Orange County NC Website
Chair Gordon said that there are a lot of issues related to confidentiality, etc. <br />John Link said that another huge issue is going to be E-government. Citizens will <br />expect to be able to do work with the government via the Internet. He said that this is <br />almost another dimension of government. <br />Commissioner Brown said that the IT Committee needs the Board to pay <br />attention to them. <br />Chair Gordon asked how the Board wanted to handle the Strategic <br />Communications Plan. She asked if they wanted a Crisis Management Report. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis just wants the small peripheral groups brought in. <br />The staff will handle this and bring it back. <br />John Link said they could put together a multi-faceted advisory group that could <br />critique how the County is communicating with these groups. <br />A motion was made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded by Commissioner <br />Jacobs that the Board accept the Strategic Communications Plan through page 8, item <br />C. <br />VOTE: UNANIMOUS <br />3. Water/Sewer Boundary <br />Commissioner Carey said that there was agreement on what the map should <br />look like for current service and interest areas. Hillsborough ceased attending the <br />meetings regularly after this agreement because the map was their main concern. <br />Hillsborough's concern was that OWASA would cut off a big piece of their service area. <br />The placement of the boundary lines was the most significant issue that was agreed <br />upon. Commissioner Carey referred to the rest of the document that addressed Land <br />Use and Planning issues that transcend OWASA's responsibility. He said that he was <br />concerned that the schools were not involved in this discussion and cannot recommend <br />that the Board adopt item C, Sizing of Lines on page 13. <br />Chair Gordon said that one of the concerns was the sentence that states, "public <br />sewer lines extended to provide service to an adverse public health condition or <br />essential public facilities cannot be used for other purposes or other parties except to <br />remedy another adverse public health condition." Some people thought that it should <br />also say, "or essential public facility." <br />Commissioner Carey made reference to the Emergency Water Transfer item on <br />page 15 and said that he feels that this constrains OWASA in its ability to achieve its <br />commitment to the users and did not reflect reality. <br />Chair Gordon made reference to the Emergency Water Transfer and said that <br />she feels that allowing emergencies to go on for one year is too long. She disagrees <br />with Commissioner Carey on this. <br />Commissioner Jacobs said that defining an "Adverse Public Health Condition" <br />was an important issue. It was a great advance over the current system that led to rare <br />decisions to take care of severe situations. A new definition was created. The options <br />have implications for land use and for some of the policies. It was decided that before <br />anything is adopted the Board needs to refer to the staff and the Planning Board for their <br />feedback. Regarding the issue of public purposes, a lot of the discussion revolved <br />around extending a line to address an adverse public health condition and investing in <br />the infrastructure. The recommendation of the majority was that it did not make sense to <br />site another public facility when extending a line to remedy an adverse public health <br />condition. <br />Commissioner Carey said that they contradicted themselves because they said <br />that schools should be sited in a way that facilitates the extension of lines rather than <br />tapping on to them.