Orange County NC Website
37 <br />Approved 11/5/14 <br />913 <br />Herman Staats: My own personal feeling about making a recommendation is what I said earlier, if you have <br />914 <br />opportunity for public input but no one comes then yes we can make recommendations based on the written <br />915 <br />guidelines but you still don’t have public input. So the whole goal of us discussing this tonight was to increase and <br />916 <br />have a better access to public input but if they don’t come then we’re not increasing public input. I thought this whole <br />917 <br />process came up of how do we get more feedback from the public and how do we get them involved. <br />918 <br />919 <br />Perdita Holtz: That’s one part of it. <br />920 <br />921 <br />Maxecine Mitchell: Right now, I’m going to go with leaving things the way they are right now. <br />922 <br />923 <br />Perdita Holtz: Increasing the public involvement, that’s certainly one part of it Herman, about increasing the public <br />924 <br />involvement however, the increasing of public involvement is really pertinent to quasi-judicial matters and so I am <br />925 <br />trying to nail down more of what you are all thinking about the legislative matters and we’re going to have to tackle <br />926 <br />quasi-judicial at some other time. <br />927 <br />928 <br />Pete Hallenbeck: Yes, I agree, just talking legislative and I think I agree with Herman that if we can make a <br />929 <br />recommendation or decision, we will but there may be circumstances where we just can’t. <br />930 <br />931 <br />Michael Harvey: Is the concern that not enough citizens are interested in showing up and you’re going to make a <br />932 <br />recommendation in a vacuum. <br />933 <br />934 <br />Pete Hallenbeck: No, if nobody shows up and they have met all the requirements for what they are trying to do and it <br />935 <br />meets the UDO, I say we make a decision and say yes, we’re all for this. I think the times where we wouldn’t make a <br />936 <br />decision would be like the solar array. <br />937 <br />938 <br />Paul Guthrie: It’s not judicial, we’re not encumbered on that solution that we have something, nobody shows up, we <br />939 <br />have a question about it, we could send that to the Commissioners and it could be incorporated in the call for the <br />940 <br />public hearing. <br />941 <br />942 <br />Pete Hallenbeck: Yes, all that is possible and again it’s part of being an advisory board there <br />943 <br />944 <br />Tony Blake: Let me just suggest just opposing the whole thing for just a second here. Why not add, and I think other <br />945 <br />boards have this thing that they have sort of a County Commissioner liaison. Why not require that liaison to be here <br />946 <br />for quasi-judicial, no quasi-judicial right? Then they can carry that feedback back to the other County <br />947 <br />Commissioners. <br />948 <br />949 <br />Pete Hallenbeck: We’re going to stick with the legislative, quasi-judicial is a very strict process. <br />950 <br />951 <br />Perdita Holtz: There are reasons there’s not a BOCC liaison for the Planning Board and I don’t think there is going to <br />952 <br />be. <br />953 <br />954 <br />Pete Hallenbeck: I think the changes we’re talking about is we have the 45 days, we’re just saying let the public <br />955 <br />come and present input either in writing or verbally at the Planning Board meeting that’s part of the notification they <br />956 <br />get. We will discuss it there will be times when we can make a recommendation and there will be times when we’ll <br />957 <br />just throw our hands up and there will probably be times when we go, we don’t really want to get near this thing and <br />958 <br />we kick it back to the Commissioners. <br />959 <br />960 <br />Paul Guthrie: Would that be mandatory or just advisory? Could we simply say you may wish to come to a Planning <br />961 <br />Board meeting prior to the public hearing? <br />962 <br />963 <br />Pete Hallenbeck: Yes, but part of this isto explain the process, is that exact language. You’re not required but if you <br />964 <br />care to this is great as it gives us better input sooner, the Commissioners read your feedback before the quarterly <br />965 <br />public hearing. That explanation should enough to let a citizen realize how the process works. <br />966 <br />18 <br /> <br />