Agenda - 11-23-2009 - C2 - Laserfiche WebLink

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20 Commissioner Gordon made reference to the County Commissioners being involved and said that the way it should work is that the Board should be clear about priorities and set the priorities, and then the staff should carry them out. She thinks that one reason the County Commissioners get too involved is that they either do not get what they thought they were going to get, or somehow it is not complete and they try to fix it. This is not how it should work. Frank Clifton said that it is not that the Board should not be involved, but it ought to be as a Board and not as individual members. Regarding the 911 service, Frank Clifton said the most recent incident involved someone accidentally cutting the wires with a backhoe. Commissioner Gordon made reference to things that the Board needs to discuss and said that she agrees with most of the suggestions made by Mr. Clifton regarding reorganization. She asked Frank Clifton to keep the Board up to date about retirements and reorganization. She asked him to flag things that need to come up soon, such as freeing up valuable office space that is currently used for storage. She said that the Board of Elections move is going to be using 4500 square feet of office space for storage. While this is an acceptable solution for now, it should be understood that as storage space is made available elsewhere, we should think about reassigning the use of this space for offices rather than storage. Commissioner Gordon made reference to the budget process and said that the County Commissioners have tried to spread out the budget process, but there is still a small timeframe to make major budget decisions. She suggested moving the process back so that the Board does not get overloaded. Frank Clifton said that it is important for staff to do the homework and bring to the Board of County Commissioners the options for a budget. He thinks that in the end the County Commissioners have to make the decisions. Commissioner Gordon issued a memorandum to enter into the record: "All, This is a heads -up to let you know that the DCHC MPO Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) is beginning a discussion of expanding the Metropolitan Area Boundary (MAB) for the MPO. The staff is only recommending a limited expansion at this time, with further consideration of expansion after the 2010 census. The areas recommended for consideration of expansion at this time are "Area 1" in Orange County, along the 1 -85 corridor toward Mebane and the Burlington- Graham MPO. The other area is "Area 5" in Chatham County. I will bring a copy of the relevant portion of the map to the meeting tonight. I have asked Karen Lincoln to provide you complete information as part of her monthly report on the TAC activities, and that should include the complete map. Upon a motion by me (seconded by the representative from Chatham County), the TAC has, upon a unanimous vote, directed the staff to come back to the October TAC meeting with more information including the population in the areas for potential expansion, a more complete explanation of the financial implications, and the implications for the TAC by -laws. I made the motion to defer action until the next meeting and to bring back more information because I wanted the BOCC and the county staff to have some time before the TAC took action.