Thread by @shayshinecastle

We're gonna move to talking about boards and how they interact with one another / council. Won't be ask exciting as the last item (which was the meat) but I'll tweet what's necessary.

First up is the interaction of DAB/Planning Board. Reminder: Council's justification for having a PB with ZERO industry professionals on it was that DAB could provide that. boulderbeat.news/2020/04/02/cit…

DAB = Design Advisory Board. They focus on projects of a certain value (over $25,000, I think?) in the downtown area. New development or external renovation.

Young: If it's already being done, why was it in DAB's letter?

The idea is to have both boards weigh in together on concept review, which is a non-voting matter where boards (and sometimes council) comment on the plans for a project (design, size, etc.)

I guess this discussion will also touch on council process items left over from yesterday.

omg there's so many more sticky notes to talk about

I don't wanna

First question: When there are board vacancies mid-term, when do we replace them and when do we wait until the next round of official appointments (in March)?

This a Friend suggestion. She thinks maybe 6 months out or more = replace. Under that = wait

Weaver says sure, but maybe boards with official authority have a dif threshold.

Which ones are those? You can learn more about that here! boulderbeat.news/boulder-101/lo…

Seems like a good time to make this announcement, but Local Gov't 101 will very soon be available in Spanish! Community Foundation of Boulder County graciously paid for that translation.

Council gonna kick this item to the board/commission subcommittee to bring back a specific recommendation.

Another Friend suggestion for boards: Let Transportation Advisory Board talk about land use issues. The charter explicitly bans them from doing so unless council asks them to.

Carr: It's not the charter; it's a code provision. Council added that some time ago.

(It's in the TAB charter, but that's part of code, not the city charter)

I touched on that briefly in this story from 2019 boulderbeat.news/2019/08/11/bou…

Meschuk: The way we've interpreted that is that TAB should play a role in policy decisions, but not official development review.

Weaver suggests TAB input at the concept plan review level.

This matters because development has transportation impacts! Seems insane that they don't weigh in already on development policies.

Carr suggests "a quick code change"

Meschuk reminding council that this will add time to the concept plan process. Young suggests joint meetings.

So this will be explored further.

Friend talking now about how to better empower some boards/commissions

Carr: Some have specific tasks and powers. Some don't. HAB is still "feeling its way" — their role is advisory to council, and what they're supposed to do is take on assignments from council not make up their own, and only give advice "when asked for it"

This is a challenge for board members, Carr says. "Smart people are spending their time, so they want to do something productive."

LOL Bergman to Weaver: "Apparently you know all the things."

(He certainly thinks he does)

Weaver: Onboarding for members tends to focus on legal requirements (ethics, conflicts of interests, etc.) It might be helpful to let them know how council makes decisions, how our process works

It IS in the boards' purview to have input on council's workplan, he says.

Young: "The clarification of the roles is a very important item."

Friend: "No board (should) feel less important for another. ... I want to discuss the possible value of boards looking into things if they have time for it ... I do think we've gotten some important feedback from some boards that maybe wasn't specifically invited."

Meschuk: "I actually really appreciate this conversation." Dept heads agree with a lot of what council is saying.

Doesn't say which council members, though....

"It is not clear across all the boards and commissions what their role is or what their scope is? At what point can they ask staff" for help and "at what point does it rise to the level of council?"

"Sometimes, that's a bit of an awkward conversation bc a dept feels like they have to push back on a board," Meschuk says.

HRC, in particular, feels like they are fighting against staff, members have told me.

Friend: How do we "systematically" make sure boards are weighing in on things council is handling?

Meschuk: Staff can work to ID which boards, commissions should be involved in projects.

Wallach Sigh-O-Meter: 1

Wallach: I have an idea that the entire engagement process is broken. There has to be a better way to involve residents earlier on so we don't get the same "bombardment ... at the last minute"

Council supports have the engagement subcommittee exploring a bunch of stuff: Responses to everyone who emails council, within 24 hours; limits on open comment participation so we get more new ppl, etc.

Another suggestion: Have council do a 9 p.m. check-in to see if they're going over schedule and have to cancel stuff

They often cancel things at, like, 11 p.m.

Weaver: "Happy to do it, but just word of warning that it's not going to definitively solve all overrun problems."

A Swetlik suggestion: When council touches on a long-term issues, recap what's already been decided at the start of the discussion. (So ppl don't ask for changes to stuff that's already over and done with)

Council unanimously on board for that

Last items are related to council bonding in the age of remote meetings.

"As long as you don't talk about council business," Carr says, you can meet without the public there. But that's tricky bc the only thing you all have in common is council.

But I always encourage council to do this, Carr says.

Ideas on the table include a virtual happy hour or logging on to Zoom a few min before meetings to chat (they kinda already do that now; it's usually Wallach and Swetlik)

Awww, the happy hour was a Swetlik idea. Poor guy, it's just him and his backlit couch. He's lonely.

Last item: How do we speed up the return to in-person meetings?

Meschuk: "There will be a point, sometimes in the future, when occupancy restrictions for indoor spaces will be lifted, but that's probably closer to the end of this year, maybe into next year."

But council can return once they're vaccinated, if they want to, Meschuk says. There may still be masking/social distancing requirements.

Wallach, Friend, Brockett says they'd all want to be vaccinated first. And Brockett says he's way down on the list of prioritized ppl. (Me, too)

Weaver: I think we're going to be considering changes to public participation in the near future, too. So this will evolve. Maybe we can have 1-2 members in chambers...? We'll have to talk about hybrid meetings at some point.

Nagle: Wouldn't we want to look at community spread? Let the numbers guide us? That's what we've been doing so far.

As Weaver said, this will likely not be an issue in need of immediate redress until the summer.

More camping road trips in my future, then.

With that, I believe we are done today. Praise the lard.

@threadreaderapp please unroll. Thank you!