The composition of a student commission to advise the Ames City Council has been decided, although actual members and duties have yet to be fleshed out.

The purpose of the commission is to provide students with an opportunity to have input on policy and the ability to collaborate on issues with the City Council in a more informal way before they reach the council, said Tony Borich, ex-officio student member of City Council and senior in community and regional planning.

The council agreed the commission should include 15 community members: one City Council member; the GSB president; the InterResidence Hall Association president; a greek community leader; a student Campustown resident; the president of International Student Council; two ISU students who live off-campus and outside of Campustown; an Ames Chamber of Commerce member; a Young Professionals of Ames representative; a rental property owner; the Ames High School student body president; and three representatives from the neighborhoods surrounding Campustown.

“This was not exactly what we proposed, but we’re very happy the City Council is responding in a favorable way to our suggestion to form this commission; we all want to get started and get to work,” Borich said.

Although the structure of the proposed commission was agreed upon by participants at a roundtable meeting Tuesday with City Council members, the creation of the committee was left for future council meetings.

“We referred the issue to staff so that an ordinance can be drafted and then later voted on by City Council,” said Angela Groh, GSB president and senior in political science.

“I think the roundtable was productive,” said City Councilman Steve Goodhue. “We certainly made some progress and I am looking forward to future meetings where we can implement the creation of the ordinance to put the committee in place.”

Goodhue also said the commission could provide informal advice before issues come up at council meetings.

“We would like to be able to reach a compromise on issues and not have to resolve disagreements at the city council level, this committee gives us that ability,” he said.