Tempe City Council recently discussed the possibility of reorganizing its committees to improve the efficiency of policymaking and reforming the committee system to address challenges with accountability and the inability to work collaboratively.
During the council’s June 14 retreat, Mayor and Council Chief of Staff Tanya Chavez gave a presentation on Tempe City Council’s committee structure covering the background of the current system and options to consider for the future.
As explained in a city memo by Chavez, council moved from a work group system to a council committee system in early 2021, as a way for council members to “design, develop and promote citywide initiatives that support programs, services and policies.”
Later, at the council’s Aug. 19, 2022 retreat, the mayor and council members agreed to continue with three council committees —Sustainable and Livable Communities, Workforce Readiness and Economic Vitality and Human Services and Community Safety. As it stands, each committee is led by two council members.
Chavez noted in the report that staff received feedback that the current structure is effective, but some challenges exist, which include restrictions to the scope of work based on committee assignments and limitations to collaboration opportunities.
Prior to the current system, Chavez explained that there were several iterations on the committee structure that city council went through.
Before 2010, there were various subcommittees on different interest areas, and from 2010 to 2012, there were six established council committees. Then the six committees were consolidated into three from 2012 to 2014, with the last version using city manager working groups from 2014 to 2021.
“The objective of the council committees is a platform to design, develop and promote citywide initiatives and support programs, services and policies,” Chavez said at the meeting.
As mentioned in the memo, staff gathered that the current system is effective, but some issues have been expressed about it.
To address those, Chavez presented three options for how council could proceed with its council committee structure. These options are:
Maintain the existing structure but review committee assignments;
Return to a working group structure and evaluate the process of creating the groups; and
Collapse the council committees into two to broaden the focus areas and increase the number of council members in charge to three per committee.
In the resulting discussion, there were mixed opinions about the best option for the council members to move forward with their committee system. Some argued that the current system is quite effective, whereas some felt that the working group system could be a way to work with other council members.
Councilmember Randy Keating expressed support for the working group system, having been on council while the system was still in place. He did note that there were challenges at the time with that system, and some changes would need to be made.
“We’ll be fine, but I do hope that we take a serious look at improving some of the challenges,” Keating said.
Comparatively, Councilmember Berdetta Hodge had some hesitation about switching to a working group structure again, expressing support for the committee structure and adding that she’s had feedback against the working groups.
Hodge explained that the working group structure requires a lot more time and effort from staff, whereas the current committee structure allows for regularly scheduled meetings and clearer goals related to the committee topic that are not as demanding.
“I am OK with doing a mixture, but I’m not going back to the other one because I have heard so (many) negative things about that,” Hodge said.
No official decisions were made at the retreat, but the mayor and other council members were split on the committee structure, with some wanting the committee system to remain and others in support of a working group system.
“Obviously, I also agree with Councilmember Chin’s point that maybe we’re too early in the process to make a fast and hard decision right now,” Mayor Corey Woods said. “We still need to kind of think about all these things.”
Reporter Caroline Yu can be reached at cyu@iniusa.org. To voice your opinion on this story, connect with us at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.
Meet Caroline Caroline Yu joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2020 as a summer intern covering Scottsdale. As an intern, she continued her coverage of Scottsdale, Paradise Valley and Tempe. After graduating in 2022, Caroline became a full-time reporter for Scottsdale and Paradise Valley. She is currently reporting for the Tempe market.
Community: She is a supporter of the environment and tries to get involved with related community events.
Education: Arizona State University with a BA in Journalism and Mass Communications, with a minor in French.
Random Fact: She used to be a ballet dancer for 10 years.
By 
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here