ask the community if we should change the scope of the committee to fit that (and possibly modify the charter if needed) to actually empower us to do this. As bureaucratic as that sounds, I won't agree to us unilaterally giving ourselves more authority without community backing. If there was a decision for the committee to become an actual authority without the community approving first, I'd have to resign.

No worries, any change that drastic would require a change of the charter and a vote of the community, your resignation is safe 😉

While I'm skeptical that any "top down" control of the project would be helpful, I'm curious what gating people think the board should be doing. Not up for requiring board sign off on every MR.