Agenda - 10-21-2014 - 6a - Laserfiche WebLink

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W 1 upon the Board of County Commissioners to adopt a resolution affirming the rights of children 2 to attend public schools in the County in which they reside, regardless of their immigration 3 status. He asked that the Board consider a resolution in that regard. 4 Commissioner Dorosin said the 2015 draft meeting calendar has been distributed for the 5 Board's review. He said there are an unprecedented number of meetings, and he would like to 6 look at how these are scheduled. He said there are several times when there are weeks with 7 multiple meetings, and then there are weeks with none. He feels there might be a more 8 balanced way of scheduling these 51 meetings. 9 10 Chair Jacobs reminded everyone that petitions are referred to agenda review and will 11 come back with a recommendation as soon as possible. 12 13 Commissioner Gordon reviewed the following memo regarding her petition on Policies 14 for the Language Used in County Documents: 15 16 The language used in all county documents should support the policies, goals and objectives of 17 the county. Right now the county has some existing practices, but they should be made into 18 policies so that they would be consistently followed. In the future, as appropriate, the county 19 could develop other policies for the language used in county documents. 20 21 The county should adopt the following two policies, and then all county departments should be 22 informed that the policies are in place. 23 24 1. Gender Neutral Language 25 All county documents should use gender neutral language. As new documents are created or 26 existing documents are renewed or revised, they should be checked for compliance with that 27 policy. For example, the term "Chair" should be used rather than "Chairman," the term 28 "firefighter" should be used rather "fireman," pronouns should not automatically be male, and so 29 forth. 30 31 2. Abbreviations 32 The language of county documents should be as clear and transparent as possible, and a part 33 of achieving that goal is to have guidelines for the use of abbreviations, including the following 34 two: 35 a. Any abbreviation should be used with care. 36 b. The first time an abbreviation is used, it should be spelled out, so that the reader will know 37 what is being referenced. For example, the county department dealing with county lands would 38 appear first as Department of Environment, Agriculture, Parks and Recreation (DEAPR) and 39 then, subsequently, as DEAPR. 40 41 Commissioner Gordon referred to a resolution from the Commission for the 42 Environment (CFE) that was sent to the Board in November 2013, and she asked that this be 43 considered for one of the Board agendas. 44 Commissioner Rich said she has been working with the Information Technology Director 45 and County Manager on the issue of public emails. She said there have been discussions 46 regarding the possibility of putting emails online for the public to see. She said the research 47 has been done, and it is time to put that petition forward in order to look at the research and 48 decide whether to put funds toward this effort. 49 Commissioner Rich said her next petition is for the planning department. She would like 50 to know when a controversial plan has been withdrawn.