Minutes 02-20-2018 - Laserfiche WebLink

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5 found the article was fairly erroneous. He said the article fired people up with misinformation, and he said the MPO is going to have a committee on communications. He asked if there is a better way to get on top of controversial issues in the future, in order to provide factual information up front. Commissioner Marcoplos said last night he attended a presentation by the group working on the tiny homes initiative. He said this initiative is doing a lot of work in showing the roadblocks to tiny homes, and he encouraged everyone to find out more. Commissioner Burroughs said she attended the Family Success Alliance (FSA) meeting, and the FSA has been invited to submit a significant proposal to the Kenan Trust. She said the new head of United W ay for the Triangle attended the FSA meeting, and said the United Way is again changing the way it does funding. She said UNC has applied for, and received, more funding to help with evaluations. Commissioner Jacobs said this Monday is the 20th Orange County Agricultural Summit at the Whitted building. Commissioner Jacobs petitioned to direct staff/Commission for the Environment to research how Orange County can be qualified as a “Bee Friendly County”. Commissioner Jacobs said he asked that the new Elections Director to come and talk to the Board about the safety of their votes. He said he served on the State Commission on Electronic Voting, and they found that the machines in Orange County are hard to hack, but they did see a demonstration about how easy it is to get into electronic machines. He said a review would be good. Commissioner Jacobs referred to the MPO vote, and said it was an unfortunate decision from the Durham representatives to undercut the collegial relationships that were created about the light rail. He said Durham’s petition to remove certain projects would have failed 5-3, because Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Chatham, Orange and Hillsborough voted no; but because it was a weighted vote, these 5 entities lost. He said this does not set a good tone for the future. He said he believes GoTriangle staff has an answer to when there is a check-in point in the project, which he believes is related to insufficient funds being available in order to proceed. Commissioner Rich said they are talking about removing projects that may or may not be getting state funding, and it is important that everyone understands what the SPOT 5.0 is, and how the state funding works. She said this could be an information item on an upcoming agenda. Commissioner Price said she has worked with the SPOT series before, and with the Triangle Area Rural Planning Organization (TARPO) there is a level of trust and collaboration where they shared the points system. Commissioner Price said the Orange County Mental Health Work Group toured the WakeBrook Behavioral Health facility in Raleigh. She said local judges and other criminal justice staff attended, and they were looking at ways to help keep people with mental health needs out of jail. Commissioner Price said she also attended the Lantern Festival, and Chapel Hill- Carrboro City Schools (CHCCS) won the dragon dance. Chair Dorosin said he attended a good school collaboration meeting this morning. He said one of the discussion items was safety within the schools. He said one suggestion was for the two school boards and Orange County to meet with the Community Emergency Response Collective to share information. He said he suggested hosting a community listening session to allow the public to receive up to date information regarding school safety. Chair Dorosin said he had a meeting with Community Home Trust Director, Robert Dowling and Kevin Foy yesterday, who are Chairs of the InterFaith Council’s (IFC) campaign for the Food First facility in Carrboro. He said this project may be one of which the Board of