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Regular City Council Meeting Monday,January 22,2024 Page 5 Councilmember Strahan was not sure if it was considered in the assessment of the Commission scope membership numbers, because this Commission is larger than some of the others, and that means there are always four or five new people coming onboard. So, if there was consideration on whether the HRIEC should not have as many people as the City recruits for new people,there would be fewer new people. Commissioner Macomber did not think the Commission thought about reducing the number of members on the Commission because it is set in the legal language but there is a lot of work to do and a lot of it is done through sub-groups that are under the quorum number. She would really be concerned if the number of members were lowered because in the past the Commission has been short of members, it really lessens the amount of work the Commission can get done. She thought in this instance, the Commission works well with so many voices at the table. Councilmember Schroeder thanked the Commission for doing all of this work. She wanted to revisit the role of the Commissions according to Chapter 201 of the City Code. She read the information regarding roles and advising. She was looking at the Commission's purpose and function in the first paragraph and thought it presented a nice job of what the City is trying to do. But for her,it is too broad and she thought it would make sense to bring it down to what specifically the Commission does to help this. She referenced the first paragraph under Empowered and Directed by the City Council, which indicates: "Shall serve to advise the City Council and present and propose City Policy, Programs and Procedures to ensure they are designed to inclusive and promote activity and respect human rights". She thought that sounded more like a purpose for a Commission. How the Commission wrote the other one was beautifully done to talk about what the City is trying to do. But, she thought it needed to come down a little bit to how it is specifically for the Commission. When she read the paragraph about the advocate part, she explained the Commission is supposed to advise the City and not individuals, so she was a little uncomfortable about that from a legal issue if the Commission is out advocating for individuals, especially if they have something against the City. She also explained, speaking to the City Manager, a lot of times those issues are overseen at the State level and not at the Commission. She stated this particular paragraph was a little uncomfortable for her and going back to the job of the Commission to advise the City Council, that advocate part is bothering her. She asked for more information on that from the Commission. Mayor Roe thought the way this was written sounds like the Commission was advocating for people who have human rights issues that the City is being accused of. That is how it is worded. Commissioner Tidball indicated the Commission talked a lot about that sentence and being an advocate for human rights is a difficult position to be in because it almost always involves a variety of different authority structures because