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NEW ULM -- How many members should serve on New Ulm's city boards and commissions?
That was the question the council debated during Tuesday's work session. The city is considering restructuring boards and commissions, but it is unclear which direction to go.
"This is a pretty complex issue because we have a pretty large amount of commissions and committees," Council President Andrea Boettger said. She hoped the council could bring clarity and consistency to the commission and committee structure while including community members.
The number of members on commissions in New Ulm is not consistent. Some commissions have five or seven, while others have nine or eleven members. 1AThere is also a question of whether city councilors should serve on commissions or if the commissions should be citizen driven.
City Manager Chris Dalton said the general idea is to pare commissions down to five members, with each ward represented on the commission with one commissioner-at-large.
Dalton said it was suggested the safety commission become a city staff-run commission with the Safe Routes to School coordinator on it. This is due to an inability to get members to attend the meeting. It would be more efficient to get safety issues before the council.
Mayor Kathleen Backer wanted the city to audit all boards, committees and commissions to determine what issues need to be addressed on each. Backer asked if the city went with a blanket five-member committee, would committees with three members be increased?
New Ulm has a weak mayor charter. This means the mayor does not vote, but one of the mayor's primary goals is appointing people to commissions and boards.
"If we are going to change the format and the process, what is the mayor's role and the city council's role?" Backer asked.
Backer later acknowledged it could be a challenge filling certain commissions.
There was a question of whether more members on a commission increased the odds of having a quorum. In order for any commission to meet, a certain number needed to be present. Some believe that with more members there is a greater likelihood of enough members attending to have a quorum.
City Engineer Joe Stadheim said in his experience, more members made it harder to reach a quorum. In his experience with the safety commission, which has nine members, everyone thinks someone else will attend and ultimately no one shows.
Community Development Director David Schnobrich was in favor of keeping the planning commission at seven members. He said they never had a problem finding members and he liked having more people making decisions.
Schnobrich agreed going over seven was too many, but said certain boards benefit from having additional people.
"The more voices that you hear from, I think you get a potentially better decision," Schnobrich said. "I think ultimately having seven means you have two more citizens participating in your government. And to me, that should be the most important thing we look into. How do we get our people involved in our local government."
Park and Recreation Director Tom Schmitz said the Park and Rec. Commission was originally set at eight, which he felt was a mistake because it was an even number. The commission later increased to nine when council reps were added. Last year, the commission was reduced to seven.
"In general, I feel a smaller group is easier to manage than a larger group," he said. Schmitz said he was fine with five members but understood why seven could be valuable. He did encourage the council to avoid appointing multiple people from the same special interest group on the commission.
On whether city councilors should serve on commissions, Schultz agreed councilors had tended to influence commissions even if it was unintentional.
Schultz said if a councilor speaks first during a commission meeting, other commission members are reluctant to disagree or offer a different opinion. He felt it might be necessary to take councilor reps off the commissions, or at least prevent them from chairing commissions.
Councilor David Christian acknowledged commissions sometimes wait for the council rep to speak and then just follow along.
"I don't like to see that," he said.
It was noted that the Economic Development Authority (EDA) was required to have two council representatives by state statute.
Councilor Eric Warmka said he appreciated having a councilor on commissions. This way when the council discussed the topic later, there was someone who was well-informed on the issues to answer questions.
"It's sometimes nice when the decision-makers are the ones involved with it," he said.
Schultz agreed it was beneficial for councilors to have a background with commissioners. Councilor Larry Mack could provide background from sitting on the Planning Commission and Councilor David Christian has knowledge from his time on the Park & Recreation commission.
Dalton said there are usually staff attending commission meetings too. The staff could answer questions from the council.
Mayor Backer said staff are generally the experts and should be called on for questions.
Since this was a work session, the council only discussed the issue. No official changes were made.
Dalton said the city's Charter Commission is required to meet this year. The commissioners could look into commission and committee structures during their meetings. Any recommended changes would need to come back to the city council for final approval.