Agenda - 04-03-2012 - 6b - Laserfiche WebLink

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2 BACKGROUND: The North Carolina General Assembly convenes on Wednesday, May 16, 2012. In past years the Board of Commissioners has appointed finro Commissioners to serve on a Legislative Issues Work Group (LIWG) to work with staff to develop a proposed legislative package for the County. Based on the work of the LIWG, the BOCC has then reviewed and approved packages of legislative items to pursue for the respective North Carolina General Assembly sessions. Commissioners Earl McKee and Barry Jacobs are serving on the 2012 LIWG and have worked with staff on the proposed 2012 legislative package which is attached. At its March 13, 2012 regular meeting, the Board approved an item on the Consent agenda authorizing a public hearing on Orange County's proposed 2012 legislative agenda during tonight's regular meeting (Attachment 1 - public hearing notice which was published in six different local newspapers). The notice of the public hearing was also posted on the County's website for approximately the last ten days. After conducting the public hearing, the Board will likely want to review and discuss the LIWG's proposed 2012 legislative package items and any other items as may be addressed during the public hearing. The Board will then need to consider the legislative matters resolutions with exhibits and other documents based on the public hearing and Board discussion. The legislative matters resolutions (Attachments 2 and 3), with draft bills attached as exhibits, relate to the Orange-Alamance County Line and Broadband Grants for Economic Development. It should be noted that, as the BOCC considers the Orange-Alamance County Line resolution and draft bill, the Alamance County Board of Commissioners has not taken any action on this matter. The third legislative matters resolution (Attachment 4) for Board consideration addresses statewide issues. The last finro documents of the proposed package — "Areas of Support" and "Items of Interest" — detail issues that the LIWG thought should be noted due to their overall significance and/or interest to Orange County (Attachment 5). It should also be noted that Commissioners Jacobs and McKee have provided a memorandum at Attachment 6 addressing a potential hunting deer with dogs legislative item. Although included in the 2011 legislative package, the LIWG decided to not include the hunting deer with dogs item in the proposed 2012 legislative package. The memorandum details background information utilized by the LIWG in determining to not include the item. Lastly, in preparation for its April 16, 2012 meeting with Orange County's legislative delegation, the Board may want to consider identifying three to five specific items from the entire package to highlight for priority discussion. The work of the Legislative Issues Work Group to this point is based on the current information available for the 2012 General Assembly Session. The issues addressed by the Group may evolve and change over the session and require additional attention by the Group and Board of Commissioners. New issues may also arise necessitating additional review. For reference purposes, staff has provided the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners (NCACC),2011-12 Adopted Legislative Goals (Attachment 7). Some of the items in the draft 2012 legislative package generally coincide with NCACC's goals and those items are noted in the package accordingly.