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required to be. They still could be, but they're not required to be in the Planning <br />Department in regard to subdivisions. So, it just says they 'may' be transferred or <br />shared, but they may not be. The two other changes: one is in the last Charter, as part <br />of a Charter Amendment, there was language in there which deleted the 'adopting rules <br />and regulations having the force and effect of law' and I'm embarrassed to say, since I <br />voted on that - I was on the Council actually and voted on that being put on the ballot, <br />I'm not sure just why that got passed, but our attorney, who also was very embarrassed <br />that he didn't recall it being on the ballot last time and picking up on that as an issue, <br />did red flag it as an issue here, and didn't think that was appropriate, and the Planning <br />Department has concurred with that, so that's basically correcting what seems to have <br />been something that shouldn't have happened in the last election. So that's what that's <br />all about; and also, this additional language just clarifying our County role in matters <br />relating to special management area, Chapter 205 under State Law. It's just some <br />clarification language there. <br />The next deals with the Legislative Research Office. Right now the County Council <br />has two main offices; they have the Council Services Office, which are more related to <br />the constituent concerns and Civil Service staff positions which service and basically <br />set the agendas and prepare all the minutes for the committees, and then they have <br />what's called the Legislative Auditor's Office which is not, and never has been, an <br />auditing office. That's never been their function. So, this is really, 1 guess, more calling <br />a spade a spade, what it is, and suggesting we create, how it functions today, a <br />Legislative Research Office, and describing as such, the way it functions now. There <br />was a lot of discussion in regard to auditing functions, but I think that would require a <br />whole new office, and a whole other function of the County, and while that may be <br />worthwhile, that's not what we're suggesting here. We're just. suggesting a more <br />appropriate classification of how that office functions right now, and we have tried to <br />put in some language to encourage that office to operate more professionally. But the <br />reality is these are political appointments. The voters have insisted on two-year terms, <br />so the nature of that is that everything is subject to turning over as far as under the <br />Council's jurisdiction every two years, the way things work in terms of new majorities <br />being formed, or not, so it didn't seem appropriate, that being the case, to make this <br />office independent in terms of what their function is. If they were truly an auditing office, <br />then I think there'd be a strong argument for making that office more independent in <br />nature, but that's not the reality. <br />Holdover of Members of Boards and Commissions. This is really just extending the <br />holdover period from 30 to 90 days. Just seems more realistic to get those positions <br />filled, and not have vacancies. <br />Safety Coordinator. There again, it's under the same category as calling a spade a <br />spade. The way this thing reads in the Charter right now is not how it functions. Most <br />of the functions that are described in the present Charter, they're all done but they're <br />done by different departments and divisions. They're not done by the Safety <br />Coordinator Office, so basically what this would do is just move those positions and the <br />function to the Civil Service Department. And that was a recommendation by the <br />