Minutes - 12-09-2000 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Communications Commissioner Gordon feels that strides have been made. She made reference to page 3 and the fact that the Information Specialist in the Commissioners' office would develop a Strategic Communications Plan. She made reference to the Commissioners' task force of Commissioner Gordon and Commissioner Jacobs and suggested that they get together again and address any other items that have not been addressed. Commissioner Jacobs agreed with that. Commissioner Jacobs would like to do a comprehensive review of notices that are sent to citizens because he still has same concerns about the tone and intent. He would like to identify the types of notices that the County sends out, make sure the Commissioners are okay with them, etc. Commissioner Brown agreed with Commissioner Jacobs. She said that the County does not have anyone on staff to develop brochures and creative publications. Commissioner Carey feels it is time to move in the direction of considering a Public Information Officer. (page 10} Beverly Blythe explained the memo about the PIO dated December 8, 20Q0. She talked about the need for a PIO. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to the last paragraph of the memo and asked for more clarity on what the staff committee would do to help coordinate communications efforts. He said that this would be a good time to have staff create some focus to be coordinated short term and then figure out what to do long term through either a new position or a reorientation of an existing position. John Link feels that we need to take a look structurally at how we want to address communications. Commissioner Gordan and Commissioner Jacobs will work with the staff on the issue of the PIO. Economic Development Districts Commissioner Gordon made reference to the language on page 4, objective 2, "Research, Propose, and Implement Refinements to the Hillsborough EDD Area." She said that the language was similar to the language used for the Buckhorn EDD. She asked if, by using the same language, the County was making a commitment to allocate money. Commissioner Brown suggested that this objective be rewritten to say that the Buckhorn EDD will track with the Board of County Commissioners' review and the Planning Department's development of the small area plan for Efland, the water issue, etc. Planning Director Craig Benedict said that this language was not intended to be a commitment of funding. It is just an examination of one of the elements of providing water and sewer -when it will be extended, etc. Commissioner Jacobs said that the County did have an interest in discussing water and sewer systems with Hillsborough. He said that this issue should be addressed under Cooperative Agreements for water and sewer service. Commissioner Gordon suggested deleting the statement about water and sewer systems on page 4. She suggested that the staff bring the goal back to reflect the statements as made by the Commissioners. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to page 7 and noted that there are no dates on when the County would be working with Durham. He said that last year Durham agreed to coordinate with Orange County in respect to the land use plan. He said that it would be nice to have some dates so the County Commissioners would have some sense of what is going on. Effective and Efficient School Fundina Commissioner Brown has a concern about expenditures for each school system and funding equity. She is not sure that the new standards will provide equitable funding. Chair Halkiotis said that one school system has made a decision to get prototype schools to cut costs and the other school system has same serious concerns about using prototype schools. He