Minutes 01-27-2017 - Laserfiche WebLink

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20 General Framework for Making the County More Resilient The group then focused on a more general discussion, prompted by these three questions on the agenda: What policy issues other than the three examples are especially vulnerable to external forces of change?What external forces of change other than the ones already discussed in the three examples are of interest/concern to you?What are some ideas that might be applied across the County's policy agenda for making the County more resilient? Bonnie Hammersley distributed a handout with examples of potential additional policy issues relevant to the general resilience discussion. She said these issues have not been included in other County planning documents, such as the CIP. They are items they have heard about in other forums and from other entities that she thought the Board should be aware of. Chair Dorosin said that Orange County has a rural-urban divide, much like the divide in the rest of the country illustrated by the most recent presidential election results. He said he does not want to make too much of it and would rather highlight what they have in common. How do they in their local rural and urban communities reaffirm their commitment to each other? What broader collaborative efforts would advance partnerships across their rural and urban communities in Orange County? How can they recognize the different needs in these communities as well as their shared goals? Chair Dorosin said in addition, he is acutely aware, as Board Chair, that some groups are more sophisticated at reaching out to them and better organized than others; how do they provide ways for all people in their community to communicate with them. Commissioner Jacobs said local agriculture brings people together in unique ways. He noted that next month Chair Dorosin will give the opening remarks at the 19th Orange County Agricultural Summit. They are one of the leaders in this state of promoting a local agricultural economy. This included their Lands Legacy Program, their conservation easements, PFAP, and what they are doing in Cedar Grove. They do this well and can look at their endeavors with an eye toward identifying what they can do better. Commissioner Jacobs said they can communicate with people in their urbanized areas to let them know how all of this contributes to their quality of life, to educate them about the value of the Rural Buffer. They also can communicate with people in their rural areas to ensure that they know they respect and appreciate what they do, and want to make it possible for them to make a living in agriculture. If they can identify things like that, it would smooth out the edges between the communities that sometimes see themselves as adverse when in fact they are interdependent. Chair Dorosin suggested the County recruit a cadre of"ambassadors" who would travel around the county, learn about all the wonderful things that are taking place, and then talk about those things back in their civic organizations, churches and neighborhoods. There are Friends of the Animal Shelter, for example, and Friends of the Library, so why not Friends of the County or Friends of Solid Waste? It is easy for people to know about the things that affect them directly, but harder for them to know about all of our parks or our Lands Legacy Program. Commissioner Marcoplos suggested "Friends of the Tax Office." Chair Dorosin added that the Tax Office has programs to help veterans, the elderly and the disabled; every meeting they get requests from people who say they did not know about programs they're eligible for. They need a "Friends of the Tax Office". Commissioner Rich said that the Family Success Alliance uses a similar model: they have ambassadors from their different neighborhoods whose job it is to learn about what is available for their zone, and they bring that information back. Every working parent cannot come to their meetings, but their ambassadors serve as conduits of information. Commissioner Rich said there are different ways to share information. Everything is not going to be in the meeting minutes or on TV. These new and different ideas for communicating are an important theme coming out of today's conversation.