Greeley
Greeley delays museum board review, backs three others
The review is due back in November before the board’s year-end reauthorization deadline. Ordinance readings and a public hearing could follow in November and December, depending on the board.
Greeley City Council delayed its Museum Advisory Board review Oct. 27, leaving the board out of a consensus to continue three other advisory bodies. Council Member Deb DeBoutez said the museum board’s work plan might change and staff and board members needed to discuss it before it was presented.
“I suspect the work plan may change in the near future,” DeBoutez said. The board needs reauthorization by year’s end and will return in November, DeBoutez said. Staff hopes to schedule an ordinance reflecting the council’s consensus for a first reading Nov. 17 and a second reading and public hearing Dec. 1. Those dates could change depending on the museum board, staff said.
The Museum Advisory Board’s review packet warns that museum programs could be at risk under the developing 2027 Culture, Parks and Recreation budget. It says delivery of guaranteed core programs appears conditional or potentially impossible. The board says it was excluded from budget and operational planning and received long-range goals only after they were developed, despite its duty to collaborate with staff. At its Aug. 20 meeting, the board voted to convey a vote of no confidence in the Culture, Parks and Recreation Department and its director to the mayor and City Council.
Council backed continuing the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, Judicial Review Board and Human Relations Commission. Its consensus did not include the museum board. The three-year review asks council to reauthorize each board for three years, amend its purpose in the Greeley Municipal Code or dissolve it.
A Judicial Review Board member said the board has two vacancies, for a business leader and a licensed attorney, and that recruitment videos distributed across the city have drawn no responses. Three members are active, giving the board a quorum when all attend, but its work depends on their participation, the member said. Staff said it was recruiting for both seats, especially the attorney seat, and working on bylaws. Only council can remove a member, so staff usually asks members to resign instead, staff said.