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,~ Laura Blackmon said that if someone with expertise is hired, then it is not Orange County showing up and raising red flags. It would provide an objective stance to this issue. This would also allow staff to focus on other issues. The firm would also be instrumental in developing the criteria. Commissioner Nelson asked if an outside firm could move quicker and Laura Blackmon said yes. PUBLIC COMMENT: Will Raymond thanked the Board of County Commissioners for re-considering the decision to site the transfer station on Eubanks Road. He said that this has already started off on the wrong foot. He said he believes that the process used for siting the transfer station was not fair, open, or transparent. He said that when he looks at the documents for this item, he sees that the County is already halfway into this. He said that the community has not been engaged and criteria are already being discussed. He said that this affects the whole County. He said that whatever is built should have the capability to have apublic/private partnership to deal with some unique waste streams. Another criterion is looking at producing bio-fuel for the County's own use. Whatever is built should have this capability. He said that what is missing from the criteria is any weighting of it and there is no social justice. He said that, irrespective of what is done with the transfer site, Orange County owes a debt to the Rogers Road community. He said that he recently ran for public office, and in his campaign he talked about whether Orange County was going to be a community that imports resources like water and exports problems like trash. He asked the Board to look at the process and think about a new process before coming to a decision. He said that every government body schedules this type of discussion at the end of their meetings and he wishes they would change this approach. Neloa Jones represented the Rogers-Eubanks Coalition. She read a prepared statement as shown below: Dear Orange County Commissioners, Thank you for your recent decision to reconsider the siting of the waste transfer station (WTS) in the vicinity of the Rogers Road community. We particularly welcome your comments that social and environmental justice must be a consideration and that a fair and open search should be conducted. Given the public outcry over the previous decision, it is important that the new search be perceived as fair by the citizens of Orange County. We believe the recommendations regarding WTS siting made by the National Environmental Justice Advisory Committee (NEJAC), a Federal Advisory Committee to the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, offer the best way to ensure a fair search. Those recommendations are documented in A Regulatory Strategy for Siting and Operating Waste Transfer Stations, EPA Report Number 500-R-00-001, and we have attached two pages from that report for your consideration. Two points are of particular importance. 1. The meaningful and continuous participation of community residents, particularly those already burdened by the clustering of solid waste facilities. The NEJAC recommendations call for the establishment of an advisory panel to propose site-selection criteria and to consult with the BOCC throughout the search process. The advisory panel should contain adequate representation (or several representatives) from the Rogers Road community. 2. The explicit inclusion of environmental justice as a factor in the selection process. The NEJAC recommends that the search criteria include a provision against a