[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: Council committees

[kohls at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Appelbaum, Matt

Colleagues,

In advance of our Wednesday discussion on council committees, I thought I'd provide some information on a few committees I have served on, and offer some ideas about serving on those and other committees on behalf of the council.

DRCOG: Macon will provide far more current and detailed information than I can, but since DRCOG is, in my view, our most important assignment, and since I've served on DRCOG, I want to offer a few thoughts.  My rationale for noting that this is the most important committee is that DRCOG allocates significant transportation dollars, sets regional growth and development policies, plays an important role in programs like FasTracks - and our single rep must intelligently and strategically represent us in all of those arenas.  As I'll suggest with other external assignments, just attending meetings - and taking an active role at them - is probably not sufficient.  To be an effective rep, I think one needs to get to know the players and create alliances.  For DRCOG, that typically happens outside the formal meetings, at the weekend retreat, and at private discussions.  And I think a good rep needs to meet regularly with our staff, and with the county's staff and rep.  I'd just add that this is a case where the alternate rep is also important, since the main rep will inevitably miss some meetings; the alternate should also plan on attending staff meetings, at the least.

CML: Although we understandably grumble at times about CML and our very high dues, CML has provided essential and often critical support for some of our legislative agenda and, more importantly, ensured that any number of bills we oppose have been defeated.  The main work of CML takes place at 3 or 4 policy committee meetings, held just before and then during the legislative session.  All are held in Denver, and all during the day (typically 10 - 2, not very convenient for anyone who works).  There is also an important all-day legislative workshop, typically held in February.  As with DRCOG, one can gain some credibility by getting to know other members - and that requires attendance at the workshop, the annual conference, and the district meeting(s) if possible.  The annual conference takes place in June in Vail or Breckenridge for a few days.  I typically attend for two days so I need to stay over for only one night.  This year I chaired the conference committee, and I've moderated several sessions.  The district meeting(s) take place, I think, in the spring and fall.  I somehow got myself elected "president" of our district, a mostly meaningless title that simply indicates that the next fall meeting will be held in Boulder.  If our rep(s) attend all of these events, it can cost some money: the conference with a one-night stay is about $500, the workshop is (I think) about $75, and the district meeting(s) about $30.

CML Update: In a previous email, I noted that Boulder will lose one of our two seats on the policy committee because our population dropped below 100,000 in the census.  I've been working on that, and I found that we can keep our two seats at least through this legislative session and into the annual conference.  After that, we're supposed to drop to one rep, but I'm going to try to reverse that decision.

NLC: This isn't actually a council appointment, although being active at NLC certainly requires council approval due to the cost involved.  Any of us can attend an NLC conference.  And any of us could try to get on a policy or other committee.  It turns out that you need the support of CML to get onto an NLC policy committee, so it can be convenient (and seems to typically be the case) that a city's CML rep is also active at NLC (and CML loves its members to become active at NLC).  Way better than just being on a policy committee is getting appointed to its steering committee (where essentially all the work is done), an appointment made by the NLC president.  Depending on who is president and how many people apply, it can take a couple of years or more to get on a steering committee.  I got lucky almost immediately, and after only three years, I now am vice-chair of a policy committee (which I will likely chair in 2013) and also of a "CityFutures" panel.  I've also served on a national EPA committee on water issues as the NLC rep, and currently serve on a national committee looking at "livability" issues.  NLC assignments aren't transferrable, so a new councilmember who wants to become active needs to start the process from the beginning - and it would typically take a while, and some not insignificant cost - for someone to get on useful steering committees.

So, the main issue with NLC is whether the cost - not of membership, really, but of supporting an active rep - is worth it.  We've discussed this at the past two retreats and council felt it was worth pursuing, but each council needs to make its own decision.  Some of the Denver metro cities send multiple people to NLC conferences and have several who actively serve on committees.  Most policy steering committees meet four times a year, at both NLC conferences and then at two other venues.  I'd estimate the total cost for conference registrations and travel to be $4000 - $5000/year, depending on locations, how much free food one can find, etc.

Legislative Committee: An important internal committee that vets our legislative agenda, works with staff to help ensure that the agenda recommended to council represents our interests, and sometimes meets to deal with fast-moving legislative issues.  It is very useful for the CML rep(s), and to a lesser extent, any NLC rep, to be on this committee.

Budget Committee: I don't think the mission of this committee is clear any longer.  Created to work with staff on budget issues, in the past year or two it hasn't done anything of substance.  If we want to continue this committee, which I think we should, it seems to me to be the logical group to discuss any number of general budget issues and process that have come up in the past couple of years, including the format of the budget document - while staying away from any policy discussion of specific budget items.

Continuity vs. Rotation: I think it would be worthwhile for us to at least consider the relative benefits of allowing (or even requesting) our reps who serve on some key external committees to continue their tours of duty for multiple terms, versus rotating new councilmembers into those positions.  This is of particular concern to me with DRCOG, perhaps to a lesser extent CML, NLC, probably less so with the Consortium of Cities, and perhaps some others.  It seems quite typical for reps from other cities to remain in their positions for years, building up knowledge, contacts, and seniority so they can move into leadership positions (some of my CML colleagues have been there for a very long time, and most of the folks on my NLC committees have been there for 5 - 10 years or more).  As a quick example, if Macon had wanted to remain at DRCOG I would have strongly supported that even if another of our colleagues had wanted that job and felt that Macon had served long enough.  In short, giving each of us a chance to rotate onto different committees is a good concept, but in several specific cases can harm our effectiveness on important regional/state/national bodies.

--Matt