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When reviewing these items, commissioners felt that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages of a merger. While staff understands their perspective, it still sees some overall advantages, including the fact that there is a continued and increasing link between the need for affordable housing and human services needs and the fact that it may be better to deal with all City grant reviews and administration in a more cohesive and unified manner. Nonetheless, it recognizes the concerns expressed by the two commissions regarding the disadvantages listed above. Commissioner Transition While many transitional issues were addressed during the commission review process, there was not a resolution regarding how existing commissioners would or would not transition to a new merged commission. Essentially, staff presented four concepts: . Option 1 - Retain all seats until such time as the terms expire and the merged commission reaches its desired number of members. This process assumes the commission would reach the target membership in about 2019. . Option 2 - Reduce the length of terms for some existing commissioners to allow the transition to occur more quickly. Based on the number reduced, this approach could allow the new commission to be fully staffed in about 2015. • Option 3 — The Mayor would appoint, subject to ratification from the City Council, seven commissioners, plus an alternate, from applications submitted from current Housing and Human Services Commissioners. In the event that there is an inadequate number of applications submitted from current commissioners, then the Mayor would accept applications from the community at large for the number of seats not filled by current Commissioners. This would allow the merged commission to have full membership at time of its creation. • Option 4 — Select the three regular members from the Housing Commission and four regular members from the Human Services Commission with the longest remaining terms and "transfer" their current term to the new commission. The Alternate position could either be appointed by the Mayor subject to approval by the City Council or be one of the current Housing Commissioners, including the Alternate Commissioner. In the event that those commissioners with the longest terms are not interested in serving on the new commission, those with the next longest remaining term would be selected. As indicated, neither commission made a definitive recommendation on a preferred transition approach. However, some members of the Human Services Commission did seem inclined to prefer Option 3 which would allow the new commission to begin its work with a membership appointed by the Mayor and ratified by the City Council to meet the anticipated duties. Regarding other options, some members of the Human Services Commission expressed concern that they would not be adequately trained to handle housing issues and felt some transition period would be necessary if they were transitioned to a merged commission. More detailed information regarding the transition Page 3 of 6