Recommendation to receive and file report on the new system for tracking commission appointments and receiving commission applications.
Okay. Thank you. Now we're moving on to the regular agenda. We'll start with item number nine. An item an item number nine is a recommendation to receive and file a report that from my office. So I'll introduce this this item and then we'll we'll get started with it. I want to take us back to our retreat. We one of the items that we discussed was the importance of ensuring that we have a transparent and innovative tracking solution for our commission application process and commission system. We all know that our city commissions are an important part of our local democracy. The men, women, and in many cases teenagers that serve on these commissions do so because they love their city. They're committed to the community, and we expect them to do great work, which they do, and in turn, they expect to be part of this democratic process. I think that the commissions and those that have served have served the city well. We discuss the how the commission process up to this point has been done on a paper system and it has been quite antiquated. And so I'm going to we're going to briefly present to you the the final product of the new commission system will be launching this tomorrow. And then soon after that, there will be opportunities for the what we call the back end piece, which is the dashboard for the council members to go into that system and then begin to look at data and information that that's available to them as well, which will also be available to the public . So to just walk everyone through the commission process briefly, we have Devin Cotter who worked on this project with the city clerk, and I want to thank the city clerk for the incredible work. This they had to go back and manually put in all of the history of our commissions into the system as well as get us up to date. So so thank you all for the hard work. And I'll turn this over to Devin Cotter. Mr. Cotter Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Good evening, counsel. And so on. The projection behind you, we have the first part, which is the boards and commissions application or actually sorry, the listing of all the different boards and commissions for the city. And this is going to be the new porthole for the public to be able to gain access and information. And so what we have here is, you know, a nice listing of all the city's current commissions and a brief description and what's going to be you know, what's great about this is that every point there's an apply button so that you can jump in. There's also a listing of all the vacancies in every single commission. So that way someone can know which positions have vacancies and which ones don't, and, you know when they can apply. They also have listings for some of them and seem to be all of them of the criteria for that position. So if there's a council office who the appointing authority is and you know, when those what those terms are. But going back to the the list of boards, what this does is it consolidates a few different points of information in the old system from, you know, where they meet, when they meet and how to apply. So if we look at, say, the airport commission, we have the fact that there's one current vacancy, we have their terms , the term limits, and then we also have, you know, minutes and agendas and agendas. So if you're interested in what's going on in the commission, you get a link in this pool, pull up all the records that are available currently online. So the airport commission is great because they also upload the video. So you've got the video of the minutes and the agendas and information on the next meeting. And then of course, the big part that's going to be helpful for us is applying for a board. And this takes you to a new online application. And this also simplifies the process because instead of having multiple copies of paper applications, maybe one going to the council members office, one going to the mayor's office, one going to the clerk's office. They now are all centrally located on the system. We have, you know, basic information, including in their name and whatnot. What's nice is that they, you know, enter in their council district. So we know exactly, you know, who we wanted to get a recommendation from and all that. And unlike the paper applications, unified multiple boards at once, it indicates which ones are available. And you have spaces there highlighted in blue, which ones don't. But even if it's if there isn't a vacancy, you can still apply in the application will be kept on file. And then once someone does, you know, finish their application, they have the option of then saving it, printing it out, or going ahead and submitting it. And once it's submitted, it's automatically emailed to the mayor's office in the clerk's office for follow up. And you I have to say that the the amount of work that the clerk's staff did to help get this up to speed was fantastic. And I really appreciate their help with this. And and also, you know, we've got information on current board members. So if you're interested in, you know, who's serving on the board, you can get information on when they how long they've been serving and information such as, you know, which council district they reside in. So this will be going live tomorrow and moving forward if a council office has questions about, oh, who's applying for my district, who's currently serving for my district, you know, who's applied to this commission? It's going to be a much quicker, easier process to then produce a packet of applicants that can then go to each council office and then also before the council if they get appointed. So quickly, Mr. Carter. Thank you. And what allowed in addition to that is this this is this will be certainly incredibly transparent and open for the public as well. And so the public will have all this access to to look at who's who serving on our commissions, how to contact commission staff, what district they're in. And there'll be demographic information and we'll be able to very easily produce reports. And so the idea beginning tomorrow is if a council requests any type of report on who the commissioners are or how long they're serving. Mr. Carter will be able to produce that or our office working with the clerk's office so that it's it's done in a way that's it's organized and efficient. And the last piece also add to this is this is really, I think as a city, we want to move in a way that's innovative and that embraces technology, I think is one way of ensuring that we that we keep really a positive conversation about and encourage encouraging civic innovation . I think this was just a small example of doing that. So I want to thank I want to thank Mr. Cotter and the city clerk and his staff for for all the work that went into this. We appreciate that. And so with that, Councilmember Andrews. Yes, I want to thank the mayor also, because I think this is a great idea and updating our system will, you know, keep our residents informed on the commission application process and as well engaging the residents, you know, to be engaged. And I think this is a great job that the mayor went and did. Thank you very much. You council Councilwoman Price. I want to echo that sentiment and thank the mayor's office for bringing this this program to us and thank Devin for the hard work. I know he's been working really diligently on getting this program updated and to the point where we can actually use it. I think one of the observations that I've had with the city is that sometimes it takes a long time for commissions to be filled and we have a lot of people who are interested but lose patience when that process takes a long time. So I want to thank the mayor for being progressive and bringing this new technology to the city. It was long overdue. I'm looking forward to taking advantage of it as we help recommend people from the third district to fill some of those vacancies. So thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Councilwoman Mongo. I too am excited about this innovative application and I look forward to seeing the citizen engagement. We often hear constituents say, I want to be involved, I want to serve my community, and this makes for a very transparent and open process that everyone has equal access to. And I think it really speaks to what we've said we would do as a council. And thank you for your leadership from the mayor's office. Thank you, Councilmember Austin. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I'd also like to commend you and your staff for helping to streamline the commission application process. As a former city commissioner, somebody who went through that process several years ago, I can tell you that this is this is much more transparent. This is a much easier and user friendly process for our residents, and I think it's going to be a great hit. There was one question that I did have of I guess, Devin is do we know who's in the queue or how many applications are on file? What is that information available as well? Mr. CARTER We were still, you know, up until tomorrow using the old paper system. So of course we can, you know, produce that report. But once this new system is in place, it will be a instantly generated packet. So you could request, you know, who's every applicant for city y, you can request a report on for a specific commission or from, you know, say, the people residing in your council district. So it'll be a much quicker and easier system. And one of the other things, too, is that if there is a council district requirement, say it's a seat for the eighth district that'll be present on the site so that instead of getting a call either to your office or to the mayor's office for oh, I'd like to apply for this commission only to find out that , you know, they don't have a spot for an eighth District resident. That'll be apparent from the beginning. Thank you, Councilman Richardson. Congratulations, Mayor and Devon, on pulling this together. I think this is going to make our government much easier for folks to get involved in. And I look forward to seeing some of those reports on the back end. This is really exciting. It reminds me of some of the some of those platforms that are already out there, Nation Builder and all those database programs. This is this is a really exciting I would imagine there's going to be a flood of new applicants now that this process is so clean and transparent and open. Q And I believe Mr. Carter is going to produce an initial report for everyone. So you all have the kind of the new kind of where we're at currently, and then what's what's it moving forward? Councilwoman Gonzalez. I just want to say thank you as well. I know it's a lot of hard work put into this and we're finally moving into an age where this is really important. And it also gives us a profile as the city as to how we're doing, you know, with our with our appointments and demographics and everything like that . So do I just had a couple questions. So the term is that on every single applicant, you'll will be able to see the term and how long they've been a commissioner. Mr.. Carter Yeah. So for every single sitting board. Commissioner Fine. So this mess is a little unwieldy. You can look up every single current commissioner and it'll have their terms and then you can, you know, go also go by the board itself and see, you know, who's served for how long or, you know, when the terms are up . Okay. Great. Thank you. Great work. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Arango. I want to echo Cory, all the comments have been made regarding this issue. I mean, it's wonderful application. We've been not bombarded, but we've been asked quite frequently about what are some vacancies out there in the interest. And I really do appreciate the fact that there's going to be multiple possibilities of getting not only considered for one commission, but also for another. And it's not a re a recent middle of an application one after another. It really seems like it streamlines it. And I'll beat an old and old guy and not always computer savvy as to what's going on here. I hope that there's an education piece behind this. For those of us who are technologically challenged and being able to access the application process for our for commissions, I know that's something that I will have to do with through my office as well. We'll be sending out some information to our constituents regarding the application process. It's new and it changes, streamlined and much more effective than what it used to be. But in the long run, I want to thank you and staff for putting this together. Thank you. And also customary ringa. If there are those that don't have access to computer or still want to do the paper version, I will still take paper versions. And then what will do the inputting on the other side? Okay. See any public comment on the item? Okay. See none again. Thank you all. It's going to be a great system launch. And if someone can make a motion to receive and file a report card, there's been a motion by Councilmember Andrews and a second by Council Brosnan. No public comment on the item. With that, please cast your votes to receive and file. Motion carries eight zero. Thank you. I don't know. Ten. Communication for Mayor Garcia. Recommendation to cancel the City Council meeting of November four, 2014 due to the general election.