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6 <br />closely with the staffs in many other departments, and with state <br />agencies on common goals. <br />Likewise, the Housing and Community Development Department is one <br />of many players working toward goals of safe and affordable housing. <br />Housing/CD staff work closely with organizations such as Orange <br />Community Housing Corporation, the HOME program, and Habitat for <br />Humanity, among others, toward common goals. <br />These examples illustrate ways that local government can coordinate <br />both internally and externally with other groups and organizations in a <br />way to foster partnership and decrease competition. As in the free <br />market, to the degree that competition would exist, it might well serve <br />a positive force by providing incentives for different private/public/non- <br />profit entities to work jointly toward the common good of resource <br />conservation. <br />Therefore, there is no reason to expect that a new department of <br />Environment and Resource Conservation cannot develop close working <br />relationships with the agencies that share goals of resource <br />conservation, if not always identical interests. The nature of the <br />collaboration and working arrangements will, by necessity, be <br />developed as they evolve over time. <br />Even so, one step to initiate this coordination can be taken now, and <br />has been added to the proposal for the new department. An <br />amendment to the proposal calls for the new department to coordinate <br />with other organizations and entities through a series of joint meetings <br />with organizations and stakeholders, based on topical areas of interest. <br />During 1999, the department could coordinate these meetings on <br />anticipated categories of interest. These joint meetings could go a long <br />way toward identifying the specific interests of the different <br />organizations working in this field, by exploring goals, plans and needs <br />with all known stakeholders and "players." These meetings would also <br />provide a vehicle to ensure that the new department works proactively <br />and collaboratively with the many agencies and departments. The list <br />of agencies that should be part of the joint meeting series would <br />include (but not be limited to): <br />• Orange County Soil and Water District <br />• Triangle Land Conservancy <br />• The Nature Conservancy <br />• Conservation Trust of NC <br />• Duke University <br />