Orange County NC Website
APPROVED 5!312005 <br />MINUTES <br />ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />WORK SESSION <br />MARCH 24, 2005 <br />7:30 p.m. <br />The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a work session on Thursday, <br />March 24, 2005 at 7:30 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, <br />North Carolina. <br />COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Moses Carey, Jr. and <br />Commissioners Valerie P. Foushee, Alice M. Gordon, Steve Halkiotis, and Barry Jacabs <br />COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: <br />COUNTY ATTORNEY PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill and S. Sean Borhanian <br />COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr., Assistant County <br />Manager Gwen Harvey and Deputy Clerk to the Board David Hunt {All other staff <br />members will be identified appropriately below) <br />NOTE: ALL DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THESE MINUTES ARE IN THE <br />PERMANENT AGENDA FILE IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE. <br />The Chair called the meeting to order at 7:35 p.m. He made reference to the <br />request to remove the appointments far the Recreation and Parks Advisory Council. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis said that he continues to be amazed with the <br />deterioration of what he thought was the democratic process in Orange County. He <br />made reference to the lavender sheet and the action taken by of Representative Faison, <br />in light of the fact that the Chair wrote him a letter and asked that he understand that <br />there is a process that Orange County follows. He said that Representative Faison is <br />obviously intent on ignoring Orange County's process that has been in place far a long <br />time, and has already filed a bill to expand the Board of County Commissioners to <br />provide for district election of most of its members. He asked if this was some kind of <br />dictatorship and who put this together. He said that there was no public hearing and this <br />was not democracy. He suggested putting a letter together in very strong terms and <br />send it to the rest of the legislative group and everyone else in the North Carolina <br />House. Commissioner Jacobs seconded this. <br />Chair Carey said that he did send a letter to Representative Faison, requesting <br />that he leave local matters to local folk. He thought it would be disruptive and divisive if <br />Representative Faison proceeded to file a bill in the legislature. He agreed with sending <br />a letter to the other delegates and house members. <br />Commissioner Jacobs said that this action is also antithetical to the goals of the <br />North Carolina Association of County Commissioners. He asked that NCACC add to <br />their legislative delegation opposition to this action. <br />1. Appointments <br />Chair Carey said that the Recreation and Parks Advisory Council appointments <br />were removed, but also, prior to this meeting, when it was thought that these <br />appointments were going to be on the March 31St agenda, the plan was to remove the <br />Planning Board appointments because of some confusion about the definition of one of <br />the policy items. After it was decided to remove that appointment, he did some research <br />