Some changes to citizen-led DeKalb boards, commissions and committees were greenlit this week, though one group’s proposed changes remain pending further review, officials said.

Mayor Cohen Barnes urged the City Council to support the changes through an ordinance, but also to remove and strike any changes that had been proposed for the city’s Human Relations Commission.

He said of the Commission that the council’s vote will “leave it in its place exactly as it is right now and allow us to continue the conversation” in the future.

Officials have said that setting meeting agendas and establishing enough members for a quorum have been issues for some panels, prompting the desire to make changes.

Three existing panels – the Human Relations Commission, Economic Development Commission, and Landmark Commission – do not meet regularly and have no active members.

Five existing panels – the Citizen Police Review Board, Airport Advisory Board, Building Code Review Board, Citizens’ Environmental Commission, Finance Advisory Committee, and Citizens’ Community Enhancement Commission – are not required by state statute but regularly meet on a defined schedule.

One such change means the Citizen Police Review Board will meet on an as-needed basis instead of six planned meetings per year.

The same holds true for the city’s Landmark Commission, the Citizens’ Environmental Commission and the Citizens’ Community Enhancement Commission.

For the city’s Human Relations Commission, it would have meant defining the panel’s membership using five core social service agencies located in or serving the city. City staff have proposed examples such as representatives from Safe Passage, Hope Haven, Family Service Agency, RAMP and Elder Care Services. No changes have been authorized for the Human Relations Commission – at least for now.

Barnes said he’s had multiple conversations with council members on this topic.

He had previously said he’d like membership on the Human Relations Commission to stop at representatives from the five core social service agencies.

“There’s a lot of ideas out there and a lot of modifications that are being brought forward as different ideas,” Barnes said. “Those ideas would require me to go back to the five organizations that I had previously talked to that agreed to be on the commission, because the way I described it would change potentially based off of some of the conversations that we’re having.”

The city’s ordinance, as amended, indicates that the chair may call meetings. It also eliminates the mandatory minimum number of meetings.