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The Board recognized the staff of the Orange County Budget Office for earning the Government Finance Officers' Association (GFOA) Distinguished Budget Presentation Award far the 2003-04 fiscal year budget documents and presented the GFOA plaque to them. John Link said that this award is very hard to obtain. The Budget Office has received this award 12 out of the last 13 years. Rod Visser recognized Budget Director Donna Dean, Budget Analyst Paul Laughton, and Rooney Mestas. Donna Dean thanked her staff and all departments for their support. b. Proposed fJrange County "Air Quality Response" The Board received a presentation an a proposed "Air Quality Response", outlining a series of initiatives underway and/or proposed to address current and upcoming air quality issues in the County. Karen Lincoln said that on April 15th the EPA published a list designating the Triangle area as non-attainment for ground level ozone. The State will be developing an implementation plan over the next few years to reduce the ozone levels in the non-attainment areas. In the meantime, Orange County has been developing some initiatives. At the Board retreat in January, it asked the Commission far the Environment to proceed with plans to look into reports from other localities and evaluate mitigation standards that could be implemented. The commission will also look at the recommendations of the Greater Triangle Regional Council. They anticipate a report this fall. A second effort that is being coordinated with Orange County, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro is to produce a greenhouse gas emissions inventory and develop a greenhouse gas reduction action plan. Another initiative is to purchase alternative fuels and low emissions vehicles for the County fleet. She said that ERCD had applied for a grant, but the funds were eliminated because of the State budget crisis. They are looking into locating a compressed natural gas fueling station in Hillsborough. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he is interested in this. He thinks the County and Town governments have been good stewards of the land and have been careful. He read an page 3, "Local governments play a key role because they directly influence and control many of the activities that produce these emissions." He made reference to Cary, which is wide open and building everywhere. He is not convinced that the neighboring counties have felt the pain enough to get the message across yet. He thinks everyone needs to step up to the plate and show their commitment. He is tired of everyone putting it on our plate. He has not seen much commitment coming from neighboring counties. Commissioner Gordon made reference to page 5 regarding bio-diesel. She asked what would be used at a CNG fueling station in Hillsborough -bio-diesel, natural gas, or both. Karen Lincoln will take this back to the staff. Chair Jacobs said that there was a recommendation to go with compressed natural gas, but he would like to review the thinking behind this because CNG is not a renewable resource. Commissioner Brawn said that it is important to understand the relationship between high-density development and people having the opportunity to use public transportation and actual use of public transportation. This is a very difficult change far people to make, even though the claim far high-density development is that somehow people will use public transportation. Craig Benedict said that a lot of the successful public transportation systems were a result of bad transportation situations where it got to the point that public transportation was the only alternative. There have not been many proactive successful public transportation initiatives. Craig Benedict said that he thinks we will have to look at every possible facet of reducing emissions to make the program work.