Only appointments to the Civil Service Commission, which is governed by the city’s charter, the Burbank Glendale Pasadena Airport Authority and the Metropolitan Water District would remain unaffected in what is being touted as a way for City Council members to take more ownership of each of their respective appointments — good or bad.
“I think the nominations are going to reflect the individual council members,” Mayor Frank Quintero said.
The proposed ordinance mirrors changes to the city’s two Design Review Boards and is expected to come back before the council in a few weeks.
The appointments are expected to happen “as soon as possible,” except for the Community Development Block Grant Advisory Committee because it is in the middle of the funding process, Councilman John Drayman, a longtime advocate of the change, said Thursday.
Officials said they didn’t expect a major shake-up.
“I expect that there will be some change, but not much,” Drayman said. “We did this with two of the Design Review Boards, and we really didn’t see a tremendous change.”
He acknowledged that the two commissions being reduced in size would obviously see some commissioners lose their seats, but said the change would increase efficiency.
“More isn’t better sometimes,” he said. “Most of the commissions are five-person anyway.”
Earlier this week, several commissioners said they supported the changes. And at Tuesday’s meeting, Councilman Ara Najarian cited an e-mail from Commission on the Status of Women Chairwoman Paula Devine stating that the commission would not suffer if it was reduced in size.
“I think we can be just as successful with five as we are with seven,” she said Thursday.
