The Boulder Police Oversight Panel will soon vote on some changes to the panel bylaws that have been in the works for the past few months.

The four-year-old civilian panel — which reviews complaints against Boulder police officers and makes recommendations to the police department regarding discipline, policy and training — has been working on updating its bylaws since earlier this year.

Some of the biggest bylaw changes could affect public comment and the order of business conducted at meetings. The changes will help bring the bylaws into compliance with the new Police Oversight Ordinance the City Council passed in October, and they’re also intended to fill gaps and codify the way the panel operates. The bylaw updates could more clearly define the purpose, role and operations of a relatively new city panel that has been dogged by challenges and upheaval.

Consultant Farah Muscadin worked with the panel’s bylaw work group, made up of panelists Soledad Diaz and Abigail Franke, to create a revised draft of the bylaws, which was finished several weeks ago and sent to panel members on Aug. 2. The full panel discussed the bylaw changes in detail at a public meeting Tuesday night.

“We wanted to keep the spirit of the intent behind (the bylaws) but also recognize that there was some evolution that was needed, and to give the panel a solid foundation,” Muscadin said during the meeting.

In total, the draft of the revised bylaws has 17 sections. Many of these sections come directly from the new oversight ordinance. Some of them codify the panel’s existing practices and others create clearer processes for how the panel should do its business.

But there was extra time spent discussing possible changes to the sections on meetings and case reviews, which Muscadin called the “meat and potatoes” of panel business. The panel may be changing the structure and order of business for its meetings. Public comment periods have historically been held at the end of meetings, but if the revised bylaws are approved, public comment could happen sooner in the meetings.

Muscadin said she and the panel work group favored holding public comment toward the middle of each meeting, after panel and committee updates are finished but before the panel does its official business.

“I know a lot of panels have a hard time balancing whether or not to put public comment at the beginning or the end,” Muscadin said, adding, “I think we did a really good job of striking a balance of being in the middle, where we’re not asking the public to wait all day to give public comment, but … also giving them an opportunity to really hear substantive conversation about what the panel is working on and anything that’s connected to the police oversight.”

Another way public comment could change is that speakers could be allowed to speak for two minutes, but either panel co-chair could extend the time to up to five minutes. Muscadin called this idea a “good middle ground” in terms of having efficient meetings while also allowing public participation, but she said this suggestion might be revised further.

The new bylaws could also bring other changes, such as allowing the panel to form ad hoc committees when needed. The changes would also allow the panel to call emergency or special meetings or to suspend its bylaws if necessary. Muscadin said that while emergency meetings and bylaw suspension should rarely if ever be needed, the panel would benefit from having these options in case they are needed.

The bylaw changes would also remove much of the detail from the case review section. Currently, the bylaws contain detailed guidelines about reviewing complaints, but the panel work group decided it would be more appropriate to develop a separate case review manual and keep the section in the bylaws broader.

Panel members had a few questions about the details of some of the bylaw changes, but overall they seemed receptive to the changes that were suggested.

“Thank you so much for all the work you put in — Farah, Soledad, Abigail — it’s fantastic. So much better. There’s no question about that. Really solid work,” said panelist Mylene Vialard.

The panel is set to vote on approving the bylaw changes on Sept. 9.