At a Tuesday night meeting, the Orange County Board of Commissioners met to discuss the management of advisory boards and ways to improve communication with them.

The commissioners chose which boards they will continue in the next year. This was followed by two rounds of selection, in which board members decided upon the boards they would serve on.

Commissioners also said after advisory boards and commissions submit yearly work plans, the Board often sends all of the groups a blanket letter — but Commissioners would like to change that.

Chairwoman Bernadette Pelissier said she wants to improve communication with the boards to show the work plans had been reviewed.

“I really struggled with giving each board the same letter,” Pelissier said. “It makes the advisory boards think we didn’t really review their work plans. I’d like us to make a few highlights so they know we did.”

The Board also discussed allowing County Manager Frank Clifton to sign agreements under $90,000.

The Board agreed to vote at a future meeting to determine if those smaller agreements would require a budget amendment and so need commissioners’ approval.

Noted:

Commissioners also said that they would like to appreciate noteworthy people in the community but lack a formalized process for doing so — something they’d like to change.

But they decided that recognizing exceptional people on an ad-hoc basis has been successful so far, so they shouldn’t adjust their procedure.

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“If we have a formalized process, somebody’s going to get left out regardless of what we do,” said Commissioner Earl McKee. “I don’t know how to improve on what we’re doing.”

“The only caution I would suggest is that I would hope recognition of retirees would be special, like 25 years or more,” Commissioner Valerie Foushee said on the issue. “Whoever is setting the agenda needs to make sure we don’t have too many because that does take up meeting time. I wouldn’t want us to delay other items in our agenda.”