City officials look to trim abundance of committees
Sausalito will eliminate some boards and commissions as the city seeks to streamline staff time.
The City Council gave direction to staff at a meeting on May 9 following a presentation by City Manager Chris Zapata.
The council chose to disband committees they said were not working on upcoming council business. They included the Infrastructure Working Group, the Legislative Review Committee, the Cannabis Committee, the AdHoc Committee on Revenue Options and the Bridgeway Marina committee.
The council said it will keep the Dorothy Gibson Residence Working
Group, which is involved in developing housing for a low-income city employee.
The council is considering further review of the Age Friendly Task Force; the Affordable Housing Working Group; the Social Justice Working Group; the Racial Justice Task Force; the Finance Committee; and the Outreach, MLK, IT and Transportation Committee.
Some groups that are disbanded include the Homeless Encampment Working Group, which ended with the closure of the Marinship homeless camp, and the Machine Shop Working Group, with the city unable to reach an agreement on a purchase price for the Marinship building. The Housing Element
Advisory Committee was disbanded with the approval of the housing element.
Zapata said the pandemic, the housing element process and the issue of homelessness present the need for more public meetings governed by the Brown Act open meetings law. But staff turnover and limited resources made the workload untenable, he said.
Zapata said municipal committees require staff time for preparation and review of information, agenda development, scheduling, participation in meetings and implementation.
“Using the same people, in a different way. That's the work that needs to be done,” he said.
The city's municipal code in