Staff awaits Council’s B&C appointments

Mayor Steve Adler informed City Council at a work session Tuesday that staff has asked Council members to make their appointments to the city’s boards and commissions sooner rather than later. Though the new commissions system does not go into place until July 1, staff will need time to onboard and train the roughly 500 appointees. “I’m holding off making appointments if I can (until everyone makes) appointments, so that we can see if there’s a gap in skill or demographic or something that we can fill,” Adler said. “But I’m getting a lot of pressure to go ahead and make appointments to some of the ones that don’t have people, so that we can have a quorum.” In addition, he said, three task forces that Council has created have not met due to lack of quorum: the Austin Integrated Water Resource Planning Community Task Force, the Community Engagement Task Force and the Parkland Events Task Force. Boards and commissions priorities that staff have identified are the Arts Commission, the Board of Adjustment, the Environmental Board, the Historic Landmark Commission, the Housing Authority, the Parks and Recreation Board, the Public Safety Commission, the Zero Waste Advisory Commission, the Water and Wastewater Commission, the Urban Renewal Board and the Zoning and Platting Commission. A list of vacancies is available on the city’s website.