Staff withdraws recommendation to ax Commission on the Status of Women

In what may have been his final official act, departing Greensboro City Manager Rashad Young revised recommendations on scaling back the size and number of boards and commissions based on feedback from the affected entities. Staff initially recommended eliminating the Commission on the Status of Women, the Community Sustainability Council and the Community Resource Board, among others. Young wrote in a Dec. 9 memo that the Commission on the Status of Women has expressed “a strong desire to continue its work,” and Human Relations Director Anthony Wade recommended that it be retained. Young concluded that the commission “has been very active in its mission area and I deem it to be an important part of the programmatic work performed by the human relations department.”

Young sustained the recommendation to eliminate the Community Sustainability Council. The previous council voted to accept a Sustainability Action Plan drawn up by the sustainability council. Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Johnson and at-large Councilwoman Marikay Abuzuaiter, who were sworn in earlier this month, have expressed interest in resurrecting the plan. Young recommends that the Planning Board assume the responsibilities previously held by the sustainability council, the Community Resource Board and the Advisory Commission on Trees.

Young also recommends eliminating the RUCO Board, arguing that “with the passage of the state law that eliminates the ability of municipalities to conduct mandatory rental inspections, the purpose of the RUCO Board becomes moot.” Young’s memo states that “staff is working to recommend to city council the creation of a task force to determine what, if anything, follows RUCO.”