Category talk:Charlottesville government

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"Committees" to be merged?

So there are task forces, boards and commissions, and committees. Can anyone explain the difference? I don't think the name of the group alone is either meaningful or sufficient. If there is no clear distinction, then these should be merged. -- B.S. Lawrence 23:58, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

Makes sense to me, but how do we handle the idea that some of these are more powerful than others? BAR, the PC and the BZA are all a bit more powerful than say the Dialogue on Race committee. Maybe that doesn't matter for the purposes of this, though?--Seantubbs 14:26, 12 May 2010 (UTC)
If there were a way to quantify "power", I could answer that question. I'm not sure what you mean by "powerful", and I could make a case that the DoR Committee could be just as powerful as the BAR, depending on what actions they choose to take. Was there a specific power that you had in mind that we could use to distinguish these? If not I'm really leaning towards merging these all up. -- B.S. Lawrence 17:54, 12 May 2010 (UTC)
It's tricky and each body has different powers. The threee most important are the Board of Zoning Appeals, the Board of Architectural Review and the Planning Commission. The BAR issues permits. The DoR is purely advisory and has no statutory power at all. The BZA is a separate legal entity whose authority derives from the circuit court. The PC only has the ability to recommend what Council does... The city must have a chart that describes how all these bodies relate to each other. To my limited knowledge, only these three bodies have the power to actually do something. Some are more equal than others? --629579396 15:25, 13 May 2010 (UTC)

Hopefully that's not a portrayal of our government as an Orwellian dystopia! I went ahead and merged these up. I'd be ready to divide them, but I would encourage an objective criteria for that division. -- B.S. Lawrence 19:51, 14 May 2010 (UTC)