[img]1302|right|Goran Eriksson||no_popup[/img]Almost three-quarters of a year after organizing and meeting on a monthly basis, Chair Goran Eriksson said this morning it is too early to assess the impact and worthiness of the City Council’s Finance Advisory Committee.
Advisory committees have a reputation to overcome – as a social gathering whose varied members never quite attain harmony, much less effectiveness.
This group of nine – including Vice Chair Crystal Alexander, David Trovato, Steven Reitzfeld, Allan Azran, Desmond Burns, Richard Hibbs, Sean Kearney and Alejandro Lara – by contrast seems soberly serious about fulfilling ambitious, pragmatic objectives.
“This is a marathon, and we are only at the first marker,” said Mr. Eriksson going into the committee’s seventh meeting on Wednesday evening at 7 in the Dan Patacchia Room on the ground floor of City Hall.
“We spent the first four months coming up with suggestions for a work plan because there were general instructions in the decision when the committee was formed regarding the by-laws. We were to have a work plan by the end of four months.
“We went through many different topics during those four months,” said Mr. Eriksson, “and we picked nine that we suggested to the City Council we should start working on.
“The work plan is a living document, meaning topics will be added and subtracted as we go along. Then the City Council added the rental assistance program as a new topic for us to look at and give them feedback.
“We have had some suggestions that the City Council has made,” the chair said. “Most recently was that any city-appointed commission or board should be encouraged to participate in the (months-long) budget process within their areas of interest. “
Mr. Eriksson and his colleagues have learned directly in the past year that “city finances are complicated. Lots of rules and regulations.
“The committee is working well together. We have formed a good group. There are different opinions during the meetings. But at the end, we usually have found common ground.”
See http://www.culvercity.org/Agendas.aspx
(To be continued)
