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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 20090820 APPROVED 9/15/2009 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS WORK SESSION August 20, 2009 7:00p.m. The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a work session on Thursday, August 20 2009 at 7:00 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, NC. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Valerie P. Foushee, and Commissioners Alice Gordon, Pam Hemminger, Barry Jacobs, Mike Nelson Bernadette Pelissier, and Steve Yuhasz COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: Interim County Manager Frank Clifton and Clerk to the Board Donna S. Baker (All other staff members will be identified appropriately below) Commissioner Foushee said that she would like to ask the Board to add to the agenda a closed session for the purpose of "To consult with an Attorney retained by the Board in order to preserve the attorney-client privilege between the attorney and the Board," NCGS § 143- 318.11(a)(3). A motion was made by Commissioner Gordon seconded by Commissioner Pelissier to approve adding a closed session at the end of the regular meeting. VOTE: UNANIMOUS 1. Update on Library Services in Orange County in Preparation for the September 24, 2009 Assembly of Government's Meeting (AOG) Library Services Director Lucinda Munger said that this is an update about the projects the library has been involved with since June. She said that one of the Board's priorities was equitable library services in Orange County and they have made strides in this. They have been working with personnel for writing job descriptions and advertising for these positions. She summarized the information, as shown below: PURPOSE: To present an update to the Board on library services in Orange County in preparation for the AOG meeting on September 24, 2009. BACKGROUND: At the Board retreat in January 2008, the BOCC identified county priorities for FY 2009-10 within the established guiding principles; Priority 13 states: "Plan to provide `equitable' library services for Orange County residents." It is important to make county government accessible, understandable and transparent. Begin not to relay this message to citizens, partner agencies and organizations that current levels of service may not be maintained. Make clear county priorities and what might change." During the last budget session the Board took great strides in the advancement of their goal of "equitable library services" for the residents of Orange County: By working diligently with County and library staff, the Board was able to: 1. Allocate funding for keeping all branches open at current hours, 2. Providing 6.5 additional staff that will allow for the new Main Library to be open 54 hours per week and increase courier service to all branches from one day to at least 3 days per week. 3. At June 16th meeting the Board unanimously voted to increase funding in the FY11 budget cycle that would raise library spending to the state average per capita of $22.44. Orange County library spending has increased from FY09 level of $15.60 to FY10 level of $19.80. Library Administration has worked with Human Resources on the development and advertisement of the new positions and will hope to have all new staff in place by the end of October. We are also still in communication with the Capital Project Management Team on the timeline for the completion and move into the new facility which is now slated for opening in December 2009. In September we will begin coordinating with other county departments and library branches on assistance for library users when the Main Library will be closed for at least 2 weeks in order to thoroughly complete the orderly movement of all library shelves, computers, and collection materials into the new library. Library Progress as related to 2007 Task Force Recommendations: 1) Heritage Center Work Group. At the June 23rd meeting the BOCC approved a Heritage Center Work Group, facilitated by Ms. Barbara Baker. Ms. Baker is the retired Assistant Dean of Durham Technical Community College and was instrumental in the DTCC Hillsborough campus project. Additionally, Ms. Baker has served on the Library Services Task Forces of 2004 and 2007. This group would provide guidance to the Board on the feasibility of a proposed Heritage Center and report back to the Board in October 2009. The Heritage Center Work Group has already met three times and will report on its work to the BOCC prior to the CIP discussion in late October. A working vision for the Center has been developed and the work of creating a business plan has begun. During the next several weeks the group will move forward with discussions of scope, organization, management, and finances. 2) Southwest Regional Branch. The BOCC adopted a capital project ordinance, "Libraries — Future Facilities", for FY 2009-10 establishing a reserve fund of $50,000 to allow the county to address countywide library capital needs identified in the 2007 Report. Hyconeechee Regional Library Receives Technology Grant The Hyconeechee Regional Library System is comprised of the three counties of Caswell, Person and Orange libraries. This does not include Chapel Hill Public Library. In June, the State Library awarded two 2009-2010 Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) Grants to the Hyconeechee Regional Library System. With a Basic Equipment Grant in the amount of $8,410, the library system will purchase eight public computers. In Orange County, five computers will replace existing public workstations at the Orange County Main Library and one will be used to increase the total number of public workstations at the Cedar Grove Branch to five. The library system will be responsible for providing $1,263 in matching funds for this grant. A Planning grant in the amount of $20,000 will be used to work with a library consultant to develop a three-year Technology Plan for the regional library system. The library staff will work with Dr. Robert Burgin of RB Software & Consulting and Jeffery Campbell of UNC Libraries to develop this plan. The completed plan will include guiding principles for integrating technologies into library services, specific technology goals related to key areas of continued investment and new strategic opportunity; and guidelines for on-going maintenance and evaluation of library technologies. No matching funds are required for the Planning Grant. The work completed as part of the planning grant will not limit the County from setting a strategic direction or making a capital investment in technology to more closely align itself with the Chapel Hill system, should that be determined. Library Cooperation Summit— NC Public Library Director's Conference In August 2008 forty-three of the seventy-seven public library systems in North Carolina were represented at the Library Cooperation Summit in Boone, NC. At the summit the participants were asked to rank what type of cooperative projects would have the most positive impact on their library patrons. The top four projects were: 1) Affordable and accessible bandwidth available across the entire state. 2) Support for a statewide borrowing and delivery system 3) An Open Source Integrated Library System for all public libraries 4) A Netflix model for statewide borrowing and delivery system. Affordable and accessible bandwidth is becoming a top priority for libraries all over the country. In many areas of North Carolina, including northern Orange County, reliable bandwidth is not yet available. This is most evident at the Cedar Grove Branch where there have been several instances of dropped connections with the Time-Warner internet service provider, which affected branch operations with intermittent service for two months. Orange County IT Department worked closely with library staff and Time —Warner to address the situation. At present, service has been restored, but library and IT continue to monitor and evaluate long term service reliability. County management is also tracking grant opportunities through the federal economic stimulus package to help local governments leverage broadband infrastructure improvements. The Gates Foundation has recently launched a nationwide effort to collect detailed information about all public library internet connections. This effort, named the Broadband Assessment Project, will help the foundation and its partners raise awareness of the need for high-quality Internet in public libraries and how to meet this goal. The survey was conducted in North Carolina in late November and early December. The results of the survey will be released later in 2009 and will assist the State Library in planning for possible solutions. Priorities 2, 3 & 4 are part of a desire to address the need for a statewide virtual catalog that would provide reciprocal borrowing, statewide materials delivery, and resource sharing. The State Library is developing a task force to work on the plan to take the idea of a statewide catalog that will give North Carolinians "what they want, when and where they want it" and have it grow into a reality by the end of 2011. A follow-up summit on the statewide broadband access and resource sharing will take place on August 12th at the 2009 NCPLA Summer Conference. At the August 20th work session, she said that she will be more than happy to update the BOCC on the meeting and share how these two projects will impact library service in Orange County. OCPL/CHPL Collaboration Project: Orange County Library staff and Chapel Hill Library staff met in May 2009 to begin discussions on possible collaboration alternatives between the two systems. A preliminary report summarizing initial alternatives for enhanced coordination of efforts is attached. However, due to several scheduling conflicts, the Orange County Public Library and Chapel Hill Public Library staffs have been unable to meet for further discussions since that time. On August 19th there was a meeting between County and Town Managers and appropriate county and library staff, to review the library services alternatives, assess their impact and prioritize. The purpose of the meeting was to flesh out the alternatives that the Board was given in June, the 12 alternatives. At the end of the meeting, future steps were decided, which would include continuing to work together to do a draft of a presentation that will be brought before the governing bodies on September 241h Frank Clifton said that at the Cedar Grove Library, staff is going to look into adding a door in adjacent rooms so library staff could monitor the usage of the rooms with minimal staff. Frank Clifton said that Chapel Hill Library is looking for more participation from Orange County financially. He said that the librarians were going to work together on issues that did not have financial implications for now. Commissioner Jacobs said that the year before last, there was funding for more interoperability between the Orange County and Chapel Hill library systems. Lucinda Munger said that Orange County provides a courier system and the hope is that this will increase from one day to 3-4 days a week. She said that interoperability would bridge the County's Polaris system with Chapel Hill's system. She would hope that at some time in the near future, citizens could have one library card. Commissioner Nelson asked about the $20,000 Technology grant and verified that it does not include Chapel Hill. He said that it strikes him that they are talking about collaborating better and that it might be a good idea to have a three-year technology plan that includes Chapel Hill. He suggested asking Chapel Hill to chip in funds to be a part of this. Commissioner Nelson asked Lucinda Munger how she was envisioning this presentation in September. Lucinda Munger listed what would be presented - how the libraries collect data, overview of the libraries, the facilities available in Orange County and what they can offer, a summary of past library task forces' recommendations, a snapshot of how they got where they are now, future alternatives- four they have been doing and four they can do now with no associated costs, the pros and cons of each alternatives and acknowledgement of barriers, and a possible partnership with UNC. Commissioner Nelson said that it will be hard to predict how all of this will unfold in the next two years. He said that the southwest library is another change coming down the pike. Lucinda Munger said that the Open Source Integrated Library System is another area they would like to work on with Chapel Hill. Commissioner Nelson asked about the next steps at the Assembly of Governments meeting. Frank Clifton said that it would be up to the elected boards. He said that the speed is not as important as actually moving forward and taking steps toward collaboration. Commissioner Nelson said that the Board of County Commissioners needs to show some leadership on this issue. Commissioner Gordon said that she would like to know if we have some questions we would like to have answered at that meeting. She said that some of the things that need to be discussed are equitable library services, the interests of all parties, interoperability, and collaboration. Frank Clifton said that the two Managers discussed the idea of trying to come up with a formula that would be a reasonable approach. Commissioner Jacobs asked about State money and if Chapel Hill would still get it if it were part of Orange County's library system. Frank Clifton said that this was discussed and the amount that Chapel Hill gets now would not change significantly. Commissioner Jacobs said that Carrboro is also at the table and Carrboro is expecting Orange County to provide it a library. He said that there has never been a satisfactory understanding of what that means in terms of participation. He said that equalizing is a nice goal but he does not want everyone thinking that Orange County will contribute more in order to be "equal." He said that the Board could look at assisting Chapel Hill with its debt for the new expansion, or take the money and build a library on the border of Orange County and Carrboro. Commissioner Pelissier said that she does not see equalized funding as an expectation and she does not want to presume anything. She said that she is unclear how this Assembly of Governments meeting will proceed with people's expectations. Frank Clifton said that the intention is for staff to talk about options and then let the Chair and Mayors meet to talk about this before the AOG meeting. There are potential areas for the towns to work on. Some of the questions could be about the building of the southwest library. Chair Foushee said that the plan for presentation should show that the Board of County Commissioners is committed to moving forward to make library services in Orange County to be the best they can be. She said that there should be a placeholder in their CIP for the southwest library, which shows Orange County's commitment. Commissioner Nelson said that the Board should start by acknowledging that the towns are right that the County should increase its contributions. The Board should lay out the project funding in the County's CIP for them and state a proposed formula for future funding. He would like to then come back in about 12 months to look at the other steps in the options list. Commissioner Yuhasz said that he would like to know how the $250,000 contribution for the Chapel Hill Public Library compares to the operating budget when it was adopted and what it is now. He also wants to know how much of the Orange County library budget is being given to the Chapel Hill Library. Commissioner Gordon said that with respect to the Chapel Hill Library, it is important to see what the overall county operational budget was 20 years ago and what the overall library budget was at that time. She said that she would still like to address what Carrboro may be expecting. She likes the idea of keeping positive. Frank Clifton suggested that the Board consider initiating a long-term strategic plan for the southwest library. Commissioner Jacobs said that the Carrboro officials will be at the Assembly of Governments meeting and the Board should address their concerns up front. Commissioner Nelson said that the Carrboro funding participation issue should not be brought up at this AOG meeting because it is complicated and controversial. 2. BOCC Goals and Priorities Identified for 2009-2010 Frank Clifton said that this issue has been discussed many times by the Board of County Commissioners and the Board has never adopted these priorities (Attachment 2). He said that the staff needs to know the Board's priorities, but many of these are already incorporated into what the staff is doing. He said that the real issue is that the staff does not know the priority order, or if there is a priority order. Chair Foushee pointed out that the Board has not formally adopted goals for a long time, even though there is an annual goal-setting process. Commissioner Gordon said the retreat in 2008 included staff and Commissioners and at the end, there were six goals. The staff grouped initiatives under each goal at a later time. Chair Foushee said that she thought when they placed this on an agenda that it was to figure out if these are the goals the Board wants for this year. Commissioner Hemminger said that the three new County Commissioners have never discussed the goals. Assistant County Manager Gwen Harvey said that Attachment 1 was the outgrowth of the February 2008 retreat. The goals themselves were created at the retreat and staff was in attendance. There were six broad goals. The initiatives were formulated by staff for these six goals at a later time, but were never formally adopted by the Board. She said that priorities 1-14 were brought forth during the budget process as the top priorities. Commissioner Gordon said that she would like to talk about the six broad goals and not discuss the initiatives at this point. Commissioner Nelson agreed with Commissioner Gordon to get rid of the initiatives. He said that the priorities should be put under each goal the way the initiatives are now. He said that the priorities were supposed to be laid out on a calendar for tracking and prioritizing. He suggested that staff bring back a draft calendar with the priorities. Frank Clifton said that it looks as if the staff used the priority list for the budget process. He said that these goals are an allocation of staff time and money. He said that staff has said that most of the priorities have been addressed or are being addressed by staff at this time. Commissioner Hemminger said that the goals are fine, but she is skeptical since some priorities do not have an attached goal and then schools were not addressed. Commissioner Pelissier said that she was on the Planning Board when it did the Comprehensive Plan and the Planning Board tried to line up the Comprehensive Plan goals with the Board of County Commissioners' goals as if the Board of County Commissioners had adopted these goals. Commissioner Gordon submitted a change in wording for to Goals 1 and 3. With these changes, the six goals are shown below: Goal 1: Ensure a community network of basic human services and infrastructure that maintains, protects, and promotes the well being of county residents. Goal 2: Promote an interactive and transparent system of governance that reflects community values. Goal 3: Implement planning and economic development policies which create a balanced, dynamic local economy and which promote diversity, sustainable growth and enhanced revenue while embracing community values. Goal 4: Invest in quality county facilities, a diverse work force, and technology to achieve a high performing county government. Goal 5: Create, preserve and protect a natural environment that includes clean water, clean air, wildlife, important natural lands and sustainable energy for present and future generations. Goal 6: Ensure a high quality of life and lifelong learning that champions diversity, education at all levels, libraries, parks, recreation and animal welfare. A motion was made by Commissioner Yuhasz, seconded by Commissioner Hemminger to adopt the six proposed Orange County BOCC goals, with the amended language in goal 1 (add "and infrastructure") and goal 3 ( add "and which promote") and to delete the initiatives listed under each goal. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Planning Director Craig Benedict pointed out that the Comprehensive Plan has principles instead of goals. Commissioner Gordon said that she thinks some of the priorities have incorrect goals associated with them. She suggested the following configuration: P-13 — Goal 6 P-14 — Goal 6 P-17 — Goal 6 P-18 — Goal 6 P-10 — Goal 3 The top fourteen priorities are listed below, followed by other priorities that were considered by the Commissioners. The associated goals have been corrected so that they are accurate. Votes Priorities for FY 2009-10 (sorted descending order) P-1 6 Conserve high priority natural areas, wildlife habitat, and prime forests. (Goal 5) P-2 5 Implement Comprehensive Land Use Plan (Goal 3) a. Rewrite zoning and subdivision regulations P-3 5, Develop economic plans for 3'districts (Goal 3) P-4 5 Review services to identify and protect `safety net' programs and services. (Goal, 1) P-5 4 > Encourage for profit investments in affordable housing and review available tools. (Goal', 1) P-6 4 Develop plan and tools to improve the way',county and citizens communicate with each other; foster two-way exchange (Goal 2) P-7 4 Improve intra- and intergovernmental coordination, cooperation, and collaboration. (Goal 2) a.> Work with Town of Hillsborough on: o Joint land use planning approaches, policies and ordinances and annexation o Economic Development Districts b.' Work with Durham on: o Economic Development Districts P-8 4 Examine advisory,boards and commissions (Goal 2): a. Ensure they are meeting their missions b. Determine how boards relate to each other and how their work can be best integrated with BOCC c. Ensure sustainability goals d.' Ensure fit with overall county vision e. Recognize (and be sensitive to) consistencies represented by boards, commissions when framing this review P-9 4 Update economic development plan for county (Goal 3): a. Clarify Economic Development plan for each district O. Identify spectrum of tools c. Identify other stakeholders d. Identify what county wants to see happen P-10 4 Develop an energy plan that includes economic development strategies to attract, retain, and grow "I green" business ( Goal 3) P-11 4 Invest in technology to increase worker efficiencies, e.g., web streaming, paperless agendas, integrated tracking systems between field and office .(Goal 4) P-12 4 Implement county's environmental responsibility goals (Goal 5) P-13 4 Plan to provide `equitable' library services for OC residents. (Goal 6) P-14 4 Fulfill remainder of bond issuance approved by voters in 2001 for soccer and Twin Creeks. (Goal- 6) BELOW ARE OTHER PRIORITIES: P-15 3 Complete stewardship and management plans for Lands Legacy. (Goal 5) P-16 2 Develop an accounting and assessment system of water and air pollution (Goal 5): a. In conjunction with ICLEI; set emissions reduction target for 2030; conduct public education campaign and link public with opportunities to improve energy efficiency and use sustainable energy sources b. Begin multi-year implementation of Observable Well Network P-17 2 Review the Schools and Adequate Facilities Public Funding Ordinance. (Goal 6) a. Is it doing what it was originally intended? b. Does it have application for Durham and Mebane? P-18 1 Address inequities between old and new schools. Older schools are in need of capital improvements. Building new schools has been the funding priority (Goal 6) P-19 0 Relations with UNC-Chapel Hill: Be actively involved and informed about UNC-CH decisions and intentions (Goal 2) P-20 0 Support transit, pedestrian, and bicycle facilities and other alternatives to the single passenger automobile (Goal 3) P-21 0 Amend county zoning to address and modernize airport and related issues (Goal 3) P-22 0 Review and update county personnel and operational policies and procedures. (Goal 4) P-23 0 Design and fund space for county attorney offices. Manager and board to discuss concept and staffing. (Goal 4) P-24 0 Plan to acquire/land bank for future park development. (Goal 5) P-25 0 Develop a policy/update current plan about how parks will be developed, appropriate ratio of parks to population, length of time to develop, and incorporation of such into CIP. (Goal 5) P-26 0 Clarify and communicate to public how and why county funding is allocated the way it is. (Goal 2) 1 2 3 A motion was made by Commissioner Pelissier, seconded by Commissioner 4 Hemminger to approve the priorities, with the associated goals, as amended above. 5 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 6 7 Chair Foushee said that this needs to be brought back on a regular agenda. 8 9 3. Closed Session 10 A motion was made by Commissioner Nelson, seconded by Commissioner Hemminger 11 to go into closed session at 8:48 PM for the purpose of: "To consult with an Attorney retained 12 by the Board in order to preserve the attorney-client privilege between the attorney and the 13 Board," NCGS § 143-318.11(a)(3). 14 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 15 1 RECONVENE INTO REGULAR SESSION 2 3 A motion was made by Commissioner Hemminger, seconded by Commissioner 4 Pelissier to reconvene in to regular session at 9:10 p.m. 5 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 6 7 ADJOURNMENT 8 A motion was made by Commissioner Hemminger, seconded by Commissioner 9 Pelissier to adjourn the meeting at 9:10 p.m. 10 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 11 12 Valerie Foushee, Chair 13 113 Donna S. Baker, CMC 161 Clerk to the Board 16 17 18 19 20 21 22