Agenda - 05-15-2018 8-a - Minutes

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16 reasonable request to stress the importance Orange County places on protecting the 1 environment. He said there is a re-entry forum tomorrow, and he was going to share that 2 Orange County was one of the first counties in the country to adopt a social justice goal. He 3 said changes like this are symbolically important. 4 Commissioner Burroughs said she does not read the social justice goal either, but she 5 would not oppose this proposal. She said she is not sure how many people read the abstracts, 6 but agrees with the sentiment of this being a symbolic gesture. 7 Commissioner Price said she skips over the social justice goal, but as she reads the 8 abstracts she does look for social justice and environment impacts. She said she would not 9 oppose this proposal. 10 Commissioner Marcoplos said he looks at the impact statements on the current 11 abstracts, which seem to atrophy. He said the goals could be made more specific and useful 12 with salient points. He said climate change is the biggest crisis in human history, and this point 13 should be made apparent any chance possible. He said if the BOCC makes policy, it should 14 understand how the policy affects the environment in very specific ways. He said it is of 15 paramount importance. 16 Commissioner Price said noting specific, measurable impacts makes sense, but just 17 making a general statement of commitment seems to have no measurable impact. She 18 suggested putting all of the Board’s goals at the front of every abstract. 19 Commissioner Jacobs said repeating the goal does nothing, and he would rather see a 20 relationship between these impacts and the abstract substance. 21 Commissioner McKee said if the abstracts became more specific, then he would read 22 them more closely, but the Board needs to be respectful of staff time in compiling these goal 23 statements. 24 Commissioner Marcoplos agreed with that, but if the BOCC is going to have the goals, 25 then adequate effort should be put in to define the impact of a particular policy. He said the 26 financial impact is always very specifically stated, and the other goals are no less important 27 than finances, and warrant specific impacts as well. 28 Bonnie Hammersley said she has talked with some staff about this, and they would 29 bring back some criteria for the environmental goals. She said staff considers the social justice 30 goals with each abstract, and the BOCC has been clear on what it values pertaining to social 31 justice, and this is not a cumbersome task for the staff. She said a similar practice could be 32 followed with environmental goals. 33 Chair Dorosin said he is not sure how useful the goals are currently, nor is he sure how 34 easy it would be to do this at the level that Commissioner Marcoplos is thinking. He said it 35 would be helpful to make these goals more effective, and he is not sure that just tasking it to 36 staff is the best way to do it. He said each item in the agenda abstract could state which goals 37 it hits, and the Board could flesh out details in discussion. He said he was a big supporter of 38 including the social justice goal, and it has become a bit rote. He said specific information 39 would be helpful, but there needs to be a practical way to accomplish this. He said the BOCC 40 receives the agendas on a Friday, and could task itself with looking at an agenda item and 41 requesting more information if a particular item has more environmental or and social justice 42 implications. He said he wants to optimize these goals, while being mindful of giving open- 43 ended work to staff. He said he liked Commissioner Price’s idea of having all six goals at the 44 front of each agenda. 45 Commissioner Burroughs said she also liked Commissioner Price’s idea of putting the 46 goals on the front of the agenda. She said if an issue has a clear impact on the environment, 47 and the BOCC would like this specific information, then the staff should feel empowered to 48 highlight such significance to the Board. 49