March 14, 2014
Overall, we found little evidence that the four councils have been effective advisors or liaisons to state policy makers. Our report identifies six overarching problems: isolation from state policy making, lack of clear statutory purposes, inadequate identification of specific objectives and outcome measures, little substantive collaboration among the councils, untimely appointments and lack of attendance at council meetings, and poor communication. We discuss four options for the Legislature's consideration. These options range from maintaining the four councils but requiring certain operational improvements to eliminating them and creating advisory committees in select state agencies to address issues.
This report won a 2016 Certificate of Impact Award from the NCSL National Legislative Program Evaluation Society.
*Supplemental Items (These did not appear in the printed report.)
