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The citizens committee that oversaw Rio Nuevo Downtown redevelopment plans for nearly a decade disbanded Wednesday.

Some members of the group said their work was done, while others said they might as well shut down because they have no influence with the city.

Even those who complained Tucson would be losing a watchdog with the elimination of the Rio Nuevo Citizens Advisory Committee — such as developer Richard Studwell — said the group had been rendered irrelevant for more than a year and should be terminated.

Several members along with two visitors, Mayor Bob Walkup and Councilwoman Nina Trasoff, said the functions of the citizens committee could be done by the City Council's subcommittee on Rio Nuevo and the Downtown Tucson Partnership, the new group of influential public and private interests trying to redevelop Downtown.

"It's a power grab," Studwell said, adding the city doesn't want to hear critics of its Downtown plans. "Now we silence a few more voices, and it's going to continue to get worse."

But he still favored dissolution, calling the committee irrelevant.

Others, such as chairman Chris Sheafe, disagreed, saying the committee's work was simply done.

"We have wrapped up our assignments as a committee," Sheafe said.

Gayle Hartmann agreed that the end of the game was near.

"I think it's time for us to go away," Hartmann said. "I'm tired of meeting."

Committee member Carmen Villa Prezelski said the group came to an unnatural end.

"It very well may be that our string has played out," Villa Prezelski said. "I think more that our string has been taken away."

Both Walkup and Trasoff came as visitors to the meeting and thanked the group for its efforts for the past eight years.

Walkup said the group was "a part of history," but that "I now think it's probably appropriate that this group retire."