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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda - 12-03-2012 - 5a 1 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: December 3, 2012 Action Agenda Item No. 5-a SUBJECT: MINUTES DEPARTMENT: PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: Donna Baker, 245-2130 Draft Minutes PURPOSE: To correct and/or approve the minutes as submitted by the Clerk to the Board as listed below: Attachment 1 October 4, 2012 BOCC Joint Meeting with Fire Departments Attachment 2 October 9, 2012 BOCC Work Session Attachment 3 November 19, 2012 BOCC/Planning Board Dinner Meeting (5:30pm) BACKGROUND: In accordance with 153A-42 of the General Statutes, the Governing Board has the legal duty to approve all minutes that are entered into the official journal of the Board's proceedings. FINANCIAL IMPACT: NONE RECOMMENDATION(S): The Manager recommends the Board approve minutes as presented or as amended. 1 1 DRAFT Attachment 1 2 3 MINUTES 4 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS 5 Joint Meeting Meeting/Work Session 6 October 4, 2012 7 7:00 p.m. 8 9 10 The Orange County Board of Commissioners held a joint meeting/work session on 11 Thursday, October 4, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, 12 N.C. 13 14 COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Bernadette Pelissier and Commissioners 15 Valerie Foushee, Alice M. Gordon, Pam Hemminger, Earl McKee, and Steve Yuhasz 16 COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Barry Jacobs 17 COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: John Roberts 18 COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: Assistant County Managers Michael Talbert, Clarence Grier and 19 Clerk to the Board Donna S. Baker (All other staff inembers will be identified appropriately 20 below) 21 VOLUNTEER FIRE CHIEFS PRESENT: VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPTS. — CHAIRS, Brad Allison, Fire Chief, Caldwell FD BOARD OF DIRECTORS Bryan Baker, Fire Chief, Eno FD Mac Miller, Caldwell BOD President Dan Jones, Fire Chief, Town of Chapel Hill Bill Waddell, Orange Grove, BOD Jeff Borland, Fire Chief, Cedar Grove FD President Phillip Nasseri, Asst. Chief, White Cross Wayne Paschall, Eno BOD President FD Jeff Roberts, Orange Rural BOD President Mac Cabe, Deputy Fire Chief, Orange Jacques Morin, SORS BOD President Rural FD Howard Pratt, New Hope BOD President John Stroud, Fire Chief, North Chatham, FD Kevin Brooks, Fire Chief, Efland FD Matthew Mauzy, Chief, South Orange Rescue Squad (SORS) Mike Tapp, Fire Chief, New Hope FD Tommy Holmes, Fire Chief, Orange Grove FD FIRE CHIEFS/BOD CHAIRS ABSENT: Bob Lewis, Fire Chief, City of Mebane FD Ronnie McAdams, Efland BOD President Travis Crabtree, Fire Chief, Town of Carrboro Chad Woods, Cedar Grove BOD President Frank Montes de Oca, Orange County Emergency Services Diretor 2 Tony Blake, White Cross BOD President Jerry Lloyd, Fire Chief, White Cross FD Brian Vaughn, North Chatham BOD President 1 2 Welcome (Board Chair Bernadette Pelissier) 3 Chair Pelissier welcomed everyone and said that Commissioner Foushee and 4 Commissioner Jacobs send their regrets because they were unable to attend tonight. 5 6 1. Discussion on Oranqe County Chief's Association's "Strateqic Plan for the 7 Provision of Emerqency Services" 8 Fire Chiefs Council President/ New Hope Fire Chief Mike Tapp said that this strategic plan 9 was completed in March 2012 and there were eight goals in the plan. He listed the goals as 10 shown below: 11 • GOAL I: Ensuring Viable and Reliable Voice and Data Communication 12 • GOAL II: Improving the 9-1-1 Telecommunications System and Center 13 • GOAL III: Encouraging the Adoption of Measureable Emergency Response System 14 Benchmarks and Reporting Norms 15 • GOAL IV: Setting Service Standard Goals for Volunteer Fire Departments 16 • GOAL V: Planning for a Countywide Training Facility 17 • GOAL VI: Preparing a Multi-Hazard Risk Assessment Plan 18 • GOAL VII: Building Better Relationships with Key Stakeholders 19 • GOAL VIII: Fostering Increased Public Awareness 20 21 22 Mike Tapp said that there has been a lot of discussion in the Emergency Services Work 23 Group and the County Commissioners. The primary two goals are the Ensuring Viable and 24 Reliable Voice and Data Communication (Goal I), and Improving the 9-1-1 Telecommunications 25 Systems and Center (Goal II). He said that some of these goals have timelines attached with 26 them but also budgetary considerations as well, such as a countywide training center. 27 At this time, introductions were made. 28 29 Efland Fire Chief Kevin Brooks said that his department has obtained an ISO rating of 6, 30 which will lower the fire insurance ratings for their citizens. 31 Commissioner Hemminger commended the Efland Fire Department for pursuing this 32 lower ISO rating. 33 Commissioner McKee said that the Board of County Commissioners approved the 34 purchase of the OSSI system at the October 2nd meeting. This purchase will be finalized 35 tomorrow and then it will be approximately a 12-month period before it is fully installed. 36 Mike Tapp reviewed the meaning of the ratings. 37 Efland Fire Chief Kevin Brooks said that the ratings of the areas that are further away 38 from stations could be improved only by building more stations. 39 Bill Waddell, President of Orange Grove Fire Department, said that said building their 40 new station was to cover those citizens that were over ten miles from the nearest station. 41 Chair Pelissier asked about the goals that were priorities for the fire departments. 42 Eno Fire Chief Bryan Baker said that many goals have been identified in the Emergency 43 Services Work Group, and all of those directly affect their on-scene safety radio systems. 44 Bill Waddell said that the only two his department has been looking at is 2b - computer 45 aided dispatch and mobile data terminals. He said that the new approved OSSI system by the 3 1 Board of County Commissioners is the Pagetracker system that they are starting to use as well 2 as the interface with the new OSSI system. 3 Commissioner McKee said that the developer of Pagetracker is in talks with OSSI and 4 he is not sure where they are in that process. The system is probably adaptable to OSSI but 5 that is up to the private companies. 6 Bill Waddell said that if the OSSI system does not work he would hope the County 7 would provide a mechanism that would be cheaper than the $7,000 per terminal. He said that 8 this seems excessive. He said that the Pagetracker system is very useful and informative. 9 Commissioner McKee said that the hope is that the two systems will be compatible. 10 Commissioner Yuhasz asked if the IT Department would have any expertise with the 11 interface of these two types of software. 12 Michael Talbert said that he is not sure IT could help since the current software is 20 13 years old. The Pagetracker system is not interactive like the OSSI system, which gives 14 feedback data that the 9-1-1 operators have available, which show up on the screens. The 15 system is also much better at tracking calls and who shows up when, etc. 16 Commissioner McKee said that the County needs a lot of input from the fire 17 departments regarding response times. He does not want to set some unrealistic goals with 18 regard to response times. 19 New Hope Fire Chief Mike Tapp agreed with Chief Baker and said that their top two 20 priorities are Goals I and I I. He said that there is a situation in the New Hope Fire District where 21 they are on the fringe area of Chapel Hill and Hillsborough and there are communication issues. 22 Commissioner Yuhasz said that everyone recognizes that more towers are needed, but 23 no one wants them in their backyard. He said that it is important that the fire departments have 24 a presence at the public hearings for the tower proposals to let the public know the need. 25 The Board agreed. 26 Caldwell Fire Chief Brad Allison said that his department dropped their ISO ratings from 27 a 9 to a 7. There are no pressurized hydrants at Caldwell and everything is done by water haul. 28 There are also houses outside of the six-mile range. 29 30 2. Discussion on Insurance Service Office (ISO) Ratinqs 31 New Hope Fire Chief Mike Tapp said that the New Hope Fire District also improved its 32 rating from a Class 9 to a Class 6. There will be letters sent out to the homeowners in the 33 district. 34 Chair Pelissier said that the Board of County Commissioners know that all citizens 35 appreciate this and the Board would like to recognize the fire departments on the reduction of 36 the ISO ratings at the next Board of County Commissioners' meeting. 37 Commissioner Gordon said that she is thinking about the area between 5-6 miles and 38 whether there is any hope to get any change. 39 Efland Fire Chief Kevin Brooks said that it is up to the legislature. 40 Commissioner McKee said that it is his understanding that the only way to get it changed 41 is to go to the legislature. 42 43 The Board then went back to item #1: 44 Discussion on Oranqe County Chief's Association's "Strateqic Plan for the Provision of 45 Emerqency Services" 46 47 Chair Pelissier asked about the relationships between Emergency Services and the 48 County and the fire departments. 49 Chapel Hill Fire Chief Dan Jones said that Goal VI I is very important to all of the chiefs, 50 which is the building of better partnerships with all stakeholders. The consistent discussion 4 1 amongst the chiefs is that this partnership has not existed for a number of years. He said that 2 the Emergency Services Work Group and these annual meetings will begin the process of 3 building a working relationship and these are all good steps. He said that a lot of the credit 4 goes to Michael Talbert who has reached out to the chiefs and who has listened. 5 Commissioner McKee said that it is critical that they not assume that because of the two 6 annual meetings and that the Emergency Services work group has worked well, that they have 7 suddenly arrived. He said that all issues need to be brought to the table forcibly. He does not 8 want to leave issues or problems to fester. 9 Commissioner Yuhasz made reference to Objective b in Goal VI I, which is a discussion of 10 provision of first responder EMS services. He said that this has evolved over time without any 11 real plan for the fire departments. He asked how to go about providing more guidance about 12 compensation and a better understanding of what is expected of fire departments. He said that 13 there is no formalized plan to address these issues. 14 Bill Waddell said that expenses they bear are incidentals such as oxygen, backboards, 15 etc., and they do not mind startups with these, but they could help with it after that. He said that 16 within their contracts they are not allowed to provide these services. He suggested considering 17 the language within the contracts and reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses. 18 Commissioner Foushee arrived at 7:50 PM. 19 Commissioner Gordon said that there are fire services, which are within the purview of the 20 departments, and then first responders, but her assumption is that the fire departments and 21 Emergency Services have a working relationship. She asked how rescue fit into the services. 22 South Orange Rescue Squad (SORS) Chief Matthew Mauzy said that a lot of the 23 confusion is the definition of rescue. Traditionally, it was Emergency Services. He said that 24 EMS has grown to mean an ambulance, EMT, and paramedic. He said that rescue is taking a 25 patient, accessing a patient, and turning it over to a higher level of care. 26 Commissioner Gordon asked if rescue is a separate service from the fire departments. 27 Matthew Mauzy said that the rescue squad is franchised to provide EMS service and also 28 technical rescue services. The issue of concern has focused on vehicle extrication services. 29 Eno Fire Chief Bryan Baker said that they typically break it up into three components in 30 the fire departments —fire, rescue, and EMS. For the fire departments, the rescue is the 31 vehicle extrication aspect, the search and rescue, and the water rescue component. 32 Michael Talbert said that in the North Chatham Fire Department contract, it defines 33 rescue. He read this: "For the purposes of this agreement, the term `rescue' shall be defined 34 as the furnishing of services to protect persons within the district from injury or death." 35 Chair Pelissier said that in reference to the relationship between the fire departments and 36 Emergency Services and from her perspective, she did not understand the big picture. She 37 said that with the budget she only sees whether or not a fire district tax increase is suggested 38 with no idea of what is going on. Now she has a much better idea. 39 Commissioner Gordon made reference to the consultant's report and the recommendation 40 that Emergency Services and the fire departments being located in the same building. She 41 asked about the pros and cons of doing this. 42 Chapel Hill Fire Chief Dan Jones said that a lot of recommendations in the consultant's 43 report are good and valid, but there are some implementation issues that were recommended 44 that he takes serious issue with. He said that the relationship between field workers in Orange 45 County has always been very good. The working relationships in the field have always been 46 very good. He said that the problem over the years has been with the administration and 47 leadership roles of the various agencies. He thinks that it is ridiculous to build nine new EMS 48 stations when there are fire stations strategically located that can easily have additions to 49 accommodate an ambulance and share those resources. The key to the success of that is 50 setting the expectations early and putting it all in writing. 5 1 Eno Fire Chief Bryan Baker said that he agreed with Dan Jones. He said that when they 2 were building new stations they did ask if a bay should be built in the station but were shot 3 down by the county. He said that there is no need to build those new stations when bays can 4 be added on to existing stations. 5 SORS Chief Matthew Mauzy agreed with Dan Jones and Bryan Baker and said that South 6 Orange Rescue Squad currently co-locates at least one Orange County ambulance and 7 sometimes two or three. He said that the problems that have been experienced are entirely 8 with the lack of expectations being set. Going forward with a clear understanding up front can 9 resolve all of the potential issues. 10 Commissioner Yuhasz said that this demonstrates to him the need to address the 11 question of how Emergency Services and first responders are to be managed in this County. It 12 is time to define the expectations. He asked if the Emergency Services Work Group should 13 take this on. 14 Commissioner McKee said that this may be something to look at but he is reluctant to 15 expand the scope of the work group at this late date. He said that there is a contract 16 negotiation in progress with Orange Rural Fire Department at this point with the county. He 17 said that Orange Rural wished to have a contract that is spelled out, delineating all 18 responsibilities, etc. 19 Commissioner Yuhasz said that managing expectations has huge policy implications for 20 the County. He thinks that it needs to be done on a countywide basis to have a consistent 21 policy among all of the departments and a clear expectation among the departments, County 22 Commissioners, and the citizens regarding the role of all three entities. 23 Eno Fire Chief Bryan Baker said that his recommendation is not to take it in front of the 24 Emergency Services work group but with the Fire Chief's Council because there are other 25 members on the Emergency Services work group like the Sheriff's office and police 26 departments that are not familiar with this topic at all. He said that the first responder program 27 needs to be ironed out. 28 Commissioner Foushee agreed with Chief Baker and said that she does not think that the 29 Emergency Services Work Group is the place for this to occur. 30 Commissioner McKee agreed and said that the work group was given very specific 31 directions and objectives. He would like to move forward with the objectives and sunset the 32 committee. 33 Commissioner Hemminger said that this issue needs to be resolved and the County 34 Commissioners need to endorse that it should happen. 35 Chair Pelissier said that everyone is in agreement that this issue needs to be addressed 36 and Michael Talbert needs to work with the fire chiefs for an outline toward their goals. 37 Michael Talbert said that there is a pending agreement between Orange County and 38 Orange Rural and it does address some expectation issues, compensation, and sharing of 39 locations. It is in legal review now. The hope is that this will be used as a template. 40 Michael Talbert made reference to contracts and said that on June 5th, three contracts 41 were cancelled — North Chatham, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro. All three of those were given a 42 year's notice with the idea that the contracts will be redone. He thinks that it would be fair to not 43 put this in the work group and get 3-4 representatives from the Fire Chiefs Council, 44 representatives from Emergency Services, and representatives from the management of 45 Orange County and sit down and work out these issues. These contracts that are redone can 46 then be used as templates next year to redo the rest of the contracts that go back to 1992. 47 Chapel Hill Fire Chief Dan Jones said that he agreed with Michael Talbert on the 48 reworking of the contracts. 49 6 1 3. Discussion on Fire Protection Aqreements between Fire Departments and the 2 County 3 Commissioner Hemminger asked if there would be two separate contracts — ones that co- 4 locate and ones that do not. 5 Michael Talbert said that they are working on one contract to co-locate an ambulance at 6 an existing fire station. The other contract will be for fire protection, rescue, and first responder 7 with all fire departments. He would see these as two separate contracts. 8 Chapel Hill Fire Chief Dan Jones said that the easiest way to do this is to come up with 9 standard language and standard clauses. 10 SORS Chief Matthew Mauzy said that this can be done on one inclusive document with 11 check boxes for the services that each franchise provides. He agreed that the co-location is 12 one document and the provision of services is another document. 13 Commissioner Yuhasz said that he wants to make sure they do not end up with 11 14 different contracts. 15 Commissioner Gordon made reference to the North Chatham, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro 16 contracts and these have been cancelled. She said that she is not sure they should wait until 17 the Orange Rural contract is finished because there may be some concerns. She wants an 18 update on the contract process with these three departments. 19 Michael Talbert said that the proposed contract with Orange Rural is the co-location of 20 one ambulance and not a contract for fire protection. This is a separate contract for the three 21 departments of North Chatham, Chapel Hill, and Carrboro. He said that staff will be coming 22 back to the Emergency Services Work Group on October 16th with a recommendation for the 23 work group to consider. If the work group endorses the plan, staff will continue meeting with 24 the state, management, the Boards of the entities, and will schedule a work session between 25 now and the end of the year with the idea that if it all works out there could be action as early as 26 the first meeting in January. This would be early enough for the changes that need to be made. 27 The first step is the work group endorsing this. 28 Commissioner McKee said that the 112 homes that were a Class 10 rating was the driver 29 in this issue. These homes were at risk of extreme increases in their insurance or no 30 insurance. 31 32 Michael Talbert said that he distributed a newer contract tonight for the three 33 departments. There must be new contracts in place by July 1, 2013. He went through the 34 North Chatham contract. The first page is similar to the 1992 contracts. 35 The changes come on #3. Chatham County spells out the correction percentage they 36 anticipate on the taxes and how they are going to pay the departments at the first of the month 37 following the collections. The County currently pays once a quarter, so it would be a change. 38 Item #4 says, "shall provide adequate fire protection services and will provide necessary 39 equipment personnel and other resources as determined by the North Carolina Department of 40 Insurance." It goes on to say that, "the district will maintain at least a rating of 9s." This puts 41 the burden on the fire department to maintain that rating. It goes further to define rescue and 42 first responder, and fire is already defined by the state statute. 43 Item #7, the contract with North Chatham calls for an annual audit by a certified public 44 accountant, which is then turned in to the County Commissioners by December 1St of the next 45 year. The County's contracts do not currently call for an audit. 46 Item #10, in the event that the fire department is dissolved for any reason, it spells out 47 how the assets of that fire department would be distributed, where they would go, and how they 48 would be used within the existing district. This is not currently part of the County's contract. 49 Item #11 is completely new and goes into the idea of hold harmless and insurance. 7 1 Michael Talbert said that this is an example and it might be something that Orange County 2 could use going forward. 3 Commissioner Gordon asked to spell out fire, rescue, and first responder since this is for 4 the North Chatham fire department. 5 Michael Talbert said that all of this is to be worked out. 6 Commissioner McKee suggested that as a first step that the County Commissioners let 7 the departments and management work out these contracts before they come to the Board of 8 County Commissioners. He said that the County Commissioners should keep the political 9 aspect out of it now. 10 Commissioner Yuhasz agreed with Commissioner McKee as far as the process but he 11 would like to see paragraph 4 expanded to include more specifics. 12 Commissioner Gordon said that her concern is that if this is brought back to Board of 13 County Commissioners in January then there is time to work out the kinks. But if it comes later, 14 there is no time to make a choice and they have to go with staff presents to them. She would 15 like to get the technical details get worked out before January so that there is time for review. 16 Michael Talbert said that they would work as fast as possible. 17 18 SORS Chief Matthew Mauzy made reference to Commissioner McKee's comment that 19 they may need to keep times by hands for responses to get quality statistics. He said that he 20 supports a new CAD system. He wants to make sure that everyone is a partner in this and is 21 working together to make sure that this system is something that is needed. 22 New Hope Fire Chief Mike Tapp agreed with Matthew Mauzy and said that having these 23 meetings are great and he said that in the past the only interaction with the Board of County 24 Commissioners was when budgets were submitted. He said that starting this month, at their 25 Fire Chief's meeting, they will be submitting a quarterly report to the Board of County 26 Commissioners submitted through the Clerk's office. 27 Chapel Hill Fire Chief Dan Jones echoed SORS Chief Mauzy's comments and 28 complimented the Board of County Commissioners on the progress with Emergency Services in 29 the past two years. He said that the commitment the County Commissioners made is starting 30 to take effect. He said that the 9-1-1 center staffing levels are a key component and need to be 31 addressed. He said that all of this technology is great, but unless there is adequate staff to 32 operate it then it is null and void. 33 Commissioner McKee said that he wants to set a reasonable standard that can be met as 34 far as response times. 35 36 With no further items to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 9:15 PM. 37 38 Bernadette Pelissier, Chair 39 40 Donna S. Baker, CMC 41 Clerk to the Board 42 43 1 1 DRAFT Attachment 2 2 3 MINUTES 4 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS 5 WORK SESSION 6 October 9, 2012 7 7:OOpm 8 9 The Orange County Board of Commissioners for a Work Session on Tuesday, October 9, 2012 10 at 7:00 p.m. at the Link Government Services Center in Hillsborough, NC. 11 12 COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Bernadette Pelissier, Commissioners Alice M. 13 Gordon, Pam Hemminger, and Steve Yuhasz 14 COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Valerie Foushee, Barry Jacobs, Earl McKee 15 COUNTY ATTORNEY PRESENT: John Roberts 16 COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager Frank Clifton, Assistant County Managers Gwen 17 Harvey, Clarence Grier, Michael Talbert, and Deputy Clerk to the Board David Hunt (All other 18 staff inembers will be identified appropriately below) 19 20 Chair Pelissier called the meeting to order at 7:07 PM. She said that Commissioner 21 Foushee is out of town and Commissioner Jacobs had an emergency to take care of. 22 Commissioner McKee was also absent. 23 24 1. Community Givinq Fund for Oranqe County 25 The Board was updated on a staff initiative to create a Community Giving Fund to raise 26 and receive donations intended to support, enhance, and extend County services and County- 27 supported activities. 28 Animal Services Director Bob Marotto reviewed this item. He said that this is a team 29 project. The goal is to create a countywide giving vehicle as opposed to a special vehicle for 30 each department or service. There has been discussion about combining efforts. Also, people 31 would be able to earmark their funds for certain activities and then track the funds. He said that 32 there are eight departments actively receiving donations and there is only one department that 33 is encouraging online donations. There is a substantial amount of giving of funds, goods, and 34 volunteer time. He thinks that there are many more possibilities of giving through this 35 collaborative effort. He said that recently, the Orange County Animal Shelter received a living 36 trust of an estate. This fund would create a framework for receiving and holding substantial 37 donations, cash, stocks, bonds, or real property. 38 Public Affairs Officer Carla Banks said that it would be a good idea to have 39 professionally produced brochures or folders for this fund to give it more credibility. These 40 could be designed in-house, which would save money. 41 Health Director Colleen Bridger reviewed the implementation options. The first option is 42 to do it in-house. There is no way to do it for less than $100,000 a year. The County only takes 43 in about $100,000, so this would not be a net gain. There are foundations that do this for 44 minimal cost. She found the Triangle Community Foundation to be a good fit for Orange 45 County. There is a 1% administration fee, which would never equal $100,000. This would free 46 up the staff to focus on spreading the word about the fund. 47 Frank Clifton said that if the Board feels comfortable then the staff could bring forward a 48 contract for this. 49 Commissioner Hemminger said that this is a great idea. She likes that individuals can 50 earmark funds to specific departments. She warned the staff to make sure that people know 2 1 that funds will not be used for operating expenses. She said that naming rights should also be 2 addressed. 3 Commissioner Gordon said that she was sold until she started reading about legal 4 control. She read: "distinct from the accounting rules above, a nonprofit transfer of assets to 5 an Agency Fund at TCF also transfers legal ownership and fiduciary responsibility of the assets. 6 As a result, all distributions from Agency Funds are subject to approval by TCF's Board of 7 Directors. Approval is routinely granted from non-endowed funds and from the accrued 8 Spendable of endowed funds." She said that she needs to know more about this because she 9 does not see how county funds can be subjected to control by anyone else. She asked if it was 10 done by not having endowed funds and Colleen Bridger said that this is how it is done. 11 Commissioner Gordon asked how the County could get out of the contract if needed. 12 Frank Clifton said that it could be written into the contract. 13 Commissioner Yuhasz asked how this would impact the volunteer activities. He does 14 not want to have this seen as the only way to contribute to Orange County. 15 Frank Clifton said that this would mainly be for assets, cash, etc. 16 Commissioner Gordon clarified that there will be a contract that excludes endowed 17 agency funds, there will be a way to get out of the contract, and that it is Orange County funds 18 managed by TCF. 19 The Board agreed. 20 21 2. Review of Kennel Requlations 22 The Board reviewed existing permitting and land use development regulations governing 23 the development of Kennels, Class I and Class II within Orange County. 24 Michael Harvey said that the purpose of this meeting is to discuss the regulations on 25 development of Class I and Class II kennels. In January of this year, the Board reapproved an 26 ordinance amendment splitting out riding stables and kennels. There were also modified 27 definitions to be consistent and to avoid confusion. The issue that arose in this process was 28 with the Class B special use permit. He made reference to page 2 of the packet and the 29 permitting processes for various kennels. Several questions have been posed to staff and 30 pages three and four have responses to these questions. There have been concerns about 31 whether this use should be allowed in the rural buffer zoning district and whether or not it 32 should be allowed through the Class B Special Use Permit process. The staff believes it is 33 acceptable to allow this use in the rural buffer as long as it goes through the SUP process. He 34 said that Class A and B processes are virtually identical. Staff believes that the processes are 35 adequate and appropriate. There were some questions about whether there needs to be 36 specific development standards for Class I kennels and staff agrees with this. With a Class II 37 kennel, there are 150-foot setbacks. Class I could have additional setbacks. 38 There were some Planning Board members that mentioned that they were concerned 39 that there were no development standards governing the actual physical development of the 40 building itself. He said that zoning looks at land use issues and there is a partnership with 41 Animal Services to make sure that land use issues are addressed. There are conditions in 42 place that the use will not have an adverse affect on the surrounding area. 43 Frank Clifton said that one of the concerns is the possibility of rescue operations. Class 44 I and Class II does not allow someone to sell dogs. He asked where the line gets drawn if a 45 dog has a litter of puppies. He said that this creates an issue that will be difficult to enforce and 46 he offered a word of caution regarding this. 47 Commissioner Yuhasz said that it seems that the Planning staff does not see a need to 48 make changes. 49 Michael Harvey said that the Planning staff focused on process issues. He thinks that 50 there is an opportunity to develop standards for the Class I kennel and development of 3 1 mandatory buffers, etc. He said that there are complexities with Class I and Class II facilities. 2 He thinks that it would be appropriate to provide a differentiation between rescue facilities and 3 kennels. He asked for direction from the Board. 4 Commissioner Yuhasz made reference to direct frontage on a state-maintained roadway 5 and said that the development regulations essentially prohibit the creation of new lots that have 6 frontage on existing state-maintained roads. He said that putting this kind of restriction into the 7 ordinance may make it difficult moving forward. This is one of his concerns. The problem has 8 been that there have been some kennels approved over the objection of neighbors. He does 9 not know what to do to make this problem better. 10 Commissioner Gordon said that the reason this came up as a concern is that this use 11 was seen as a commercial use in a residential area. She said that there should be standards 12 for Class I kennels at a minimum for 6-20 animals. She said that the neighbors are already 13 there and this would be bringing in something new and disturbing the peace in some way. Her 14 view is that there need to be higher standards. 15 Commissioner Hemminger asked about the penalty. Michael Harvey said that a 16 violation of the code is up to $500 a day. She thinks that if someone is breeding dogs, there 17 needs to be a permit. 18 Frank Clifton said that one of the problems will be those that hunt rabbits and raise 19 beagles. It is not uncommon for these people to have 15-20 dogs at one time, but they are not 20 selling them. 21 Commissioner Hemminger said that she would like to tighten up the Class II guidelines. 22 Commissioner Yuhasz said that he does not understand why Class II kennels are 23 allowed in a rural area if they are viewed as a commercial activity. 24 Chair Pelissier said that if there is a large operation, there should be something about 25 noise because that seems to be the biggest concern. 26 Michael Harvey said that one of the reasons that noise is not in this ordinance is 27 because there are noise regulations in the animal control ordinance. This is enforced by the 28 Sheriff's department. 29 Animal Services Director Bob Marotto said that they need to focus on non-compliance 30 with other ordinances with the result being revocation of the kennel permit. There are ways to 31 tighten up the ordinance. 32 Commissioner Yuhasz said that he does not want more things for the County 33 Commissioners to decide. 34 Chair Pelissier agreed. She does not want this to be a Class A Special Use Permit. 35 Bob Marotto said that there are a handful of kennels that are a chronic problem and 36 there has been litigation with two of them. There are currently 12 Class II permits, two pending 37 Class II permits, and two Class I permits. Of that group, probably two or three have been the 38 subject of continuing complaints and concerns. 39 Commissioner Yuhasz asked about the nature of those complaints. 40 Bob Marotto said that the complaints are usually numbers, housing, noise, whether or 41 not the animals are confined securely, living conditions, etc. The renewals of the permits 42 depend upon the inspection and the standards and any violation of the standards is grounds to 43 not renew the permit. 44 Chair Pelissier said that she is hearing that the majority of the County Commissioners 45 do not want to do Class A Special Use Permits for this and the staff should come back with 46 more parameters for rural buffer, lot size, etc. 47 Frank Clifton said that one of the things not included here is the regulation of puppy 48 mills. This is something that should be considered as a separate issue. 49 Commissioner Gordon said that she would like to hear the Planning Board's take on 50 this, both for Class I and Class II. 4 1 Discussion ensued about the timeline and it was answered that the May or August 2013 2 QPH would be reasonable to bring the final ordinance. 3 Chair Pelissier made reference to the Class II kennel and said that the keeping of more 4 than five animals seems stringent. She would like some discussion about this. 5 Michael Harvey said that he would need to work with Bob Marotto on the numbers to 6 ensure that they are consistent between the ordinances. 7 Commissioner Yuhasz said that before the County Commissioners make a commitment 8 to bring something to a public hearing, he thinks that the Planning Board should discuss this. 9 He would like to hear this discussion before making a decision to bring something to a public 10 hearing. 11 The Board agreed. 12 13 3. Specific Policies for Board of County Commissioner Advisory Boards 14 The Board reviewed the final drafts of the board-specific policies for six advisory boards. 15 Chair Pelissier said that the non-substantive comments could be submitted to the 16 County Attorney. 17 John Roberts said that this was initially submitted in April or May. There were many 18 comments, but one of the comments that everyone agreed on was that the specific policies 19 need to be shorter and only need to reflect differences that are absolutely necessary. He let 20 the departments know that and the departments made the changes. These policies generally 21 reflect goals and purposes of each individual board, membership on the board, and when the 22 meetings will be. 23 24 OUT Board 25 Darcy Zorio, staff support for the OUT Board, came forward. 26 Commissioner Gordon asked how the policies were configured. John Roberts said that 27 each of the policies is in the same format, but each one will look different because of the 28 differences in each board. 29 Commissioner Gordon made reference to page 2, #2 in the OUT Board policy and said 30 that it should say, "in such instances, the OUT Board shall send its recommendations to the 31 Planning Board." She asked what duty the OUT Board has to the Board of County 32 Commissioners. 33 Darcy Zorio said that the recommendations go directly to the Board of County 34 Commissioners. 35 Commissioner Gordon said that, in that case, it should say, "the OUT Board shall send 36 its recommendations to the Planning Board, with a copy to the County Commissioners." 37 Commissioner Gordon made reference to the Goals and Objectives, #3, the first 38 objective, and requested that it say, "identify and provide prioritization recommendations on the 39 County's roadway, transit, bicycle, and pedestrian needs." 40 John Roberts asked if the Board agreed with this change. 41 Commissioner Hemminger said that she would like the recommendations broken out 42 into two pieces — Planning Board and County Commissioners. 43 Commissioner Yuhasz said that if the County Commissioners have requested that the 44 OUT Board advise the Planning Board, then that recommendation goes to the Planning Board 45 and whatever comes up from the Planning Board will include what the OUT Board 46 recommended. He does not think that the County Commissioners need to get a separate 47 recommendation. 48 Chair Pelissier said that if the County Commissioners asked for it, then it will see it 49 through the Planning Board. She thinks that this will be taken care of. 5 1 The Board agreed with adding "bicycle and pedestrian" to the first item under Goals and 2 Objectives. 3 Commissioner Gordon made reference to #6, "serve as an advisory body to the 4 Administrative Staff of the Orange Public Transit system." She said that it is strange to have an 5 advisory board of the County Commissioners be an advisor to the staff. 6 Chair Pelissier said that it was agreed that it would be folded into the OUT Board, which 7 would serve as advice to the staff because they were dealing with transportation. 8 Darcy Zorio said that NCDOT requires that Orange Public Transportation have a 9 transportation advisory board as a recipient of subgrades. DOT also requires that the 10 transportation advisory board have specific membership. At this time, the board does not 11 address the issues required by the state statutes. She said that the OUT Board needs to keep 12 its goals and objectives "clean" and satisfy the DOT requirements. There are some 13 membership issues on the TAB that might not be pertinent to the OUT Board. 14 Chair Pelissier made reference to page 4 where it says that there would be three 15 members from the advisory boards having transportation interests — Commission for the 16 Environment, Economic Development Commission, and Planning Board. She said that her 17 concern is that when there are these requirements it means that people have to be on two 18 boards. She is hearing that this is problematic and that it does not work very well. She knows 19 that there should be communication between two different boards, but maybe the staff people 20 can summarize pertinent issues. She questioned having this as a stipulation of inembership. 21 Commissioner Gordon said that the Commission for the Environment might have an 22 interest, but she is not sure about the Economic Development Commission. There is an 23 overlap between planning and transportation. 24 Chair Pelissier suggested not requiring this, but maybe having someone with specific 25 interests or expertise on the OUT Board. 26 Commissioner Gordon suggested asking the boards how they felt about it. 27 Frank Clifton said that the commonality with all of these boards is that the County staff 28 supports them all. 29 Commissioner Yuhasz suggested saying, "six at-large members with expertise or 30 specific interests in the environment, economic development, planning, bicycle transportation, 31 pedestrian access and safety, and public transit." 32 After discussion, the Board decided to remove item B-4 regarding the staggered terms. 33 34 Aqricultural Preservation 35 Rich Shaw is staff support for this board. He said that Objective B-2 should be divided 36 up and bulleted. 37 John Roberts made reference to Section IV, B, #4 and said to delete this statement 38 about quorum. 39 40 Animal Services 41 John Roberts said that the current date and time was included, but it somehow got 42 deleted from this one. He suggested that the current meeting dates and times should be 43 included. 44 Bob Marotto said that this board meets the third Wednesday of every other month from 45 6:30-8:30 p.m. 46 It was suggested to change "Townships" to "Towns" in section III, B, 2-a. 47 48 49 50 Visitors Bureau 6 1 Laurie Paolacelli said that this board meets the third Wednesday of every month. Since 2 she has been here, there has always been a quorum. There is representation from the towns, 3 the hospitality industry, the Chamber, Orange County Economic Development, restaurants, and 4 the high school athletic association. She said that there has been a swell in related positions 5 encouraging tourism. The board has added someone with institutional memory as an ex-officio 6 capacity and Lee Pavao is sitting in this position. 7 Commissioner Hemminger suggested putting the number of inembers in the 8 "composition" section. There are three ex-officios and 14 members. 9 Commissioner Gordon made reference to page 13, A-2, and she read, "The Orange 10 County Board of Commissioners may appoint an advisory board whose duty is to serve in an 11 advisory capacity to the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau Board." She said that it 12 should say, "whose duty is to provide advice on visitors' services in Orange County." 13 Commissioner Gordon made reference to the Charge and halfway down the paragraph 14 and said that it should read, "the board's purpose is to serve in an advisory capacity to the 15 Orange County Board of Commissioners" and not "government." 16 Commissioner Gordon made reference to page 14, B-1 and suggested saying 17 "surrounding areas" instead of"surrounding Efland." 18 Commissioner Gordon made corrections to "Representation" and said that it is Town of 19 Hillsborough Commissioners and Town of Carrboro Board of Aldermen. Also, EDC Board- 20 Orange County should read, "Economic Development Commission." It should also say this for 21 the Town of Chapel Hill and Carrboro. 22 Chair Pelissier suggested that these changes be submitted to John Roberts in writing 23 because they are not substantive. 24 25 Planninq Board 26 Chair Pelissier said that she wanted to put a placeholder for the future and coming up 27 with applications for certain boards that were a little more detailed. These applications could 28 have some specific questions for the applicants related to the boards. 29 30 Commission for the Environment 31 Commissioner Gordon made reference to page 21 and suggested adding language 32 between 5 and 6 such as "provide recommendations and input on the Lands Legacy Program," 33 and the Board agreed, 34 Commissioner Gordon suggested taking out the fields at the bottom of page 21 because 35 this is not done. She does not see a need to put this in. 36 Chair Pelissier said that she likes the listing of expertise. 37 Discussion ensued about having these areas remain. 38 The majority of the Board agreed to leave these areas as is. 39 Commissioner Gordon made reference to page 22, #4 and said that this is in the 40 general policy. 41 Rich Shaw said that 2-4 were in the general provisions and he was going to recommend 42 that these be removed. 43 Commissioner Gordon made reference to page 23, Meeting Notice, and said that it 44 should say, "staff of the Department of Environment, Agriculture, Parks, and Recreation shall 45 give a minimum of five days notice for both regular and special meetings." She said that 46 DEAPR should be spelled out. 47 48 A motion was made by Commissioner Hemminger, seconded by Commissioner Yuhasz 49 to adjourn the meeting at 9:28 p.m. 50 7 1 Bernadette Pelissier, Chair 2 3 Donna S. Baker, CMC 1 1 DRAFT Attachment 3 2 MINUTES 3 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS 4 ORANGE COUNTY PLANNING BOARD 5 Dinner Meeting 6 November 19, 2012 7 5:30 P.M. 8 9 The Orange County Board of Commissioners and the Orange County Planning Board 10 met for a dinner meeting on Monday, November 19, 2012 at 5:30p.m. at the Link Government 11 Services Center, Hillsborough, N.C. 12 13 COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Bernadette Pelissier, and Commissioners Alice 14 Gordon, Barry Jacobs, Valerie Foushee, Earl McKee, and Steve Yuhasz 15 COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Pam Hemminger 16 COUNTY ATTORNEY PRESENT: Staff Attorney Sahana Ayers 17 COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager Frank Clifton, Assistant County Manager 18 Michael Talbert, and Deputy Clerk to the Board Donna S. Baker (All other staff inembers will be 19 identified appropriately below) 20 PLANNING BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Larry Wright, and Planning Board members 21 Pete Hallenbeck, Andrea Rohrbacher, Maxecine Mitchell, Rachel Phelps Hawkins, Alan 22 Campbell, Johnny Randall, H.T. "Buddy" Hartley, Lisa Stuckey, Howard Statts 23 PLANNING BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT: Dawn Brezina and Tony Blake 24 25 Tentative 2013 Planning / Planning Board Work Plan and Discussion 26 27 28 1) Openinq Remarks 29 Introductions were made. 30 31 32 Chair Pelissier said this was Commissioner Foushee and Commissioner Yuhasz's last meeting 33 and Commissioner Hemminger's too, but Commissioner Hemminger was unable to attend. 34 35 Larry Wright, Planning Board Chair, welcomed everyone and thanked the Commissioners for 36 meeting with them. 37 38 39 2) 2011/12 Work Products Accomplishments 40 Land Use, Zoning, UDO (Craig Benedict) 41 42 Craig Benedict briefly reviewed the planning departments/planning board accomplishments this 43 past year including the Hwy 57 area and their first usage there. 44 45 Craig Benedict then mentioned the mid-section of Orange County, in the Mebane area and that 46 the county has completed a 400 acre land use element with amendments, and also completed 47 some Economic Development District (EDD) amendments as well in this area. He said this was 48 the largest amount of amendments for this Small Area Plan process thus far. 49 50 Craig Benedict said the Hillsborough Economic development zone is also coming to fruition and 51 Hillsborough has a MOU with Board of County Commissioners and they hope to move forward 52 on this soon. 53 2 1 Craig Benedict said all of these products were a part of the Small Area Plan process and were 2 brought about by collaboration between the Board of County Commissioners, the Orange 3 County Planning Board and others. He said this was just an overview of initiatives that were 4 brought forward last year to the Commissioners as part of the planning board's work plan. He 5 said the Planning Board has had many new members over the past three years and though they 6 adopted the UDO, since then, they have had a series of UDO amendments come forth and will 7 now examine certain parts of those UDO plans in Phase II. 8 9 10 3) Onqoinq Planninq Initiatives (in pipeline) 11 Economic Development Uses and Processes (Craig Benedict) 12 13 Craig Benedict said Orange County passed the sales tax in 2012 and some of this funding is 14 going toward economic development. Craig Benedict said they will be bringing forth some 15 amendments next year in reference to SAPFO (as relates to a recent court case in another 16 county) and may be tweaking it a bit. They have some projects in the pipeline already, and in 17 order to plan ahead, they wanted to meet with Board of County Commissioners and see what 18 their priorities were. 19 20 Craig Benedict said when they created the UDO and Comprehensive Plan, there were some 21 people that wanted to change everything at that point but staff said that this would come in time. 22 The Planning Department has begun to implement some of these suggestions from those two 23 processes now. 24 25 26 27 4) Comprehensive Plan, UDO Implementation Bridqe 28 a. Planning Board Prioritization (Larry Wright, Pete Hallenbeck) 29 30 Larry Wright said this planning board is a group of talented individuals with subject area 31 expertise and he said he has taken great pleasure to see new members come on board and 32 participate in this process. 33 Pete Hallenbeck, Planning Board Vice Chair, said the UDO was supposed to be two phases 34 and phase two was going to be everything they wanted to change from phase one, which will be 35 the UDO implementation bridge. He said Phase 2 does not imply that there is an end to this 36 process but will be constantly changing. 37 38 Pete Hallenbeck said the planning board needs to figure out how to prioritize their list of projects 39 and he said what drives it is to use the Planning staffs' knowledge and experience and utilize 40 individual board members' areas of expertise in certain areas; and to be responsive to 41 suggestions and guidance from Board of County Commissioners and other advisory boards. 42 He said they will have planning board members look at the implementation bridge and come up 43 with suggestions and then work with planning staff to figure out the order of their list of 44 priorities. The list is not the just the "good stuff' but the procedures they plan to use for all that 45 is coming at them and revise and prepare them and the information for what may be coming 46 next. 47 48 Chair Pelissier said it is great idea to coordinate with other advisory boards and to look at other 49 boards' priorities and work plans to help inform them and the process. 50 51 Commissioner Foushee said she agreed that this is a process that does not end and with the 52 different phases, and she appreciated Mr. Hallenbeck's acknowledgement of this. 53 3 1 Commissioner Yuhasz said Craig Benedict mentioned about streamlining two years ago and 2 this needs to be a priority as they look at the UDO to streamline the process by which projects 3 are considered and approved. He said to streamline the process by which both the Planning 4 Board and the Board of County Commissioners' review projects and suggested changes. 5 6 Commissioner Jacobs said having a simple and transparent process is vital and that some 7 residents need something outside of the "planese" verbiage and more in laymen's terms. 8 9 Commissioner Gordon arrived at 5:58PM. 10 11 Commissioner Gordon said that whatever the Commissioners do they need to be transparent 12 with the public. They need to have public hearings on items at a different meeting from the 13 meeting at which they vote. She said that fast does not necessarily mean good. She said that 14 they need to go at the right speed and get meaningful public participation and that outreach 15 meetings are very helpful. She said they are a county that wants their citizens involved and that 16 means they have to make it understandable and easy for the citizens to participate. 17 18 b. Joint Advisory Board meeting to choreograph mutual interest projects? 19 20 Craig Benedict said Orange County is proceeding toward a central permitting process and 21 initiative. He said they have just hired a new staff person from the private sector to address this 22 process. He said they are going to be sending out a letter to the joint advisory boards with 23 mutual joint interests so that these boards can let the Planning Board/staff know what is 24 percolating in the other advisory boards and where they all can collaborate. 25 26 Pete Hallenbeck said they are hearing from the Board of Commissioners: to speed up the 27 processes, transparency, clarification, take into account the end user and use the staff to 28 shepherd the planning process. 29 30 Chair Pelissier said there are two types of processes — one that does not involve the Board of 31 County Commissioners or the Planning Board and that process needs to be quick; the other 32 part are those items that come to them as the Board of County Commissioners and Planning 33 Board and they need to use a transparent process and involve the citizens as much as possible. 34 35 36 c. Staff Capacity 37 38 Craig Benedict introduced the planning staff: 39 40 Michael Harvey has been doing a lot of UDO text amendments. 41 42 Perdita Holtz has recently been choreographing the Quarterly Public Hearings (QPH), working 43 closely with the Planning Board and has also been updating UDO text amendments. One of her 44 positions was lost this summer and that person worked on the UDO. 45 Tom Altieri now oversees some intergovernmental projects and transportation planning. 46 47 Craig Benedict said they have lost some talented transportation planners recently to other 48 governmental entities after brief stints with the county and they are looking to stabilize this area 49 in their department. 50 51 Larry Wright said this planning board has been doing a greater job than it has ever done before 52 and he contributed that to Frank Clifton, the County Manager. He said Mr. Clifton has permitted 53 his staff to do the work they are supposed to do. 54 4 1 Rachel Phelps Hawkins asked what obstacles the citizens/businesses are still finding so hard to 2 overcome when they go through the planning process. 3 4 Chair Pelissier said one of the obstacles is that in the EDD districts there has been no water and 5 sewer infrastructure and that is what businesses need — infrastructure. 6 7 Steve Brantley said the pieces are finally coming together with utilities and pre-zoning in some 8 of these EDD areas but when they are competing with other counties, these other counties 9 already have these in place, which leaves Orange County at a disadvantage. He said they are 10 surrounded by communities with a very competitive product but Orange County is moving 11 forward. 12 13 Commissioner McKee said there has always been a perception that Orange County was not 14 friendly to economic development in the past 20 years. He said that with the AKG expansion 15 last year in Mebane, that this may have broken the ice on that perception. He said they need to 16 continue down that road so that Orange County's perception is now that Orange County is 17 "open for business". He does not envision our UDO cutting back to 77 pages from 700 pages 18 like Alamance's UDO is/has, but we are moving forward. 19 20 Pete Hallenbeck said with the mention of utilities, water and sewer, that they also need data in 21 these EDD areas. 22 23 Commissioner Jacobs said when the Planning Board meets with other county advisory boards 24 to also include reaching out to other planning boards in the county that has Orange County reps 25 on these boards and perhaps get some ideas that would be mutually beneficial. 26 He also said that they to encourage people on the planning board who want to follow their own 27 passions to work with staff closely on these assumptions. 28 29 Commissioner Gordon said she appreciated what the Planning Board does since she used to 30 be on this board and she appreciated their informative minutes. Chair Pelissier agreed. 31 32 5) BOCC Planninq Retreat 2013 33 34 Chair Pelissier said that the Commissioners' retreat is currently scheduled for February 1, 35 2013 and Board of County Commissioners' retreat representatives are Commissioner 36 Jacobs, Commissioner McKee and Commissioner-Elect Mark Dorosin, She asked 37 Commissioner McKee and Commissioner Jacobs to elaborate on what the retreat may 38 entail. Commissioner Jacobs said one some of the suggested topics include what comprises 39 economic development in Orange County; reviewing BOCC goals and objectives with new 40 board members; discussion on poverty in Orange County; and intergovernmental 41 relationships and how to do a better job in this area. 42 43 The meeting adjourned at 6:26 PM.