Minutes 02-20-2018 - Laserfiche WebLink

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2 The Board agreed by consensus. Ellie Kinnaird said she is here to speak to Item 8 -g: Letter to Cardinal Innovations in Support of Club Nova’s Request for Capital Funding. She thanked the BOCC for its support, and said Club Nova is taking time to tell people what they do. She said Club Nova fulfills a policy that was created in the 1980s, when the institutions for the chronically mentally ill were closed down with the goal of providing services in the community. She said Club Nova is a day program where the mentally ill can gather, which meets in a 100-year old house. She said a variety of programming is offered to meet all levels of need. She said socialization is very important for the chronically mentally ill. She said Club Nova provides three meals a day, transportation, follow up pertaining to health and medication needs, transitional employment, etc. She said all of these services allow for the clients to receive care, families to know their loved ones are safe, and the taxpayer to see that these clients are not re-hospitalized, incarcerated or homeless. Commissioner McKee arrived at 7:10 p.m. Commissioner Price said Cardinal Innovations has changed some of its policies, and she asked Cardinal Innovations if it would now provide funding for residential construction, and she was told yes. She said Cardinal Innovations encouraged Club Nova to apply for funding. Commissioner Jacobs said the Board of County Commissioners has always been supportive of Club Nova. Ivy Barger said she is here to address the plans of a neo-confederate group to erect a billboard size confederate symbol in every county in the state, including Orange County. She said this group considers this symbol to be a flag, but according to the Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) these are not flags but signs, and, as such, should be subject to the sign code. She said this symbol is not a flag of a country, state or political subdivision, and thus does not fulfill the UDO’s definition of a flag. She asked the BOCC to apply the sign code to the planned display. Heather Ann Redding said she is here to discuss the aspects of the permit granted for the 60-foot flagpole in northern Orange County, off of route 70. She said she is not here to contest the content, imagery, or related messaging of the anticipated flag, but rather an issue regarding code compliance enforcements. She said signs on private property can be regulated, and referred to portions of the UDO to support this. Hillary MacKenzie declined to speak. Patricia Clayton said she is the President of Northern Orange chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and is concerned about the raising of this proposed flag. She said the NAACP is against racial hatred, division, and discrimination, and encouraged the BOCC to please vote against the confederate flag. Joe Cole said his family is from West Virginia, and many family members were coal miners. He said his parents left W est Virginia, as his father did not want to be a coal miner. He said he has a heritage that is rooted in the south, and in a blue-collar community. He said there is a lot of complexity in the history of poor white people in the south, and in recent years, he learned that one of his great grandfathers was a part of the Ku Klux Klan, and some of his ancestors were slave owners. He said, to him, the confederate flag is a symbol of racism and terrorism. He said he knows that he has racism in himself, but this flag is a symbol that promotes racial hatred. He said this symbol should not be so large that it can intimidate people of color.