Complaints aired by members of Novato’s Housing and Homelessness Committee deserve a fair hearing and response.

The advisory panel, formed in 2022, has met only quarterly, but its last two meetings have been canceled.

That certainly raises questions about the city’s commitment to having such a committee.

City Hall, through its spokesperson, says the committee meetings were canceled by the city because it couldn’t provide necessary staffing for them. For a meeting held once every three months, that’s surprising to hear.

The committee was formed as part of a stipulated judgment in a federal lawsuit filed against the city and its enforcement of Novato’s anti-camping ordinances.

Among the tasks outlined by the city for the seven-member panel are providing information to the council about housing and homeless issues and to establish the criteria regarding allowing occupation of vacant spots at the city-sanctioned homeless encampment.

But a committee meeting wasn’t even called before the City Council voted to repeal a short-lived rule allowing use of camping gear on public property and then, later, it voted to close the fire-damaged city-sanctioned homeless encampment in Lee Gerner Park.

Those were two important decisions that it would seem the committee should have a voice, but it was silenced by a bureaucratic staffing issue.

Committee members have already wondered if they have much of a say in such issues, as city staff appeared to control which of their recommendations would make it to the City Council’s agenda.

Here’s what City Hall says: “The City Council appreciates the committee’s collaboration and dedication in serving the Novato community and supporting those affected by homelessness,” spokesperson Sherin Olivero said, “The committee offers valuable guidance that helps shape effective, meaningful initiatives to navigate the complexities surrounding housing and homelessness.”

That sounds great, but the committee can’t live up to that role if it can’t meet.

Staffing is needed to set up public meetings, provide advice and assistance, record its actions and follow up on its decisions.

That shouldn’t require canceling meetings until a new assistant city manager and an analyst, the two staff posts assigned to the committee, are hired.

Since the committee’s last meeting in September, weren’t there others in the city’s bureaucracy who could temporarily fill in, especially as part of the city’s consideration of major measures changing its policies regarding the homeless population?

If the City Council didn’t want to hear from the committee, it didn’t say so. But if the council didn’t want the committee to have a say, the way it conducted that business spoke louder than words.

Since its last meeting, the committee — as a citizens panel in the city’s decision-making process — has effectively been silenced and sidelined.

It’s time for the council, which formed the committee in the first place, to decide whether it is no longer a civic step in its decision-making process.

Right now, that seems to be the case.

The terms of three of the committee’s seven seats are scheduled to expire at the end of April.

Instead of extolling a role the sidelined panel isn’t serving, the council should be forthright and make it official; it just no longer wants the committee’s “valuable guidance.”