It’s a challenging time for the Haines Borough’s advisory boards and commissions.
The Solid Waste Working Group disbanded this summer after months without direction. The Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee hasn’t met in almost two years. The Public Safety Commission violated code last year when it failed to meet quarterly, and members have expressed feeling a lack of guidance.
About a dozen boards and commissions advise the Haines Borough Assembly on a range of issues. But is the assembly giving them clear direction, and are they achieving their goals and serving the public’s needs?
That question is in front of the Government Affairs and Services Committee, which is devising a rubric to evaluate each of the borough’s boards and commissions, ranging from the Port and Harbor Advisory Committee to the Tourism Advisory Board.
Each committee and commission has its own purpose. Some, like the housing group, are ad hoc, designed to be dissolved once a specific issue has been addressed. Others, like the Planning Commission, are established in code. But all provide an opportunity for public input and discussion before making recommendations to the assembly.
Last month the GAS Committee reviewed annual reports from the boards and determined that more information and a deeper look were necessary for a comprehensive evaluation.
“I would like to see a more in-depth dive on the committees to find out: Are they serving their function? Are they serving the borough assembly in the way that the borough assembly wants them to? If not, how do we make changes to the structure, to the membership, or do we get rid of the committees?” Haines Borough Mayor Douglas Olerud said at an Oct. 5 GAS Committee meeting.
With 11 advisory committees, commissions and working groups, Haines has more than other similarly-sized communities in Southeast Alaska except Skagway. Wrangell has five. Petersburg has nine, five of which are elected by voters. Skagway has 14, ranging from a historic district commission to a “comprehensive trail plan” ad hoc committee. Sitka has 16 advisory committees.
Wrangell Borough clerk Kim Lane said the town’s planning and port commissions used to have seven members each but were reduced to five a few years ago because they had trouble filling vacancies. Petersburg Borough clerk Debra Thompson said after the community’s most recent election there are “very few” committee seats still open. “We were having a lot of trouble prior to this election, especially (with) the public safety advisory board, planning commission and the parks and recreation advisory board,” Thompson said.
Several committees in Haines have vacant seats, and many more will be open in November when about one in three terms end, but the question for Haines officials is not only how to boost membership. It’s also how to ensure groups have clear directions and deliverables.
“There seems to be some confusion. I don’t have maybe the proper wording for it, but I honestly don’t know what it is that we are doing, or what our mission is,” Public Safety Commission member Diana Lapham said at the Oct. 5 meeting, referring to the commission’s work. “I know what it says in code, but actually code seems to muddy the water even more. We are struggling at best to get a meeting together and to define our roles.” (Lapham also serves on the Planning Commision, Port and Harbor Advisory Committee and Tourism Advisory Board.)
Lapham is not the first member of an advisory board to voice concerns about a lack of direction. “I’m feeling like we’re kind of adrift, frankly,” Dana Hallet, also on the Public Safety Commission, said at a meeting last month.
Last April Tom Morphet, a former member of the disbanded Solid Waste Working Group, told the assembly he favored receiving clearer guidance.
“We on the Solid Waste Working Group spent weeks on that: ‘What the heck are we doing here, anyway?’ So (putting) that in writing, I think, is critical,” he said.
Mayor Douglas Olerud told the GAS Committee last week that some advisory board members have expressed frustration that their recommendations haven’t received proper attention from the assembly.
“I’ve heard from several committee members, ‘The borough assembly never follows our directions. Why are we putting all this time in?” Olerud said.
The GAS Committee — an assembly subcommittee comprised of Cheryl Stickler, Gabe Thomas and Debra Schnabel — plans to finalize an evaluation rubric at its next meeting before undertaking a systematic review of the borough’s boards and commissions.
The rubric includes such criteria as ensuring that each board receives clear guidance from the assembly and that each member attends a formal training session run by borough staff.
“I think the main purpose is to be sure all of our committees and boards are relevant for the issues at hand because we might establish a board or committee to fulfill a specific need at a specific time but does that mean it goes on in perpetuity, or is there a graceful exit?” GAS Committee chair Cheryl Stickler said. “We don’t want to have these committees meeting just to meet.”