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Regular City Council Meeting Monday, May 13, 2024 Page 7 Mr. Montez explained the committee format benefits would include flexibility, accessibility, authenticity, and membership. The barriers would be perceived lack of transparency and lack of familiarity. Ms. Olson noted the piece on the flexibility with a committee, the committee could do a hybrid model if meeting in person whereas currently, with the structure under a commission, the City does not do a hybrid model. In addition to the barriers, she would also add that there has been concern with making sure this group is sustained and making sure the work is continued and ongoing. Councilmember Schroeder indicated with a commission the City does a background check on the member and asked if a committee, does the City need to do a background check. City Attorney Tierney thought that was a decision that the Council could make. Councilmember Schroeder thought one of the reasons for a background check was because the Commissioners were involved with youth. City Attorney Tierney noted that was a good point and thought the City might want to do a little research about it. Her instinct is that there may be a way to avoid the background check. But, the other consideration of the background check is that the City wants to be careful about what kind of information is shared with the commissions and that can become an independent reason to want a background check. Mayor Roe asked if the City established this by a resolution and in the resolution, there is information about how business is done. If it starts to look a lot like a Commission, he asked will it then be subject to the open meeting law and other things. City Attorney Tierney explained to start with some of the Commissions’ work may not actually be legally required to be subject to the open meeting law. The City would need to be careful about the responsibilities that the Council assigned to the Commission. Based on the description, she did not think the Council would need to make this committee subject to the open meeting law. Again, the City would want to be careful about the level of responsibility that the committee is given. The Council would then explicitly state that the committee is not subject to the open meeting law and would also make sure there is some level of transparency built into the structure of the commission. Councilmember Groff understood people think that Zoom is great, and a lot of work can be done there, but he did not feel that way. He thought Zoom was distancing and hard to read what someone else is thinking or feeling because when the Council used Zoom for its meetings, he was not able to see body language or have those interactions. So, for him, having a total Zoom Commission would be the beginning of the end of this. Qbhf!:6!pg!354