Agenda 02-01-22; 8-a - Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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3 1 Commissioner Fowler wished everyone a new year and said she and Commissioner 2 Greene attended the transit planning meeting, and that information will be brought to the public 3 in February. She said that they are looking to expand frequency and hours on certain routes to 4 increase environmental equity and sustainability. She said she also attended her first Alcoholic 5 Beverage Control (ABC) Board meeting and heard from local law enforcement agencies on 6 alcohol-related education and outreach activities over the past year. She said that the ABC 7 Board also discussed increasing salaries to living wage standards and addressing compression 8 due to the General Manager's salary being tied to that of the Clerk of Superior Court. She said 9 she may bring a question related to that to a future Board meeting. 10 Commissioner Richards expressed appreciation for Christian Hirni, Land Conservation 11 Manager in the Department of Environment, Agriculture, Parks, and Recreation, who spent two 12 hours with her to discuss Orange County land conservancy and preservation. She stated that 13 Mr. Hirni was very generous with his time and she appreciated that and has a better 14 understanding because of it. She said she also attended the meeting on strategies to address 15 the opioid epidemic. She indicated she isn't sure of Orange County's status with the settlement 16 and would like to have a better understanding of all of the community organizations that are 17 dealing with the opioid issues. She stated that the presentation included five steps that all 18 counties should be doing right now and she plans on finding out more about where Orange 19 County is and then maybe make a formal request later. 20 Chair Price said Orange County was one of the first to sign on and that Chapel Hill also 21 signed on because of the size of the city and that Orange County is good to go. She said there 22 are people working on what the money should be used for. 23 Commissioner Richards asked if that information would come to the Board at some 24 point. 25 Chair Price stated that the Board received some preliminary information on that and then 26 recognized Commissioner Greene for further information. 27 Commissioner Greene said there is a meeting on Thursday of the reconvened Opioid 28 Task Force. She stated the pandemic has caused the crisis to worsen and at the same time, 29 took some of the focus away from the task force. She stated that the task force will be meeting 30 again now. She said she will be at the next meeting to talk about the connections with the state. 31 She stated that Commissioner Richards had a good question, and she will continue to make 32 sure all the community partners are involved. She stated that the good news is that because of 33 all the work that has been done with the Sheriff's Office and Caitlin Fenhagen's Office (Criminal 34 Justice Resource Director), the county is in good shape to move forward. 35 Chair Price said there are several possibilities the task force is looking at. She said it 36 was started out of a basic interest in addressing the opioid epidemic and coming off a 37 presidential initiative that the NCACC had several years ago. She said that now that the 38 litigation is resolved, the task force decided to get back together again and determine how to 39 move forward. She said that the BOCC still must determine how the funds will be distributed, so 40 staff will need to bring that back for discussion and decisions. 41 Commissioner Hamilton wished everyone a happy new year and said the Capital Needs 42 Work Group meeting was rescheduled from January 10th to January 27th from 8:30-10:00 am. 43 They will be discussing schools' capital needs and focusing on improving maintenance issues in 44 public schools. 45 Commissioner McKee had no announcements. 46 Commissioner Bedford wished everyone a happy new year and said she attended the 47 Environmental Steering Committee meeting with NCACC this morning. She said the Board has 48 received inquiries lately about trash along roadways. She said that NCDOT provided a 49 presentation during the meeting and that in 2021, NCDOT picked up over 13 million pounds of 50 litter and dumping. She said the prior year was only 6.5 million because of COVID and the 51 budget so some of 2021 was carry-over trash, which is sad, but 2019 was 10.5 million. She said