ITHACA, N.Y. — Ithaca Mayor Robert Cantelmo and City Manager Deb Mohlenhoff are considering reviving the city’s now-defunct Advisory Commissions.
The commissions originally were composed of eight citizens, one sitting Common Council member and up to 10 non-voting expert “advisors.” The commissions were intended to increase community input into the legislative process, functioning in an advisory role similar to a committee, but without true legislative powers.
But the city officially suspended the initiative in 2021 after less than five years, citing pandemic related logistical issues — though some former commissioners said there were issues predating COVID-19.
At a legislative retreat Sunday, Mohlenhoff said Cantelmo and several council members had expressed an interest in rebooting the pseudo-legislative bodies and would convene a working group on the matter.
“I have already heard a lot of you say — and I am of the same mind — that we have to get the commissions back,” Mohlenhoff said to council members.
Mohlenhoff was involved in developing the initial iteration of Ithaca’s Advisory Commissions during her time as a member of the Common Council.
“[The advisory commissions] are not going to come back without a significant amount of legislative rewrite,” Mohlenhoff said. “We bogged them down […], they were too complicated. I think we need to simplify how they operate in order for them to be successful and make them functional.”
The 2017 Advisory Commissions consisted of the Public Safety and Information Commission; Community Life Commission; Mobility, Accessibility and Transportation Commission and the Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Commission.
Cantelmo stressed a potential reboot of the Advisory Commissions is very tentative. He said that while it’d be “great” to be able to reintroduce them before the end of 2024, the effort could require a referendum — similar to the initial formation of the commissions in 2017.
Nevertheless, Cantelmo told The Ithaca Voice Sunday to expect a resolution within the next few weeks establishing a working group to explore a refreshed iteration of the Advisory Commissions.
During the retreat, council members also drafted a set of six areas of focus to guide their legislative goals for 2024, but that could also provide a potential starting point for the future Advisory Commissions.
“A good set of strategic pillars serves as a nice way for you to build accountability into other systems,” Mohlenhoff said. “You do not need to map commissions to [these focus areas] but this would be something you certainly would hope [would inform] the work that you ask the commissions to do.”
Those focus areas are as follows:
- Safe and Affordable Housing
- Community Development and Economic Vitality
- Effective, transparent and collaborative government
- Social Health and Belonging
- Climate Justice and Sustainability
- Mobility Accessibility and Infrastructure
Eric Lerner, who once served as the chair of the now-defunct Mobility, Accessibility and Transportation Commission, said he would be happy to see the commissions rebooted, but said there is room for significant improvement.
“If there’s anything we learned from the last time around, is that [running the Advisory Commissions] is a tremendous amount of work,” Lerner said. “If the city is serious about doing it, somebody’s got to be prepared to do that work, both on the staff level and on elected official level.”
Lerner said he felt that the original commissions were not structured in a way that fostered collaboration between commissioners, city staff and elected officials.
Lerner, who has made it his longtime goal to push the city to handle sidewalk snow removal, is no stranger to the deadlock that can arise between elected officials, city staff and citizens.
“There was somehow an expectation that the Commissions could do their job without using staff time. I think that was just naive,” Lerner said. “Then it became that the [Common] Council was trying to control the Commissions without really having the time to do it.”
As the pandemic continued to disrupt city operations, Lerner described a months-long breakdown in communication that culminated in an indefinite suspension of the Advisory Commissions in 2021.
Lerner said that he is not optimistic that the Advisory Commissions will be rebooted within the next five years, given the challenges of standing up the original commissions.
November’s contentious elections also brought significant changes to the makeup and overall experience level of the Common Council. The council appears to be experiencing internal conflict, which has at times reared its head during Sunday’s retreat and recent council meetings.
“There’s a need for the people in charge to be more open and more receptive and more inclusive, as they try and recreate [the commissions],” Lerner said. “And I’d certainly like to see that. But I gotta admit, I’m not tremendously optimistic.”