At its meeting Thursday, the council received a report from its task force on issue advisory groups. Final action on the recommendations is expected when the council meets May 8.

The task force was an initiative of Mayor Harold Weinbrecht, a plank of whose platform included increasing resident participation in town government.

“This really opens up all the expertise we have in town,” Weinbrecht said.

“I proposed this in December but I had no idea how to do it.”

In January, the council created a seven-member task force to develop a framework for the council to use to form “issue advisory groups.”

The task force was charged to report back to council within 90 days with a recommended structure and process residents could use to petition the town to allow them to meet as a sanctioned advisory group.

The report from the task force, summarized by its chair Lori Bush, outlined a 10-step process that went from an idea to application to form an “issue advisory group” to formal calls to action to the Town Council.

An advisory group would have between five and 15 members. Its application would first be reviewed by town staff, which could then send the proposal to a new town commission, the Citizen Issue Review Commission.

The commission would “work with the applicant for success,” Bush said.

“It’s not just a review-and-decide organization.”

The commission could then forward the proposal on to the Town Council. Once the the council approved the application, it would give the advisory group a timeline for completing its work.

The advisory group would return to the council with its recommendations and a public hearing would be set to gather public reaction to the recommendations. The council could act on recommendations at a later date.

Advisory groups would be bound by state public-records laws and the town’s ethics guidelines.

Bush said the commission would comprise seven members “randomly selected” from Cary School of Government alumni.

Council member Julie Robison, who served as the council’s liaison to the task force, said that many school-of- government alumni complete that program and are “itching to get involved and don’t get the opportunity.”

Random selection among that group would keep the commission’s membership from becoming political, Robison said.

Weinbrecht said he was concerned about being able to get seven commission members from that specific a pool.

Weinbrecht suggested opening up the pool to former members of all boards and commissions.