Mayor's Task Force Recommends Eliminating or Merging 10 Boards, Commissions

The Governance Task Force, which was created to evaluate the operations and maintenance of the city's boards and commissions for the purpose of streamlining them, met with Mayor Michael Pavia and members of the at a Tuesday afternoon press conference to present its final report.

Chairman Jack Condlin explained that all boards and commissions were put into three categories for evaluation: those that, according to state statutes, could not be eliminated or merged, those whose duties have been taken over by other municipal agencies and those whose original purpose has been fulfilled.

The Task Force, whose members also include William Arnone, John Mallozzi and Sandy Goldstein, is recommending that the following entities be eliminated because they either have fulfilled their original purpose or have remained inactive: the Urban Redevelopment Commission (URC), the Water Pollution Control Commission, the Economic Development Commission, the Creative Housing Partnership, the Municipal Building Board of Appeals and the Southwest Regional Tourism District.

The report also recommends that four entities be merged with other boards and commissions: the Alarms Appeals Board (with the Police Commission), the Commission on Aging (with the Social Services Department), Personnel Appeals Board (with the Personnel Commission) and the Shellfish Commission (with the Health Department).

Pavia asked members to describe the process they went through to determine which entities should be eliminated or merged.

"We first reviewed how were they were created, we felt that was the most critical thing," Condlin said. "Then we had to look to say, 'Are people presently serving on it and what actually are they doing now? Are they doing what they original created for?'... We looked how active they were, were they meeting on a regular basis, are they keeping minutes and posting notices for meetings."

After having meetings with staff members of each board and commission in question, Condlin said that members then put together their evaluations for each entity.

Arnone spent a significant amount of time describing the evaluation of the URC, which he oversaw, including the fact that it was being operated on a $740,000 annual budget. "Money should not be an issue, but we were surprised at the amount and size of the budget for the URC," he said.

He also pointed out that the commission has over $1.08 million in cash and accounts receivable as of Novemeber of last year from the sale of URC property.

Both Pavia and Task Force members stressed that the report is just a recommendation and that the Board of Representatives will ultimately make the final decision as to which boards and commissions will be eliminated or merged.

When Board of Reps member Annie Summerville (D-6) asked when the Board would be able to begin evaluating the report, Pavia said he wasn't sure, but that it would be this year. "I'm going to give it full consideration before I pass [the report] on to the Board of Reps," he said.