Agenda - 09-04-2014 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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27 1 Chair Jacobs said SWAB had a UNC position, but the university never appointed 2 anyone and sent a staff person instead, so they were never officially a member. He does not 3 remember if Hillsborough had one or not. 4 Commissioner Rich said she attended some meetings years ago, and she did not 5 remember any one from Hillsborough being there. She asked if Chair Jacobs has spoken with 6 any at UNC about this. 7 Chair Jacobs said no. He said he and Commissioner McKee were waiting for the new 8 manager to set up a meeting with the new Chancellor. He said there has been discussion of 9 taking the Chancellor on a tour of the County in the fall, to some of the places where there are 10 joint projects and interests. He said this item was one of the topics planned for that meeting. 11 Commissioner McKee noted, in response the Commissioner Price's question, that slot 12 10 and slot 12 are open. 13 Dorosin proposed the addition of three more residents to the listing, to make it an even 14 15, with 5 Orange County residents. He feels the current proposal is weighted too heavily 15 toward government representatives. He said the diverse interest and needs of the people 16 around the County makes it reasonable to go up to 15. 17 18 PUBLIC COMMENT: 19 Bonnie Hauser thanked the Board for considering this work group. She loves the idea, 20 but is confused by the purpose and scope. She thought the goal was to have a one year effort 21 to clarify the current services and funding equity and to form the basis for a new interlocal 22 agreement with the towns and an updated service and fee model. She said topics such as 23 landfills, alternative technologies and handling bio solids are much more strategic and belong in 24 a different group. She said these issues will take years to resolve and require specific skills and 25 partnerships. She hoped this workgroup would work on services, costs, and funding for existing 26 services, such as recycling, waste reduction, convenience centers, and possibly the siting of a 27 local transfer station. She thought the goal was for a committed interlocal agreement with the 28 towns and better service and equitable funding for the unincorporated parts of the County. She 29 said recent testimony from residents revealed that services in the unincorporated area are 30 broken. She said the County needs to clarify the needs of curbside users versus convenience 31 center users. She said this suggests the need for at least 2 citizen participants from the 32 unincorporated area to represent both types of users. She agrees with Commissioner 33 Dorosin's comment regarding the inclusion of 5 citizens. She said residents remain concerned 34 about the cost of service, transparency and equitable funding. She hopes the workgroup will be 35 asked to benchmark services and costs versus other counties. She asked for a limited focus 36 for the workgroup, to include a 5 year plan for current services. 37 38 Commissioner Pelissier said she is not clear, looking at this list, what this group would 39 actually accomplish. She said the Board has been asking the towns for years to be in this 40 together. She would like to see a small group of elected officials come up with an interlocal 41 agreement to define the process by which these issues are worked out. She suggested the 42 inclusion of a focus on some of the immediate needs. She said the issue of how to pay for 43 recycling has been deferred two times. She is afraid that a long list and a large group will 44 prevent anything concrete from being accomplished by next budget cycle. 45 Chair Jacobs clarified that this group is charged to come back to the Assembly of 46 Governments (AOG) meeting in November, after sorting through these issues and prioritizing 47 them into short and long term needs. He said the thinking was to allow the group to determine 48 and define what was important in the short and long term plan. He said obviously the majority 49 of these will not be resolved in a six month period, but it would be up to the group to make the