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1 <br /> <br />APPROVED 10/01/2019 <br />MINUTES <br />BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS <br />REGULAR MEETING <br />September 17, 2019 <br />7:00 p.m. <br /> <br />The Orange County Board of Commissioners met in regular session on Tuesday, September <br />17, 2019 at 7:00 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, N.C. <br /> <br />COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Penny Rich and Commissioners Jamezetta <br />Bedford, Mark Dorosin, Sally Greene, Earl McKee, Mark Marcoplos, and Renee Price <br />COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: None <br />COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: John Roberts <br />COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager Bonnie Hammersley, Deputy County Manager <br />Travis Myren and Clerk to the Board Donna Baker (All other staff members will be identified <br />appropriately below) <br /> <br />Chair Rich called the meeting to order at 7:01 p.m. <br /> <br />1. Additions or Changes to the Agenda <br /> <br /> PUBLIC CHARGE <br />Chair Rich acknowledged the public charge. <br /> <br />Arts Moment <br />Emily Cataneo introduced herself: <br />Emily Cataneo is a graduate of North Carolina State University’s creative writing MFA. Her short <br />fiction has appeared in magazines such as Nightmare, Lightspeed, cream city review, <br />Smokelong Quarterly, and Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and was long listed for Best Science <br />Fiction and Fantasy 2016 and mentioned in Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 2018. She is a <br />journalist whose nonfiction has appeared in venues such as Slate, NPR, and the Boston Globe. <br />Currently, she is the co-founder of the Redbud Writing Project, the Triangle’s only adult <br />education creative writing school, which offers six-week courses in memoir, fiction, and novel. <br />Emily Cataneo read the opening of “The Birch Circle,” which takes place in Stalinist <br />Russia. <br /> <br />2. Public Comments <br /> <br />a. Matters not on the Printed Agenda <br />Don O’Leary said he does not come to Board meetings unless the Board does <br />something that he considers unconstitutional or stupid, and what the Board is considering with <br />the safety ordinance and guns is stupid. He said he does not believe any of this is about noise <br />or safety, but it is about a mindset, and he finds the Stalinist opening to the meeting apropos. <br />He said the Board is trying to take away their rights, and undermine the constitution. <br />Neal Galloway submitted a written petition requesting that all Board of County <br />Commissioner (BOCC) meetings allow for public comment, in order to allow timely and open <br />dialogue between the public and its elected officials. He said denying public comment at a work <br />session could be interpreted as a refusal to consider opposing views, or an intent to forge an <br />ordinance, which limits the rights of some citizens, under the guise of public safety. He said <br />personal convenience of the BOCC should not be the primary concern regarding meetings.