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12 Attachment 3 Obtaining Public Input to Solid Waste Plan for Unincorporated Orange County December 15, 2009 This discussion suggests several possible strategies to inform the public about plans for solid waste and recycling in the unincorporated areas and to gain broad public input to this element of the overall solid waste management plan. It further poses the notion of the Solid Waste Plan Work Group (WG) or Solid Waste Advisory Board, leading the gathering of public input following submittal of its preliminary recommendations to the BOCC and using that public input to further inform its own, more detailed, final recommendations. Another option for gathering public input would entail the Work Group first putting its recommendations on unincorporated areas into a draft comprehensive solid waste plan, waiting until a draft plan is completed by staff, and then seeking broad public input on all elements of the plan at once. The option that focuses on gathering public input on solely the solid waste plan issues in the unincorporated area separately has the advantages of addressing, relatively immediately, some of the most pressing solid waste issues raised by the affected segments of the public and by the Board. Therefore more people will likely respond. A greater response will, we hope, enable fruitful dialogue and expression of a variety of preferences from the public on options for future solid waste management methods and financing for this critical sector. One disadvantage is that a narrow focus may detract from viewing these unincorporated area issues in the context of an overall plan. Secondly there will have to be a set of public meetings on the whole plan anyway, regardless of those that might be held on the unincorporated areas, thus an already lengthy planning process will be further drawn out. Valuable staff, Work Group and Solid Waste Advisory Board resources may have to be used twice to gather public input -first on this element then on the whole plan again, at a time when `plan fatigue' may already be setting in. Regardless of which direction is chosen, a narrow and immediate focus on unincorporated areas or a broad focus on the whole plan, the same questions of which information gathering methods to use can be relevant. We list below several approaches to informing the public about the issues and gathering meaningful, useful public input to inform the decision-making on waste and recycling in the unincorporated areas. A multi-pronged strategy is likely. to produce better results than use of a single tool, but must be balanced with the amount of time and effort to be spent gathering public comment on only this unincorporated area element of the overall plan. The County has employed all of these strategies in efforts to educate the public and get feedback on a variety of topics. Any effective public education and information-gathering effort will involve considerable staff time and effort as well as, possibly, some monetary expenditure. Any strategies selected would include public education through mailings news articles on line information, radio talk shows and an o~ ther public formats Staff now publishes monthly waste-related articles in the Chapel Hill Herald, News of Orange and Weaver Street Market Newsletter and places solid waste planning information on its web page. These articles in any given month could all be focused on the issue and used as a platform for discussion in the public forums or other venues. The County is prepared to publish a countywide solid waste newsletter this year for the first time in several years that could have a special focus on this set of issues. Key articles in the newsletter could coordinate with public forums, mail-in surveys or other tools to gain input on the topic. Producing and mailing a countywide newsletter would likely take place, at the earliest by mid-February. Strategies for gathering feedback: