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televised. Public comment will be allowed (total time: 15 minutes, 3 minutes/person) at the end of these additional transfer station siting process meetings. VOTE ON CONSENT AGENDA: UNANIMOUS ITEMS REMOVED FROM CONSENT AGENDA: I. Contract for Public Survey for Local Revenue Options Referendum The Board considered a contract with Hertzog Research, LLC for an amount of$9,985, to conduct a telephone survey of likely Orange County voters regarding their attitudes towards the possible implementation of an additional one-quarter cent sales tax or a .4% land transfer tax on real property transactions, and authorizing the Manager to execute the agreement. Commissioner Nelson said that this is for a poll of the residents of Orange County on the revenue options and he has questions. He wants to know why this is being done, what the strategy is, how the firm is chosen, what the criteria is, etc. Laura Blackmon said that this was brought up at a work session on January 16th, and the Chair asked staff to look at polling as an option for the referendum in May. Since the timeframe was small, staff contacted Rod Visser and he contacted Durham County on how the process was done there last fall. Orange County did not issue an RFP because it would have taken many more weeks for the process. Staff met with Dr. Mark Hertzog and he said that he could have the results to the Board by February 19th. She referred to the abstract and the types of questions that would be asked of citizens. The reason for the poll is to gauge public sentiment on this local revenue option issue and the Board of County Commissioners will be making a decision on February 19th as to which option it would prefer on the referendum. There was a survey done by Orange County in 1992 and the costs were similar. Rod Visser said that Dr. Hertzog came highly recommended by Durham County staff. He said that the NCACC has held two seminars related to the local revenue options issue, and Dr. Hertzog served on this panel, in which he presented the pros and cons of polling, etc. Dr. Hertzog's business is in Orange County. Dr. Mark Hertzog gave his credentials. He is the Principal of Hertzog Research, LLC. He is a marketing and opinion research contractor based in Carrboro. Commissioner Nelson asked about the benefit of doing polling at this stage in the process. He asked about Dr. Hertzog's credentials of doing political polling. Dr. Hertzog said that he has a PhD in Government from the University of Virginia with a specialization in American Public Opinion and Voting Behavior. He has 17 years of survey research experience, the first seven years of which were in academia specifically doing public opinion polling and analyzing public opinion polling. For the last ten years, five of which have been under his business, he has done a combination of market research and public opinion studies. With respect to the benefits of polling, he said that the main things to come out of it would be to inform the Board of County Commissioners about which measures look like they will have any degree of significant public support or opposition and the reasons for any opposition. A second benefit would be to gather information on what local news sources people use to gather information about local affairs specifically. The goal would be to get a target on what people are listening to, watching, or reading, and how to educate the public through these measures. Commissioner Nelson asked what questions would be asked and Dr. Hertzog said that they would ask open-ended questions such as, "What would be your reasons for voting no?" Chair Jacobs said that this was put on the agenda for action as early as possible, understanding that there was a tight timeline. Commissioner Carey asked about the threshold for the County Manager to make contract decisions and Laura Blackmon said $5,000. Commissioner Carey asked if the County was required to get bids for professional service contracts and Laura Blackmon said no.