The Town Council has given its approval for staff to move forward and consolidate four town advisory commissions under a new single board.

The new Community Services Advisory Commission will be the result of consolidating the Parks and Recreation, the Senior Services Advisory, Community Center Advisory and, no later than Dec. 31, 2017, the McDowell Mountain Preservation Commission.

The MMPC is being granted the extension to allow it to oversee construction of the Preserve trailhead in conjunction with the anticipated development of Adero Canyon.

The consolidation of the other groups will take place this summer with a retreat session in July with a first official meeting in September.

Staff will be preparing an official resolution and new by-laws for council consideration at its June 5 meeting.

The consolidation was presented to the council at a budget planning retreat in January.

Community Services Director Mark Mayer said the plan would save considerable staff time and administrative costs over operating four different commissions.

According to Mayer, staff currently spends about 1,500 hours a year tending to the needs of the commissions, the equivalent of an employee working 30 hours per week.

The staff time includes recruitment, orientation, meetings, agenda preparation, minutes and other associated tasks.

“Combining the commissions would cut that time in half or less and allow the newly-restructured commission to be more effective and productive in its advisory capacity,” Mayer said in a memo to the council.

He also cited the ongoing difficulty in getting volunteers to serve on commissions.

Initially the new commission will combine all current commissioners to serve with the new group. As terms expire the group will settle at around nine members for ongoing operations.

Mayer said he has had regular discussions with the chairpersons for the four groups and all four commissions have considered the consolidation separately.

All support the move.

“Not only are we having difficulties in filling vacancies,” Mayor Linda Kavanagh said, “I am hearing from a lot of members that they do not feel they have enough to do.”

In January Councilman Henry Leger and Vice Mayor Cassie Hansen indicated they wanted commissioners to actively participate and contribute to any consolidation discussions.

“I know at the time this was initially brought up there was some anxiety among commission members,” Councilman Henry Leger said. “It appears you now have buy-in on the plan.”