The Juneau Assembly is considering combining several advisory boards due to a lack of volunteer members.
The city has separate advisory boards that make recommendations for managing recreational facilities including the municipal pools, the Treadwell Arena and the Jensen-Olson Arboretum. The Assembly will decide Monday whether to combine those boards and the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee into one Parks and Recreation Advisory Board.
Parks and Recreation Deputy Director Michele Elfers said the boards often have to cancel their meetings, either because they don’t have enough members in attendance or because there isn’t anything on the agenda.
“Treadwell has not met very often,” she said at an Assembly Committee of the Whole meeting earlier this month. “They probably missed over 60% of their meetings in the last three years, so their actions are pretty limited.”
The Aquatics Board and Treadwell Arena Advisory Board each have two vacancies. The Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee has one vacancy and three members whose terms end Tuesday.
“We’re not improving any citizens’ lives by having committees that aren’t real effective,” Assembly member Wade Bryson said at the committee meeting.
If the merger is approved Monday night, Assembly members would pick nine people to serve on the new Parks and Recreation Advisory Board by April 1. Current Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee members, as well as members of the dissolved boards, would all be encouraged to apply.
