That was the consensus at the Aug. 6 city council meeting. For approximately one hour, the Saratoga City Council tossed out ideas about how to include the public in the decision-making process for the use of city-owned properties, including the Historic Park, the Civic Center and several parks. The council used the list of recommendations prepared by City Manager Dave Anderson as a guide for the process.

As listed in the staff report, council can choose from three main options for forming a committee. Under one approach, the entire city council would serve as the ultimate decision-maker. Much like the way in which city council meetings are conducted, residents would be given the opportunity to voice their concerns and offer suggestions, but the final word would come from the council.

The second option is forming an ad hoc committee of one or two council members and some interested residents. Anderson stated in the report, "One advantage of using this mechanism is that council members would have experience with the ad hoc committee structure and process." In this scenario, the participating council members would report back to the council as a whole.

The third option, titled the Blue Ribbon Commission, entails gathering a group of prominent citizens with expertise in relevant issues to make decisions.

Of the options, Councilman Norman Kline said he would like see the council as a whole work out the main issues before assigning tasks to residents.

"Forming a Blue Ribbon Commission would not be appropriate at the moment because citizens may not have enough direction or focus to make decisions," he said. "The issue is in prioritizing. The council needs to sit down in a public forum with public input and go down the inventory list to decide what to sell, what to buy and what to fix."

Kline added that once priorities are determined, establishing a Blue Ribbon or an ad hoc commission would be fair. He also added that ad hoc committees, such as the one responsible for the Gateway project, work very well.

Councilman Stan Bogosian said that he's noticed several no-shows during meetings in which budget issues for capital improvement projects were discussed and that he would like to get the public more involved.

"I'm afraid that if we continue with the council acting as a committee as a whole, it will be just the council involved," Bogosian said. "The formation of a committee would go miles toward including the public."

He added that this would bring broader perspectives to the table.

At the meeting, Councilwoman Kathleen King offered another remedy.

"The public needs to know what we are dealing with from the get go," she said. "Perhaps we can have staff generate a wish list for what residents would like to see in the community."

She added that since the city's resources are limited, residents could assist in attaining bonds for projects to make sure that property values remain high.