Huntington Beach City Council to consider eliminating two staff-level committees.

The Huntington Beach City Council will consider removing two staff-level committees during its meeting Monday night, part of a larger effort to review the city’s current boards, commission and committee structure.

An item introduced by Councilman Dan Kalmick would eliminate the Environmental Assessment Committee and Subdivision Committee. Additionally, a separate administrative item prepared by Assistant City Manager Travis Hopkins seeks to create an ad-hoc committee consisting of Mayor Kim Carr and two additional council members, which would perform a formal review in hopes of modernizing the city’s board’s, commission and committee (BCC) framework.

City staff have identified that the city supports at least 40 different internal, city-sponsored BCCs.

“It’s pretty impressive for a city this size, and we’re running out of staff members,” Kalmick said. “Staff’s trying to do work, but we also have to make sure there’s a staff member at these committee meetings. Some of [the committees] have been around forever and need to be retooled or redirected.”

Kalmick said his item to eliminate the Environmental Assessment Committee and Subdivision Committee has been on his to-do list for a while, as they add red tape to projects. He served on the Subdivision Committee as a planning commissioner.

“They are staff-only, essentially, so they add time to the entitlement process,” Kalmick said. “You end up with a non-zero amount of delay in your project for essentially something that’s pro forma. The Subdivision Committee was really designed for when we were [forming the] SeaCliff [community] ... and they created this committee to kind of take that off the Planning Commission. The Environmental Assessment Committee is literally three staff members deciding something that staff’s already decided.”

Monday’s City Council meeting begins at 6 p.m. and can be watched on channel HBTV-3 or online at huntingtonbeach.legistar.com. Residents may send comments on agenda items to supplementalcomm@surfcity-hb.org.

Communications received by 2 p.m. Monday will be distributed to the council prior to consideration of agenda-related items.

Residents are encouraged to submit comments during the meeting via Zoom. The Webinar ID is 971 5413 0528 and can be reached via the Zoom app or by calling (669) 900-6833 and entering the ID. Individuals will be placed in a holding queue and prompted to speak when the city clerk announces their name or the last three digits of their phone number.

Time for remarks is limited to three minutes.