Open Space Advisory Board Agenda and Packet 2023 05 10

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Open Space Advisory Board Minutes April 12, 2023 Page 6 of 9 useful. She wondered whether sharing OSAB's onboarding process with the council or other boards might be helpful. Helen observed how at the Sales Tax Task Force, the board members on the task force have far more seniority and history with the tax than the staff members on the task force, who are all recent hires. Ember said that the existence and role of OSAB is written into the City charter and cannot be canceled, but her understanding is that it could consume another board's duties. David pointed out that the Council has prioritized adding board members with a greater diversity of viewpoints as a part of its EDI goals. Shrinking the boards and reducing the number of members seems to be in conflict with that goal. Jessamine asked Susan what she thought had been the Council's overall impetus for this discussion. Susan said that her impression was that Council thought there were too many boards and inconsistencies in how they are run. Ember added that since boards want Council liaisons again, that all the boards mean there are a lot of meetings for Council members to attend. Susan was also at the Council meeting two weeks ago. Meredyth sent all boards an email outlining norms and expectations about running board meetings as a result of this meeting. Susan also reported that she learned at this meeting that the name of OSAB cannot be changed without a citizen vote. Ember added that there is a new rule no longer requiring the addresses of the public who comment at meetings. This was a security concern. Now members of the public who speak at board and commission meetings must simply give their name and whether or not they live in Louisville. Ember also mentioned that the City might set some recommendations for levels of detail in the meeting minutes, which led to a brief discussion about the pros and cons of the extreme level of detail in OSAB minutes. 10. Discussion Item: Sales & Use Tax Force Updates. Presented by Jessamine Fitzpatrick and Helen Moshak Helen and Jessamine have attended three meetings of the Open Space and Parks Sales & Use Tax Task Force. They wrote up a small packet to share with the board giving minutes from the meetings and background information about the tax. The packet will be included as an addendum to the April 2023 Meeting Packet. Helen and Jessamine pointed out a few items from the packet. The task force came up with a few options for the tax, including: increasing the tax rate, removing the sunset for the tax or changing its term, and specifying program dedications in the language of the ballot, and maintaining the status quo. The City has hired a local, Louisville polling firm to poll citizens about these four options before the ballot language is set. The next meeting of the task force will be in May to review the results of the polling. In June/July the Council will formalize the language for the ballot in November. The task force set priorities for the polling questions and will review them before they go out. Jessamine said they might be allowed to share the questions with the board, but certainly would be able to share out the results of the poll. The minutes also include some information about how neighboring municipalities tax their citizens and fund their open space and how funds are spent from the Louisville fund. David asked whether the current 2:1 ratio of funding to parks to open space is typical of other municipalities. Helen said it was hard to know, as that information seems not to be generally available. She added that in the City of Lafayette, the split is closer to 50:50, as mandated by their separate taxes. Jessamine said she has the impression that