photo by: Rochelle Valverde/Journal-World

Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St., is pictured on Jan. 31, 2023.

It’s been more than nine months since Lawrence leaders asked for a plan to align the city’s volunteer boards and commissions with the goals laid out in the city’s strategic plan. Now, the committee formed to complete that work is poised to make recommendations that include combining some existing boards and commissions — and dissolving others entirely.

The proposed recommendations from the city’s Board and Commissions Structure Committee are the latest step in the process of examining the city’s 45 boards, commissions, steering committees, governing boards and other related bodies, which was initiated in November 2022. The committee is set to meet at 5 p.m. Monday to discuss those recommendations and decide whether to approve forwarding them to the Lawrence City Commission. The group meets in the City Commission room at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.

According to a memo included with the meeting materials for Monday, the committee’s recommendations center on eight boards that set the city on a path to aligning with the strategic plan and laying out a new set of policies and procedures that apply to all city boards. All told, the changes seem to affect 17 of the city’s existing advisory boards and committees, technical appeal boards and commissions. The recommendations don’t mention city steering committees or task forces, joint city-county boards or boards with city appointees.

Those eight proposed boards are grouped by how they apply to the strategic plan’s five goal areas: strong and welcoming neighborhoods, safety and security, prosperity and economic security, infrastructure and facilities and arts and culture.

Under the first goal area, for example, the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals and Building Code Board of Appeals are being combined into a single Strong, Welcoming Neighborhoods Board. Additionally, the city’s Historic Resources Commission and Affordable Housing Advisory Board will remain separate, but will also be recognized as being aligned with that goal area.

That format is mostly the same for the other four goal areas. The committee’s other recommended changes are listed below:

• The city’s Community Police Review Board and Human Relations Commission will be combined into a single Safe and Secure Board. The responsibilities of the city’s Bodywork Advisory Board will be consolidated with the Lawrence-Douglas County health department.

• The committee is recommending creating an entirely new board aligned to the priorities of the prosperity and economic security goal area, which doesn’t have to be created as part of the initial restructuring process. Four existing boards related to this goal area — the Transient Guest Tax Grant Program Advisory Board, the Public Incentives Review Committee, the Sales Tax Audit Committee and the Special Alcohol Fund Advisory Board — will be dissolved and their duties transferred to city staff or other existing boards.

• The city’s Public Transit Advisory Committee, Multi-Modal Transportation Committee and Aviation Advisory Board will be combined into a single Connected City Board.

• The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission will remain standalone boards, but will be recognized as aligned with the city’s “Unmistakable Identity” goal area related to arts and culture. The city’s Sustainability Advisory Board will be dissolved and its duties transferred to city staff or other existing boards.

The committee is also recommending the use of operational boards that would give staff access to additional technical insights for specific operational areas that don’t necessarily lead to policy changes, alongside the more formal policy boards.

After receiving feedback from the City Commission, city staff would then be able to begin work on a transition plan for the city’s existing boards and commissions.