The Clearwater City Council decided last week it wasn’t time to get rid of the city’s park commission or the EDA (Economic Development Authority).

For the past month the council has been evaluating whether either board is still viable.

 

The parks commission has only two members left, and in speaking with those members, Administrator Kevin Kress said they felt like their meetings weren’t very productive.

 

The EDA has had difficulty getting a quorum for some of their meetings, and there isn’t much economic development taking place in the city for them to work on.

 

At last week’s council meeting, Kress suggested repealing the park commission ordinance, which would require a unanimous 5-0 vote. That wasn’t possible because the entire council wasn’t present for the meeting.

 

As far as the EDA was concerned, Kress said there were several options.

 

The city could try to get a fifth member, then only meet when scheduled by the city administrator.  He felt that was the best option.

 

The city could also draft a resolution for the EDA to go dormant and the council could take action on their behalf.

 

The city could hold a public hearing to change the EDA to a three-member board.

 

The city could hold a public hearing to dissolve the EDA.

 

Mayor Pete Edmonson asked if it would be worthwhile to keep the committees intact but decommission the members. The city would be setting the committees “on the shelf” until they were needed.

 

“We could have a park board with no members, but the park board would still exist,” he said.

 

Edmonson said the current members could still participate on projects, even if there wasn’t an entire park board to hold meetings.

 

“We’ve got two members. It’s not very hard for them to work with staff on specific tasks,” he said. “They’re volunteers, anyway.”

 

But the EDA has more specific rules under state statute. Even if it was dormant and the council was able to take action on its behalf, those statutes would have to be followed.

 

The EDA is the body that  recommends approval of the city’s growth incentive program and revolving loan fund.

 

After more discussion, the council decided to leave the two committees in place.

 

Kress said technically, all the existing members are still on the committees.

 

“They just won’t be able to meet until they get enough for a quorum,” he said.