Agenda 05-21-19 8-a - Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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5 1 2 Chair Rich said she and Commissioner Marcoplos met with their OWASA 3 representatives, and discussed the aquavista program. She said they went on to Hillsborough 4 Elementary to meet with 5t" graders, who were remarkable children. 5 Chair Rich said the Chapel Hill and Carrboro Mayors were invited to the Department of 6 Transportation (DOT) luncheon meeting, and meeting notes have been issued. 7 Chair Rich said the following day she went to Carrboro Elementary School, and greeted 8 students. 9 Chair Rich said she, Commissioner Dorosin, Commissioner Marcoplos and 10 Commissioner Greene attended the 10-year celebration at Northside, along with the CEF 11 graduation. 12 Chair Rich said she also attended the Community Dinner. 13 Chair Rich said last night she, Commissioner Marcoplos and Commissioner Greene 14 celebrated the OCS teacher of the year, Kelly Arnold. 15 Chair Rich said she and the mayors had their quarterly meeting today, and she will send 16 out her notes. 17 Chair Rich said OWASA sent the Board a letter about Senate Bill 536, and House Bill 18 570, which would add a dollar each month to both water and sewer accounts, but would never 19 come back to benefit OWASA or its customers. She read a portion of the letter, and asked the 20 Board if it wants her to send a letter or resolution against this bill. She said this sounds like 21 extortion of counties that do not have distressed systems, but will still have to pay for those that 22 do. 23 Commissioner Marcoplos said he would be favor of sending a letter to support OWASA. 24 Commissioner Dorosin said he would like more information about this, and whether 25 these funds will be distributed to those communities that are underfunded. 26 Chair Rich said it is not necessarily to underfunded areas, but rather to distressed 27 systems. She said OWASA will never be a distressed system, and therefore, will never benefit 28 from these funds. 29 Commissioner Dorosin said as residents of the state, one could argue that all benefit 30 when everyone has access to clean water and sewer. 31 Commissioner Bedford said a large corporation would pay one dollar, but so would her 32 own household. She said this is not equitably distributed like a tax might be. 33 Chair Rich said she would work with John Roberts on this. 34 Chair Rich said the Board of Adjustment (BOA) in Chapel Hill added two more positions 35 to their committee, which have been difficult to fill. She said the Board needs to think what it 36 may want to do about this: keep those two seats, or fill those seats with other persons other 37 than JPA and ETJ. She said meetings often do not have a quorum, which is difficult. 38 Chair Rich said recordings of BOA meetings were initiated during concerns about The 39 Barn meetings. She said the BOA meetings are scheduled monthly, and are often cancelled 40 right before the meeting. She said there are very few people in attendance at these meetings, 41 but in order to create video, the meeting must occur in this large room in the Whitted facility, 42 and this room is in high demand. She said the contractors who are scheduled to video these 43 meetings are repeatedly losing revenue on a last minute basis. She said she recommends to 44 only having audio recordings moving forward that can be posted online. She petitioned the 45 Board to discuss this at a future meeting. 46 Commissioner Dorosin suggested using Facebook live, or have the meetings 47 videotaped with a stationary camera. 48 Commissioner Dorosin said the challenge with audio only is that one cannot always 49 know who is speaking, etc. He would question how useful an audio only is. 50 Chair Rich asked if staff would come up with some options for future Board discussion.