Minutes 02-19-2019 Regular Meeting

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20 Mental Health Funding — Seek legislation that: a) provides adequate State-funded mental health, developmental disability, and substance abuse services and facilities at the local level, accessible and affordable to all residents and that sufficient state resources fund service provision costs inclusive of sufficient crisis intervention and treatment, and to structure appropriate county participation in governance; and b) provides funding to develop and implement a plan to reduce the number of people with mental health issues in county jails (See EXHIBIT A— National Association of Counties (NACo) Stepping Up Initiative); Non-Partisan Redistricting Process for Elections — Support legislation to establish a process for an independent, non-partisan redistricting process after each United States Census for the election of representatives from North Carolina to the United States House of Representatives, the North Carolina House, and the North Carolina Senate; Criminal Justice Reform/Juvenile Jurisdiction — Support legislation to develop and fund a plan to: a) help reduce unnecessary charges and arrests by expanding the use of pre-arrest diversion and the issuance of citations or summons, replace reliance on money bail with non-financial conditions of release such as written promises to appear, or the least restrictive available conditions, and restrict detention to the small number of people for whom no condition or combination of conditions can reasonably assure appearance in court and public safety, reduce disparity within the pretrial justice system; support the collection of local data regarding pre-trial release outcomes; and increased funding for pre-trial release supervision programs that utilize evidence-based best practices; and b) address developmentally inappropriate limits on juvenile court jurisdiction, demographic and geographic disparities, inadequate representation in juvenile court, unnecessary juvenile detention, lifelong collateral consequences stemming from juvenile court involvement, and punitive school policies and practices that push students into the court system. Commissioner Marcoplos said he would like to propose good agricultural practices (GAP) certification, which is a certification process that farmers can go through regarding how the farmer handles the food produced at their farm. He said farms that are GAP certified can sell food to schools, and it helps in general marketing. He said the biggest hurdle for farmers seems to be the expense ($1000-$1200). He said this certification is done through the State Department of Agriculture, but he does not know why it cannot be done through local jurisdictions at a lesser cost. Commissioner Marcoplos said he would like to pursue some legislation to give local jurisdictions the authority to certify GAP farmers. Bonnie Hammersley said the Board of County Commissioners approved $50,000 to support farmers in the GAP certification process, about two years ago, and the Economic Development/Ag staff could not identify farmers in Orange County who wanted to participate in the program. Bonnie Hammersley said this session was included at the Ag Summit in hopes that more farmers would learn about GAP certification and consider going through the process. Commissioner Marcoplos said that is great to hear, and it is important to get the word out about this program and the available funding. Bonnie Hammersley said staff has been trying to do that for over two years. Commissioner Marcoplos said there were many local farmers at the Ag Summit that seemed very interested. He said this information is helpful in Orange County, but there is still statewide merit to pursuing legislative action.