The City Council will put its advisory committees and commissions under the microscope Tuesday to examine whether they’re best serving the community in their current configuration.

After expressing an interest in reviewing the role of commissions during its goal-setting exercise late last year, the council will have the opportunity to make changes, potentially through consolidation or by reworking the focus and agenda of each, if so desired.

The council meeting will begin at 5:40 p.m., rather than the normal 6:30 start time, to accommodate a City Council workshop to discuss debt financing of the Woodland-Davis Clean Water Agency surface water project.

The meeting will be in the Community Chambers at City Hall, 23 Russell Blvd., and will be broadcast live on Comcast Channel 16 and AT&T U-Verse Channel 99. It also will be streamed lived on the city’s website at www.cityofdavis.org/media.

The council calls upon the service of 23 separate commissions, made up of about 150 community members, to dig deeper into local issues and to give guidance based on their work.

But because the agenda for each City Council changes as new members are elected and because the issues challenging the community continue to evolve, the way in which those public servants assist the community remains fluid.

“Some (commissions) have been struggling with what they’re supposed to do, so it’s reasonable to ask how we can change the setup so that it fits in better with the reality of what’s going on today,” Kelly Stachowicz, the city’s deputy city manager, said Monday.

“We want to make sure that we’re harnessing (public participation) in the best way.”

Stachowicz specifically will ask the council to consider the roles and scopes of work of the Business and Economic Development Commission, Telecommunications Commission, Safety and Parking Advisory Commission, Civic Arts Commission and Recreation and Parks Commission, looking at whether it might be necessary to refocus or in some cases conclude their service.

Council members also will consider whether they’d prefer commissions to be made up of members who are representative of the general community or if they’d like the membership to be specialized to make more technical recommendations, Stachowicz said.

Other matters that the council will weigh include whether to have the advisory groups begin drafting and submitting formalized work plans for the council’s approval, rather than giving autonomy to each individual advisory group on which issues to tackle.

And perhaps one of the most interesting items the council will have to hash out is the appointment process.

Councilman Brett Lee in particular has appeared uncomfortable in selecting his commission appointments each time he’s been asked to do so since being elected last year.

For years, the council has appointed its commissioners based only on applications, public comment and any outside knowledge of the applicants.

Staff will propose four tools the council could employ to enhance this process, including encouraging or requiring applicants to demonstrate minimum qualifications, building a questionnaire into the application, asking for written statements or conducting interviews.

However, staff sees issues with several of these possibilities.

“The first option may weed out good, community-minded candidates (and) the third may not allow for clear comparison across candidates,” the report says. “Staff further recommends (the) council consider appointing a subcommittee to work with staff on developing questions and a process for appointments.”

In other action:

* Wastewater treatment plant: The council is expected to make a decision once and for all Tuesday on whether to consider a regional wastewater treatment plant project with the city of Woodland. For months, staff has claimed this could save the city $30 million over the cost of the $95 million local project.

If the council decides to consider the regional plan, the city will hire a consultant to work up a proposal over the next five months for the council to use to compare to the local project. Tuesday’s decision will be made without the input of Mayor Pro Tem Dan Wolk, who will be out of town.

* Resale ordinance: The council also will be asked to amend the city’s resale ordinance. According to staff, some homeowners in the city and the county have been abusing an exemption rule to bypass the $375 resale permit that home sellers must acquire to certify remodeling work.

Instead of applying for the resale permit, some have falsely conveyed that they’ve made no improvements to the home by producing proof of a $75 resale exemption inspection they had received in the past. Later, however, the homes are listed with remodeled kitchens, bathrooms and the like.

Ken Hiatt, the city’s director of community development and sustainability, is proposing to eliminate the resale permit exemption entirely to curtail the abuse.

* Affordable housing: Community development staff also will propose alterations to the city’s inclusionary affordable housing requirements to promote development of more market-rate housing in town, based on recommendations by the Social Services Commission.

An inclusionary requirement sets the percentage of how many units in a new development must be dedicated to affordable housing.

The staff report with the full list of proposed changes can be found on the City Council Meeting Agenda page at www.cityofdavis.org.

— Reach Tom Sakash at [email protected] or 530-747-8057. Follow him on Twitter at @TomSakash

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