Councilor Seeks More Details from Boards and Commissions

By Adam Swift

The city council is looking to improve how it gets information from other city boards and commissions. At Tuesday night’s meeting, District 7 Councilor Manuel Teshe introduced a motion asking that when the council receives emails from boards and commissions about decisions that they have made that the emails include the rationale for those decisions.

The council debated the best way to get that information from the boards and commissions and how much of a burden it would place on board members. City Manager Fidel Maltez noted that while some boards have professional staff to take care of communications, other boards are strictly volunteer.

Maltez added that the city is also taking steps to increase access to more board and commission meetings through Zoom and video streaming. Several councilors also noted that the minutes for all public meetings are available online. While Teshe said the council gets emails about the issues and decisions from the various boards and commissions, there often do not include the reasoning for those decisions. “I think I speak for everyone here that we all have a busy schedule, and we might have time to show up for a couple of meetings, but maybe not all of them,” said Teshe.

“It would be very helpful for all of us if we had reasonings behind all the decisions being made. I’m not asking for paragraphs … I’m just asking for a short statement explaining why the decision was made.” Councilor-at-Large Roberto Jimenez-Rivera said he agreed with Teshe’s intent with the motion, but added that it can be hard to determine what the reasoning for a decision might be given the various input from individual board members.

Teshe’s motion failed by a 6-3 vote, with Councilors Calvin Brown and Giovanni Recupero supporting the motion. Council President Norieliz De Jesus said that while the motion was defeated, the conversation on the topic will likely continue. “This is something all councilors find important to discuss,” she said.

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