During a meeting on Feb. 18, the Commission Standardization Ad Hoc Committee discussed the possible merger of the Human Relations Commission with the Health and Safety Commission, and the Recreation and Parks Commission with the Arts and Culture Commission. The committee members, Vice Mayor Sharona Nazarian and Councilmember Craig Corman, reviewed the similarities and differences between the roles carried out by each of the commissions to decide whether the mergers would be in the city’s best interest.
The discussion at the Feb. 18 meeting follows previous committee meetings regarding the standardization issue. Staff reviewed commission agendas from the last few years to help identify similarities and differences between the commissions.
The staff report identified significant overlaps between the Health and Safety Commission and the Human Relations Commission, suggesting a merger. The Health and Safety Commission focuses on topics such as smoking, emergency preparedness and water quality. Topics of discussion unique to the Human Relations Commission involve civility programs and various cultural initiatives in the city. Despite this, more similarities than differences were found between the two commissions. Namely, both commissions receive monthly reports about the Beverly Hills Police Department, Beverly Hills Unified School District, housing issues, mental health, safety and Community Assistance Grant Funding.
“I do see certain areas that overlap, and I certainly am concerned about the number of hours that are being utilized because these are hours that can address other issues happening in the community,” Nazarian said.
In addition to time spent reviewing overlapping topics, staff reported that significant resources are required to support commission meetings. These include staff hours for creation of reports, commissioner training, printing of agenda packets and online broadcasting of meetings, with the annual cost of running a single commission often running into six figures.
The committee decided to merge the two commissions and asked city staff to consolidate the duties between the two to make the new, merged commission more efficient.
Nazarian said a new title will be created for the merged commission and reiterated the reasons behind why the committee decided to pursue this decision in the first place. “I just wanted to bring to everyone’s attention how initially this was brought to us by our city clerk because we were having a hard time filling commission vacancies. It’s not only a budgetary constraint and issue,” she said.
While the committee was in favor of merging the Health and Safety Commission and the Human Relations Commission, the decision to do the same with the Recreation and Parks Commission and the Arts and Culture Commission remains under consideration. The committee received public comments, including from former commissioners who objected to the decision to merge the two.
Topics of discussion common to both commissions involve events and programming at the Greystone Mansion and Gardens as well as events such as Festival Beverly Hills and the Beverly Hills Art Show. There are also differences between the two. The Recreation and Parks Commission focuses extensively on park projects and programming, while the Arts and Culture Commission prioritizes fine art acquisition, maintenance and funding alongside artist resources and cultural recognitions.
City staff recommended an alternative to a merger, which would see the Arts and Culture Commission revert back to the Fine Art Commission, which was its previous title. They would then meet quarterly rather than monthly and focus solely on fine art. Staff will revise plans for the Recreation and Parks and Arts and Culture Commissions to see how responsibilities can best be shared between the two. The committee will present final recommendations to the entire council.
After the committee meeting, Nazarian told the Courier, “First and foremost, we deeply value our commissioners and the important work they do. As a former commissioner myself, I understand the significance of their role. However, as a councilmember, it is my responsibility to ensure our city government operates as efficiently as possible. The Commission Standardization Ad Hoc Committee carefully reviewed the structure and relevance of our commissions, particularly as some date back to the 1950s and have either completed their purpose or become outdated. In this case, the Human Relations Commission and the Health and Safety Commission had overlapping responsibilities and had shifted from their original missions. As I mentioned during the meeting, these areas of redundancy and duplication of work made it clear that streamlining was necessary. This is not about eliminating commissions but rather merging them to create a stronger, more effective body that can better prioritize its work and more efficiently support the City Council in serving our community. Additionally, we have faced challenges in filling commission positions, which reinforced the need for this thoughtful restructuring.”
