FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) — A balanced government is important for the success of any country, town, or township.

But right now, some members of the Fort Wayne City Council think that the current system has grown to be inadequate.

A big part of city government is the various boards that guide decision-making, everything from the Board of Zoning Appeals to the Plan Commission.

And 2nd District Councilman Russ Jehl thinks that City Council should have more say on who serves on those boards.

“Locally, a lot of important decisions are made on these boards,” Jehl said. “Out of 61 local boards, Council is ostracised, not able to be a part of several of the boards.”

In fact, during Tuesday night’s meeting, Jehl said that of Fort Wayne’s 61 boards, the Mayor has 180 appointments while City Council only has 49.

Furthermore, Jehl said that many of those 49 have to be councilmembers themselves (such as Tom Freistroffer serving on the Plan Commission) meaning that they have even fewer citizen appointments.

Two of the boards City Council discussed on Tuesday were the Police Commission and the Safe Housing and Building Oversight Committee.

While there was a general consensus that giving City Council more representative power is a good decision, City Council isn’t exactly sure how it will work out locally, and within the confines of developments currently in the statehouse.

“The statehouse is still in session, there are a couple of bills live that effect police merit, therefore it might be prudent to gold off.”

Russ Jehl

Due to those confounding factors, City Council decided to hold off on approving the ordinances for three weeks, but those two changes are not the only changes currently introduced to City Council.

“The big ask that’s coming up, as Council has introduced the bill is that we would have an appointment on the TRAA board,” Jehl said. “With Council now investing $3 million into that board, we want to make sure we follow that investment with accountability.”

While votes on the changes to boards and committees may not happen for weeks, one thing is clear: City Council is pushing for more representation.