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VOTE ON CONSENT AGENDA: UNANIMOUS ITEMS REMOVED FROM CONSENT AGENDA f. Notice of Public Hearing on Orange County's 2003 Legislative Agenda The Board considered providing notice that it will hold a public hearing March 24, 2003 on potential items to be included in Orange County's agenda package for the 2003 legislative session. Commissioner Jacobs pointed out that the subcommittee cannot meet until the 18t", and the public hearing is the 24t". He said that the committee will get the materials to the Board as soon as possible, but it may not go out at the same time as the other agenda materials. A motion was made by Commissioner Jacobs, seconded by Commissioner Carey to: 1. Direct the Clerk to the Board and the County Manager, on behalf of the Board of Commissioners, to publish a notice of the Board's intent to hold a public hearing on March 24, 2003 at 7:30 p.m. in the F. Gordon Battle Courtroom at the New Courthouse in Hillsborough, North Carolina to receive public comments on potential items for inclusion in Orange County's legislative agenda package for the 2003 North Carolina General Assembly Session; and 2. Direct the County Attorney to contact Orange County's legislative delegation and request that two blank bills, one to address any financial issues and one to address any other matters, be introduced in each chamber of the General Assembly. This will reserve the opportunity far members of the delegation to introduce any legislation, which the Board of County Commissioners might request as part of its legislative package. VOTE: UNANIMOUS 9. ITEMS FOR DECISION -REGULAR AGENDA a. Establishment of Board Goal to Examine Possible Schao) Merger The Board considered establishing a formal Board of Commissioners' goal that would call for the examination of the implications of merging the Orange County and Chapel Hill-Carrboro school systems. Commissioner Carey said that what he proposed was what the abstract says and the proposal was not to merge the schools this year but to make the decision and engage school boards in a process to adopt a goal to merge the schools. This requires a lot of dialogue and includes the feedback from the public and both school boards. He said that we need to proceed with this and should adapt this goal of moving forward and gathering information. Commissioner Halkiotis made reference to item 3 and the impacts of a passible merger on the rural buffer and growth and development patterns in the County. John Link said that the staff has tried to reflect the comments and suggestions made by individual Commissioners. If there is anything included in the cited task and specific milestones that the County Commissioners find troubling, then they can remove it. Commissioner Halkiotis said that if any talk of merger will encourage a rural buffer controversy then he does not want to do this. Commissioner Carey said that he thinks that we will learn what people think as we go along the process. He does not envision that the merger might adversely impact the land use planning process. Commissioner Jacobs said that the sentence could easily be changed to say, "a detailed analysis of the impacts of a possible merger on land use, including the affects an the growth and development patterns of the entire County." The mention of the rural buffer could be left out. John Link said that for sake of the audience the objective that the staff has presented to the Board is to examine the pros, cons, and other implications of a potential merger of the Orange County Schools and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. The understanding is that the County Commissioners would like the staff to pursue a timetable between now and August to respond to five areas of potential impact -finance; governance and implementation; public information, input, and education; educational and student impacts; and other impacts and implications. The staff recommends that they provide the Board interim reports as they proceed with this. The staff will be gathering facts and information and will talk with the NCACC and see what other counties have done before school merger.