Legislation Changing UCHRA/UCDD Boards Likely To Pass

UCDD Executive Director Mark Farley said legislation that would change the organization’s governing boards appears to be moving forward.

Farley said the proposed bill would cut down the number of required city mayors that participate in meetings.

“I would suppose in our situation is what we would do is just limit our board to just one city mayor from each county,” Farley said. “So say here in Putnam County there are four different city mayors that we have, and they will just have to select which one of them want to serve on our board.”

Farley said the feeling is that the legislation will pass the General Assembly and move on to be signed by Gov. Bill Lee in May. Farley said if that time line holds, the new statute would certainly help with meeting participation.

Thursday’s UCHRA Executive Committee meeting did not have enough members present to begin business. In a December state audit for 2019, excessive absentees were noted among the Policy Council and Executive Committee members.

“Our governing board not only consists of the 14 county mayors, but all of the city mayors that we have across the region, as well,” Farley said. “There are numerous city mayors that cover their municipality, but they are not full-time. So, it is hard for them to get to our meetings.”

Farley said Steering Committee A, which oversees operations, will be in charge with changing the organization’s bylaws to match the new legislation.

“Each community has a representative, either a city or county mayor on those two steering committees” Farley said. “So regardless of which one we have all 14 counties will be represented.”