HomeMy WebLinkAboutmemo to dissolve Senior Board Commission Memorandum
REPORT TO: Honorable Mayor and City Commission
FROM: Aimee Brunckhorst, Deputy City Clerk / Public Engagement Coordinator
SUBJECT: Final
Adoption of Ordinance No. 1864, removing all sections of Chapter 2, Article 5, Division 13, removing the Bozeman Senior Citizens’ Advisory Board
MEETING DATE: March 18, 2013
MEETING
TYPE: Consent
RECOMMENDED MOTION: I move to finally adopt Ordinance No. 1864, removing all sections of Bozeman Municipal Code Chapter 2, Article 5, Division 13, thus removing the Senior
Citizens’ Advisory Board from the Code.
BACKGROUND: Provisional adoption of this Ordinance occurred March 4, 2013.
The Senior Citizens’ Advisory Board was created by the City Commission
to advice staff and the Commissioners on senior related issues. This format for seeking information from the senior population has had very limited results. Monthly meetings take staff,
commission and volunteer resources. Volunteer board members have struggled with a lack of direction from the city and it has been difficult over the years to keep positions filled and
quorums met. Staff feels the purpose of the board – seeking advice and information from the senior population – could be better accomplished with less formal avenues using the existing
resources within the community. Staff would propose that the clerk’s office reach out and forge relationships with organizations such as the Senior Center Board and staff, the staff
and residents of senior living facilities and non-profits such as Befrienders and HRDC that serve the senior population. These groups could easily serve the function of advising the
Commission and staff without using many in-house city resources. The Deputy City Clerk is currently forming a working team to develop a variety of processes for public engagement. After
these processes are developed, the deputy city clerk can evaluate which processes will work best to engage citizens on senior related issues.
On January 15, 2013 deputy city clerk Aimee
Brunckhorst contacted Judy Morrill, long time Executive Director of the Bozeman Senior Center to get her input on this idea. Ms. Morrill said that the Senior Center Board and staff would
be happy to review and discuss any senior issues that the Commission or city staff would like to be advised on. The Senior Center reaches 1800 people in the community and other senior
related organizations would be a connection to many more people and would offer a variety of perspectives.
Commission staff liaison Cyndy Andrus spoke with the Bozeman Senior Citizens’ Advisory Board members during their January meeting about the possibility of disbanding the board. They
spoke regarding using other resources such as a senior living facility to either start a board or join existing boards or groups that cover senior related issues. They discussed the
increased flexibility this might offer in the way meetings are held and conducted. A much more informal and participatory model could be used and the meeting locations and formats could
move and change as need dictated. Commissioner Andrus assured the Board that if this idea were pursued the staff and Commission would still be available for board members to share information
and ideas with.
UNRESOLVED ISSUES: The working team to develop multiple processes for public engagement will be charged with determining what processes would be most appropriate to
engage citizens in senior citizen related issues. These processes are yet to be established. In the meantime, the Commission and staff will reach out to existing senior groups for advice.
ALTERNATIVE
S: The City Commission could wait until a robust public participation process has been fully developed by the working team prior to removing this board.
FISCAL EFFECTS: 1 page of the
BMC will need to be revised as an effect of this Ordinance. Codification costs $22 per page plus $25 per Ordinance, for a total of $47.
Attachments: Draft Ordinance No. 1864 Report
drafted on March 3, 2013