <br />(Mayor or Council) appoints the elected official, and (2) when some other organization (for example, <br />LOC or NLC) makes the appointment. <br /> <br /> Under the City Charter, the Council has the authority to adopt ordinances to regnlate how <br />elected officials are appointed to most2 committees, and to specify the powers and obligations of <br />such appointees, including the obligation to take positions consistent with officially adopted policy. <br />Moreover, as part of such an ordinance, the Council could provide that an appointee serves at the <br />pleasure of the Council. if an elected official then takes a position that the Council determines is <br />inconsistent with officially adopted policy, the Conncil could remove the individual from the <br />committee. <br /> <br /> With respect to appointees to state and national boards and committees, the Council's <br />authority is more limited. In those situations, the elected official normally is appointed by the state <br /> <br /> ~ Should the Council decide to adopt such a requirement, the Council should give some consideration to ~vhen <br />such a requirement would apply. The term "officially adopted policy" means different things to different people. For <br />example, is it only policies contained in ordinances and resoh~tions, or does it include statements contained in motions? <br />Does it apply only to statements that are adopted as "policy," or does it include "implicit policies" that someone can infer <br />from ordinance language? And, what happens when there are conflicting City policies that may apply to a matter under <br />consideration by the intergovernmental entity? <br /> <br /> 2 It is possible that an intergovernmental or other agreement could authorize the Mayor to designate a <br />representative. In such a case, the Council could not, by ordinance, supercede that intergovermnental agreement. <br /> <br /> <br />