Agenda 11-16-2021; 8-a - Minutes

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32 1 BACKGROUND: 2 At the September 2, 2021 Board of Orange County Commissioners (BOCC) Business meeting, 3 a petition was submitted by Commissioner Earl McKee for the Board to consider a policy 4 requiring any entity receiving county funds include on their regular meeting agendas an 5 opportunity for public comments. 6 7 Each year Orange County allocates over $1 million to local non-profits to provide various 8 services and meet needs across the community. Applications for funding are submitted by the 9 non-profits through the County's Outside Agency process. The applications are assigned to 10 appropriate county advisory groups and staff based on subject matter, and reviewed and scored 11 based on an established matrix. As part of the county's annual budget process, the Manager 12 then makes funding recommendations for each non-profit to the Board of Commissioners, and 13 the Board approves the final funding amounts for each entity. 14 15 Recipient organizations subsequently sign performance agreements with the county agreeing to 16 utilize the funds as proposed and in compliance with other provisions. It is proposed that the 17 Board consider a Performance Agreement provision requiring that the non-profit organizations 18 receiving funds through the County's Outside Agencies Process provide the opportunity for 19 public comment at their regular meetings. 20 21 Bonnie Hammersley reviewed background information for this item. 22 Commissioner McKee explained the basis for his petition. He said the county provides 23 over$1 million of taxpayer funds to nonprofits to help the county with the provision of services. 24 He said he is petitioning that these non-profits allot time on their regular agendas for public 25 comment. He said he is not asking the non-profits to engage or reply to the commenters, just 26 allow people to speak, with the parameters left up to the agencies themselves. He said he is 27 aware that there are some outside agencies that deal with highly emotionally charged issues, 28 and they may be excluded from the provision if the Board approves. He said he is convinced 29 anyone spending public money should be obligated to accept public comment. 30 Chair Price be clarified that the request is for public comment to be taken at the board 31 meetings, as opposed to a staff meeting for example. 32 Commissioner McKee said yes. 33 Chair Price asked if this would be only for agencies who are part of the outside agencies 34 funding process, or any non-profit that the county funds. 35 Commissioner McKee said he proposed it with outside agencies in mind, and would stick 36 with that. 37 Commissioner Greene said the county does give money to nonprofits outside of the 38 outside agency funding process, and Chair Price's question needs to have a clear answer. She 39 said it will be very hard to carve out the agencies that are sensitive in nature, and it would make 40 more sense to limit it to organizations where people who they serve are the direct beneficiaries 41 of the service. She said a nonprofit does not represent or serve the entire county the way 42 government does. She said this petition is a very dramatic departure from way nonprofits 43 ordinarily function, but she does see the logic of taxpayer money being used. She credited 44 Commissioner Richards for considering which agencies that do something for the county that is 45 really important, i.e. provide housing. She said those agencies have tenants or homeowners 46 that may have very legitimate complaints. She said it is reasonable to ask that subset of 47 nonprofits to create a grievance procedure that's viable for those that are being served. She 48 said this could be done in a variety of ways. She said she understands the impulse to say it is 49 public money, so public comment should be accepted, but she is coming from perspective of 50 nonprofits who do not operate that way traditionally. She proposed to focus this on nonprofits 51 that house residents, but to not act on this tonight. She said she would like to invite nonprofits