CARY - Three government committees focused on central Cary, community input and economic development are on the chopping block after the Cary Town Council decided to eliminate the resident-run boards.

The Economic Development Commission, the Citizen Input Review Committee and the Town Center Review Commission duplicated other parts of the government's duties and were rated poorly by their own members, staff and council said Jan. 14 at their annual retreat in Wilmington.

The most debated of the decisions was the disbandment of the citizen input committee, which was an avenue for residents to put issues before the town. Through the CIRC, residents could petition the town to study specific issues.

But the group often struggled to bring a majority of its members to meetings, said Councilman Don Frantz. "There are much quicker ways to get something before Town Council," he said.

Mayor Harold Weinbrecht countered that the group needed the support of the council to succeed, but Frantz said the committee was ineffective.

Councilman Jack Smith said the committee was a carryover from an earlier time, when the council was more divided and residents wanted a new way to be heard. Councilwoman Jennifer Robinson said the use of the "pink slip," a move by which two council members can put an issue on the agenda for a meeting, has made the CIRC less necessary.

"I think, in reality, a typical citizen would rather go through this newly devised way," she said.

The council ultimately decided to disband the CIRC, which has seven seats and was formed in 2008.

Council members also felled the economic committee, created in 2000, because they found it inefficient. It was a "great idea, and it was really needed," said Councilwoman Gale Adcock. But now the eight-member board has been supplanted by the Economic Development Governing Board, which includes town and Cary Chamber of Commerce members. The demise of the board was unanimously suggested by its members.

The board had suspended its activities, but is helping the town review the issue of fracking, a natural gas extraction technique. Some EDC members will go to the Economic Development Governing Board, the council decided.

Council members also decided to disband the eight-member committee that advises the town on central Cary and downtown matters. The town created the board in 2003 to review project plans, said Planning Director Jeff Ulma.

"They were narrowly defined, and now they struggle. They don't have a whole lot to do," Ulma said. Frantz said the town's main planning review board could take up the slack.

The council likely will make the first of two official votes on the matter next month .