13 - RESOLUTION ADOPTING THE 2017 LAMAR COUNTY MITIGATION PLAN

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Lamar County Multi- Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan Chapter Two 2.5 PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT IN THE PLANNING PROCESS Citizens were encouraged to attend the planning meetings. Meeting notices were posted per the county's and the five (5) jurisdictions' public meeting policies. Letters, Emails, and faxes were sent to individual businesses, non - profit groups, and other public agencies that may wish to be involved. Many of these entities were unable to attend but many made information contributions and stayed informed through a developed Email tree. Hazard Mitigation was an agenda item in many county commissioner's meetings and city council's meetings. These meetings are publicly held in accordance with the open meeting act. Agendas were properly posted, and minutes taken in accordance with law. These meetings proved to be the most effective way to notify the public of the plans existence and purpose due to more of a range of persons attending the meetings for other reasons they were exposed to and allowed to ask questions and voice their opinions about the plan and its purpose during the meetings. The majority of these residents would otherwise not have been inclined to participate in the process at all. A "round table" proved to be the most affective format for generating public and team input on the project and stimulate "out of the box" problem solving. Because the jurisdictions realized that the scheduled council and court meetings were the most effective means of reaching a broad array of residents they provided no issue and allowed this type of discussion during the time periods of Mitigation agenda items. Most moved the agenda items to a later point in their meetings to allow for an extended time on the topic. Due to the fluid nature of the planning process over the planning period, participants were encouraged to make notations on maps as discussion occurred and use other free - flowing processes for documentation of the meeting topics. Discussion included: past occurrences, personal experiences, economic impacts, currently susceptible areas, future development, future economic impacts, and future hazard occurrence predictions. All meeting participants received the handout, "Hazard Mitigation Planning for Local Governments Fact Sheet, FEMA dated June 2007." All meeting attendees were encouraged to share their experiences, suggestions, and concerns for future mitigation activities. Public input was obtained from visits to local business and attractions. Visits were made to the Chamber of Commerce, parks, Libraries, and other places where the general public could be questioned. Valuable input was gathered by talking to lifelong residents who were more than eager to share their stories on the history of Lamar County. 44