Council praises city staff advice
Staff also gave an update on Energy Conservation Code
Boulder City Council on Thursday evening praised a number of city staff recommendations regarding the future of the city’s boards and commissions.
After conducting a comprehensive assessment of Boulder’s board and commission program, staff said several pieces of the program are working well.
They say boards and commissions provide a way for community members to get involved and learn about city processes, and people are often deeply committed to them. Furthermore, those who have served generally say their experiences have been positive.
But some potential areas for improvement also emerged. According to a presentation, a common theme was that there is a lack of clarity on the purpose of some boards and commissions and the program as a whole. Some of the city’s boards and commissions are quasi-judicial, while others serve more of an advisory purpose.
One overarching question was whether the boards are a vehicle for community participation or whether they’re a way to advance the work and priorities of City Council. The presentation stated that some boards and commissions are “operating outside their scope of their authority,” and there’s a perception that some are trying to direct the actions of City Council and are using city staff’s time and resources to pursue objectives that are not part of the staff’s work plan.
Consultant Melissa Antol, who gave the presentation, said city staff spend up to 350 hours per month supporting the boards and commissions. Multiple council members said they’d like to find ways to reduce the burden on city staff and prevent an influx of requests for them to deviate from what the Council has asked them to focus on.
“We’ve had boards in the past, and sometimes recent, who just
treat staff like they’re their own staff, and then staff is caught in this awkward middle ground where they’re chasing the ghosts and whims of random board members,” said Councilmember Matthew Benjamin. “That is wholly wasteful of their time, but also inconsistent with the priorities that we’re setting in our community.”
Councilmember Lauren Folkerts expressed agreement with this idea, but adding she thinks there should be a pathway for board members to bring ideas forward or ask for something to be investigated.
“Sometimes that has led to important work in this community,” Folkerts said. “But I think that needs to be clear that that sort of be exception and not the rule.”
Councilmember Bob Yates cautioned against overlooking or dismissing the amount some of these boards do for the city. He cited the Water Resources Advisory Board as a critical one for the city.
“We’re not going to go through tonight and talk about what the big boards are and the little boards are, but we have some big boards that do a lot of big work, and I would not want to give them short shrift,” he said.
In addition to these concerns, the boards’ and commissions’ roles are not always clear, management approaches can be inconsistent, and the recruitment process “inadvertently impacts
the city’s ability to attract a more diverse cross-section of the city population,” the presentation said.
In general, council members were supportive of city staff’s recommendations, with possible changes including clarifying boards and commissions’ roles and purposes, shortening term limits, combining some boards or even doing away with others entirely.
The council also heard a detailed presentation on updates to the City of Boulder Energy Conservation Code (COBECC). Staff presented a draft of the 2024 COBECC, which includes many changes from the existing policy.
Some of the changes include requirements for all electric appliance requirements for new residential and commercial builds with exceptions for some commercial spaces, such as hospitals, laboratories and large industrial spaces. Commercial projects would also need to provide more electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
The current COBECC, adopted in 2020, is the city’s rendition of the 2018 International Energy Conservation Code. According to a city website, it is 20% more efficient than the national code.
Boulder updates its energy code every three years, and one of its goals is to move toward net-zero energy and the city’s climate goals. It regulates residential and commercial construction and alterations of existing buildings in the city. The council last heard an update on this project on June 22.