Agenda - 05-01-2018 8-a - Minutes

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14 John Roberts said Staff Attorney James Bryan attends all BOA Meetings, and he does 1 not advocate on behalf of staff at the BOA meetings. He said the attorney can answer a 2 planning staff question before it makes its way to the BOA, but the attorney does not advocate 3 on behalf of the staff. He said should this situation arise, then outside counsel would be 4 retained. 5 Commissioner Jacobs said a county attorney was added to the BOA meetings as 6 developers were bringing their own attorneys to the BOA meetings. He said having an attorney 7 present is a good thing. He said the issue here is whether there should be recourse to the BOA 8 if it feels it requires or desires the additional support of outside counsel. 9 Commissioner Jacobs said he does not want to spend the extra money to have outside 10 counsel at every BOA meeting, and he feels that the County Attorney’s office does a good job; 11 however, the BOA should be given the opportunity to request outside counsel if it deemed it 12 necessary. 13 Chair Dorosin said there some things already being put in motion to improve the BOA 14 process: 15 • Recording BOA meeting 16 17 Bonnie Hammersley said she received quotes from the Clerk for the recording team at 18 the Whitted facility, and she will be recommending this as part of the FY17-18 budget for all of 19 the additional meetings. 20 21 • Access to public records on line 22 John Roberts said last session, the General Assembly passed a law changing the way 23 cities and counties can respond, and have that response be compliant with the law. He said he 24 began working with the IT Director to post almost all public records requests on line, and the 25 final process is being drafted now. He said once this is done, they will be able to get this 26 started for countywide responses to public record requests. He expects this process to be 27 completed in a month or two. 28 Chair Dorosin clarified that if one makes a public records request, the response to the 29 request will be posted on line so that not only the requestor can access them, but all of the 30 public may do so as well. 31 John Roberts said yes, there will be about a 10 day turn around between a request 32 being made and online access to view the response. 33 34 • Training for BOA members upon joining the BOA 35 John Roberts said Professor Owens has a webinar series, which includes: “Conducting 36 an Evidentiary Hearing” and “Making a Quasi-Judicial Decision”. He said both of these are 37 available to the BOA. 38 Craig Benedict, Planning Director, said a full year of access to the webinars was 39 purchased in December 2017. He said these are interactive webinars for either the BOA or 40 Planning Board. He said new members go through an orientation, including rules of procedure, 41 by laws, and a review of county created brochures. He said access to these webinars will be 42 helpful. 43 Chair Dorosin thanked staff for all its efforts on these different topics. He said the 44 question of outside counsel remains. He asked if Commissioner McKee wanted outside 45 counsel at all cases, or if he would prefer to follow the lead of the Town of Chapel Hill where 46 independent counsel is hired when necessary 47 Commissioner McKee said he would like independent counsel retained for all cases. 48 49