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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 09-16-2010 APPROVED 10/5/2010 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ASSEMBLY OF GOVERNMENTS September 16, 2010 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for an Assembly of Governments meeting on Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Valerie P. Foushee and Commissioners Alice Gordon, Pam Hemminger, Barry Jacobs, Bernadette Pelissier, and Steve Yuhasz COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Mike Nelson COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: John Roberts COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager Frank Clifton, Assistant County Manager Gwen Harvey, and Deputy Clerk to the Board David Hunt (All other staff members will be identified appropriately below) CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and Council Members Donna Bell, Jim Ward, Ed Harrison, Matt Czajkowski, and Penny Rich CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: Sally Greene, Gene Pease, and Laurin Easthom CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Mark Chilton and Aldermen Randee Haven-O'Donnell and Sammy Slade CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEMBERS ABSENT: Dan Coleman, Jacquelyn Gist, Lydia Lavelle, and Joal Hall Broun HILLSBOROUGH TOWN COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Mayor Tom Stevens HILLSBOROUGH TOWN COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Town Commissioners Frances Dancey, Evelyn Lloyd, Brian Lowen, Michael Gering, and Eric Hallman Call to Order/Introductions/Opening Comments Introductions were made. November 2, 2010 Referendum on Article 46 One-Quarter Cent (1/4¢) County Sales and Use Tax Deputy Director of Financial Services Michael Talbert introduced this item. He said that on the ballot for November 2nd is a referendum to consider Article 46 for a One-Quarter Cent County Sales and Use Tax. The Board has held several public hearings and passed a resolution that calls for the intended use of the funds. The 1%-cent will generate about$2.3 million annually for the County and would become effective April 1, 2011. On September 2nd the Board passed a resolution regarding the potential uses of the revenue. The key points are as follows: - The Board made a five-year commitment to allocate the 1%-cent sales tax for the following: o 42.5% of the funding will be allocated in an equitable manner between the County's two school systems o 42.5% of the funding will be allocated to economic development efforts o 15% of the funding will be allocated equally to improve libraries and emergency medical services. Jim Ward asked about the duration of the commitment of five years. Frank Clifton said that there would be a delay before the funding arrives. After five years, the Board can decide whether to continue the same funding distribution. Jim Ward asked if there was any discussion about the ten-year commitment. Commissioner Yuhasz said that the Board discussed a ten-year commitment, but the economic situation is not known and the County Commissioners wanted the flexibility to change it if needed after five years. He understands that it would be a full five-year commitment, and the short period of time before funding starts coming in would be in addition to the full five-year commitment. Chair Foushee agreed. Mark Chilton arrived at 7:15 PM. Commissioner Hemminger said that the County does not get to choose the wording on the ballot for this, but it is chosen by the State, and it is very confusing. She said that the County Commissioners are trying to focus on how much it would cost on a certain purchase so that the citizens understand what it means. She reminded everyone to educate the public on this. Commissioner Pelissier said that she has heard secondhand concerns about the allocation to the school systems. She has heard that people are concerned about which school system would get the money in any particular year. She clarified that the wording says that the funding will be allocated in an equitable manner and it will go to both school systems in an equitable manner. Sammy Slade encouraged the combining of economic development along with efforts to curb and mitigate climate change. He said that there is a move in the country to do weatherization and alternative energy. He said that there is also a huge opportunity for keeping the food local. Commissioner Jacobs asked Frank Clifton to give an update on the Shared Use Food Processing Center. Frank Clifton said that there are several grants and counties involved in this effort. The long-term intent is to create a 501(c)3 and take it off of County government. The County owns a building in Hillsborough on NC 86 and it is in the process of being renovated. There might be someone on contract that can run the center. There will be a board with a County Commissioner, the Cooperative Extension Director, and the County Manager representatives from all of the counties involved. There has been some assistance from Whole Foods and Weaver Street Market. Commissioner Jacobs said that there will also be a farmer from each county on the board. He said that this will be an opportunity to get local foods to institutional buyers. Frank Clifton made reference to the funding from the sales tax and said that the funding for economic development will provide opportunities for partnership with local towns to do different things with economic development. Commissioner Gordon said that the County Commissioners were hoping that this would be a positive thing for the towns and it is vital for the towns to support this to make it viable. 21 Solid Waste Plan Work Group Update Solid Waste Planner Blair Pollock introduced this item. The statutorily-required three-year update to the ten-year Solid Waste Plan was due to the State on June 30, 2009. There have been no penalties for being late although the statutes allow penalties such as ineligibility for State grants (to date the County has not been prohibited from receiving grant reimbursements). Due to the deliberate planning process that the County and its partner governments have engaged in, there is now a draft Plan awaiting additional review and comment by the public, review and adoption by the Towns, and final review and approval by the Board of Commissioners and submittal to the State. The current draft (attached) was presented to the Solid Waste Plan Work Group for consideration at its June meeting, but the Group did not have time to review it at that meeting. The Plan will again be on the agenda for the Group's September 16th meeting. Solicitation of public comments is also scheduled for a public meeting at 7:00 p.m. on September 29th at the Solid Waste Management Department's offices. The public meeting is sponsored by the Solid Waste Advisory Board and will be advertised online at the Solid Waste Management Department's web page and in the media as well as discussed in the Department's regular monthly articles in local papers in September. Following input from the public meeting, County staff will schedule the draft Plan for formal presentation to the Boards of each of the three Towns and request their approval for the Plan. This has been done with each of the three previous updates in 2000, 2004 (for 2003) and 2008 (for 2006). After receiving input from the various Town elected boards and their constituents and incorporating that input into the draft Plan, the Plan will be presented to the Board of County Commissioners for consideration. Following Board approval of the Plan, staff will submit it to the State. The Plan is due to be updated again by June 2012. While it had been hoped this Plan update would have more decisive elements to it, the draft as it now stands is mostly a descriptive document. Work Group recommendations and BOCC decisions with regard to convenience centers, rural waste collection franchising, etc. have not been made to date and discussions are continuing. Staff believes the County should submit the Plan update as soon as possible to become compliant and remain eligible for state grants. The Plan can be updated or revised at any time when/if decisions are made. He said that the last year of record —2008-2009—Orange County hit a 54% waste reduction per capita rate, which means that the County is continuing to make progress towards the 61% goal. He highlighted some of the pending issues that need to be discussed by all governmental entities. The most evident is the interlocal agreement as the landfill closes. The Solid Waste Advisory Board will be bringing back recommendations about this by the time of the November work session of the BOCC. There is a long list of issues on page 18 of the report. The Solid Waste Plan Work Group did endorse retaining the 61% goal, but there needs to be more considerable effort to achieve this. Sammy Slade said that it was encouraging that the County was able to extend the closing of the landfill for two more years. He said that there is a huge opportunity to expand into the future regarding compostable organics. Ed Harrison arrived at 7:35 PM. Mayor Mark Chilton pointed out that there were elected officials from all four governments who were involved in this process of the report. Commissioner Jacobs said that part of the conversation today was on solid waste convenience centers. Part of the proposal that is going to come forward has to do with two district convenience centers that would be enhanced to capture more recyclables. One of the streams is organic waste. He said that the County is not capturing all of the school waste, and there will be a report back on why this is happening. Commissioner Pelissier made reference to page 18 and the mention of regulatory economic incentives and the comment about pay-as-you-throw. She asked if there has been any discussion about this and whether pay-as-you-throw is the only economic incentive. She said that the County should look at all economic incentives. Commissioner Yuhasz said that this question points out the need for continued and increased cooperation with all of the jurisdictions. One of the problems with pay-as-you-throw solutions is that it has to be Countywide. It is critically important that all governments stay engaged in this solid waste discussion. Solid Waste Director Gayle Wilson made reference to the schools and said that Solid Waste staff has met with representatives from both school systems and are currently engaged in discussions that are encouraging about trying to initiative a pilot program for food waste collection. Regarding the issue of pay-as-you-throw, he said that the 2006 submission of the plan was late because there was a request to discuss in more detail the issue of pay-as-you- throw. The work group spent several meetings discussing this issue and no decision was made to make a recommendation to the boards to implement. He expects it to be a topic of future discussion. Gayle Wilson said that as of today, a date has been set for the groundbreaking for a landfill gas recovery program for November 161h Jim Ward asked about the benefits of the food waste from the schools. Gayle Wilson said that there would be a shift of some quantity of food preparation waste and post-consumer scraps from both school systems that would go into the composting program. This might allow the school systems to decrease the frequency of their waste collection and would save money. There would also be an educational benefit for the students. Jim Ward said that there are so many positives to this and he would encourage the County to push this and require this if possible. Gayle Wilson said that there are some challenges in getting students to do the right thing at the end of the food line. Randee Haven-O'Donnell said that she had the opportunity to work with the CHCCS at one time with recycling food waste and they diverted it to a pig farmer. It became a huge project. The biggest problem was poor separation by the children, but schools and teachers got behind it. She thinks that it is completely doable and it should be pursued. Frank Clifton requested that each board move quickly through this when it comes to their agendas because this report is late. Other Comments: Commissioner Jacobs asked Chair Foushee to speak on the future of the Assembly of Governments (AOG) meetings. Chair Foushee said that on Tuesday night part of the Board of County Commissioners' discussion was around whether these AOG meetings should be continued in this particular format. There have been questions raised about how often they should meet and how effective the meetings are. The suggestion was to have one AOG meeting annually and then have the Board of County Commissioners meet with the towns individually. The Board of County Commissioners already does this with the Town of Hillsborough. This information has gone out to the town clerks this morning. Randee Haven-O'Donnell said that her board would be in favor of streamlining the process. Jim Ward said that there is value in knowing who you are talking to and getting to know people from various jurisdictions. Penny Rich said that a number of citizens feel that the communication between the governments and the citizens are not getting through somehow. The example was the food incubator that hit Twitter and then there was a lot of discussion about why no one knew this. She would like to have a more effective communication mechanism, such as a continuous document of important points. Mayor Mark Chilton said that only part of the room was surprised about the Shared Use Food Processing Center because it has been discussed in at least three different AOG meetings. Frank Clifton said that the County struggles with this all the time— how to communicate to the public. The County has recently revamped its website and now citizens can subscribe to the listserv. Mayor Stevens agreed with Jim Ward about the value of knowing who is around the table. He also raised the question of resources required to hold these meetings. He would like to look at new ways of doing things. There are other ways of building relationships. Mayor Kleinschmidt said that tonight's meeting is an example of one that really was not needed. He would like to create some news items. He suggested putting the County website on Facebook or Twitter so that people will look at it. He encouraged putting information where people actually go —grocery store, park, community center, etc. Penny Rich added that in Chapel Hill there is a Mayor's Communication Committee, and this is helpful. She said that there is still the perception that the government is not being transparent enough. Commissioner Gordon agreed with the comments about communication. She said that one important step is to figure out a way for the boards to communicate with each other better. She suggested asking the Managers to undertake this and come up with a better government communication tool. Penny Rich suggested that everyone get on Twitter because all three Mayors tweet at least once a day. Chair Foushee asked if there was consensus for the Managers to work on a communication plan. The group agreed. Frank Clifton said that they are continuing to look for new vehicles of communication. He said that the towns have an advantage because there is a concentrated population. Sammy Slade said that he hopes that everyone will be involved with the Safe Communities Federal Program. This is to provide a safe environment for immigrants within the County. Adjournment With no further items to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 8:18 p.m. Valerie Foushee, Chair Donna S. Baker, CMC Clerk to the Board