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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 20091114 APPROVED 12/15/2009 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ANNUAL PLANNING RETREAT SOUTHERN HUMAN SERVICES CENTER November 14, 2009 9:00 a.m. The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a Board retreat on Saturday, November 14, 2009 at 9:00 a.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: Commissioner Mike Nelson COUNTY ATTORNEY PRESENT: John Roberts COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager Frank Clifton, Clerk to the Board Donna S. Baker, Assistant County Managers Gwen Harvey and Willie Best, and Economic Development Director Brad Broadwell and Financial Services Director Gary Humphreys UNC PRESENTERS: Lydian Altman (UNC Public Intersection Project) Dr. Jonathan Morgan (UNC School of Government) I. Getting Started: Setting Expectations Lydia Altman: The Board produced a goal about economic development (ED): 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. One of the purposes of the meeting today is to define some of those words more precisely. [See section V.] What do we want to see happen in the retreat today? • Focus on the positive--what we do want rather than on what we don't want • Follow through with action • Come out with consensus, agree on vision and how to proceed • Be willing to take risks • Create a definite plan • Come up with details that outsiders can understand • Create a cohesive vision that can be acted on • Move forward • Build on our strengths, acknowledge positive things we've already done • Agree on an ED path/strategies/tools (or at least move towards agreement) What do we not want to see happen? • Fail to agree on an ED vision • Get bogged down in minutia and word choices • Spend a lot of time writing and re-writing • Allow factions to develop • Focus too much on what critics say • Produce a big picture that gets lost • Talk about what we can't do/haven't done in the past II. Making Progress: Review and Celebrate Accomplishments. What has changed since January 2009? • Organizational changes: department heads have left and not been replaced • Changes in resource allocation because of the department heads retiring • Loss of institutional memory (also means freedom from old institutional inertia • New need to change ideas about what services the county can deliver • Brought new facilities online (this is an opportunity and a tangible achievement) • $1 million to put together a value-added agricultural facility • Recognition and consensus about the importance of communicating with the public • Shift in politics: changing demographics (Changes in Asian and Latino populations), and water issues are more important now • Opportunity to re-examine how we do things internally, because of a new county manager, budget changes, and recent retirements • New comprehensive plan, in the midst of organizational change • Willingness to take advantage of the financial crisis to make good changes • Lost some attachment to this is how we've always done it" • Individual initiative: people wanting to do more • Moving (into new physical spaces). New energy. What are we most proud of? • Education system • We get through our agendas; we make decisions. More positive and forward-moving. • It's been a good year. • The budget process: produced a good product, protected safety services, kept it revenue-neutral; had good communication with the public • Group commitments: we stuck to the priorities and commitments we set • Willingness to make tough choices • Got two new good people • Protected 2,500 acres since April 2000. $5 million in grants • Good relationships with school systems and with other government bodies • Regional consensus about importance of transportation development • Stayed revenue-neutral • Board expanded from 5 to 7 smoothly • Opened 3 parks, new senior center, animal shelter, solid-waste facility, dedicated a park • Quality of life in Orange County • Board is coming to grips with change—willing to change, open to partnerships, keep things from being personal III. Current Financial Realities: Presentation from Gary Humphreys, Finance Department (PowerPoint handout included in retreat packet) Take-aways from the Gary's presentation and the discussion of financial realities: 1 . Importance of COMMUNICATION to the public: • What the county's revenue is and what it spends its money on. We need easy-to-access and easy-to-understand data on the website. • What "revenue-neutral" means. A good statistic to circulate: We cut the budget by $5.4 million. • Why the county doesn't have "extra money," after we did the revaluations 2. Current financial reality of Orange County: • County's fund balance is lower than is optimal considering that revenue collections are slower than `usual'. When budget time comes, we need to keep in mind the importance of maintaining a bigger reserve. • Debt ratio: The current policy only takes general obligation debt into account but Orange County uses other forms of debt in the same way and for same purposes as general obligation debt. Consider changing the policy to refer to all kinds of general debt. • Consider tying tax increases to bond issuances so that people better understand the connection between the taxes and the capital improvement they're paying for. 3. Economic crisis is an OPPORTUNITY: • This economic crisis is a good opportunity to "get our financial house in order" and be more prudent and conservative financially. People understand the economic climate, so they'll be more willing to accept more conservative positions from the county. IV. Strategic Planning: "Discipline is knowing what you want and figuring out how to pay for it." 1 . Again, COMMUNICATION to the public: • Need to make sure the whole decision-making process and strategic planning process is transparent. • Financial prudence: Need to set service and program priorities and find a way to pay for everything as we go. V. Defining the terms of the Economic Development (ED) goal: 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. "balanced" • Employment opportunities for every level of education/experience/skill • Local availability of most goods and services • Mix of locally owned and non-local businesses "dynamic" • Jobs that evolve, keep up with technology and cultural changes • Open to change • Progressive • Provide opportunities for start-up businesses • Modifying regulatory environment and moving with the times • Thriving, marked by continuous and productive activity "diversity" • Diversity of jobs for different skill levels **[this goal may be in conflict with the goal of creating more high-paying jobs] ** • Ensure that all residents have an equal chance to benefit from ED, including access and training for high-quality, high-paying jobs • National and local-economy jobs. Large and small employers • Geographical diversity: jobs dispersed around county • Diversity in type of industry: light industrial, retail, etc. "sustainable growth" • Protect the environment, promote social justice and equity, and ensure sound fiscal management, while facilitating economic development • Low-polluting industries, low water usage • Greenness • Use what you've got, focus on assets • Affordability: pay attention to tax burden "enhanced revenue" • Expanding revenue sources: go beyond residential property tax • Change ratio of residential to commercial tax base • Cost of services vs. benefit of bringing in more residents. How will retail attract workers? • Being able to provide jobs and housing to handle inevitable population growth • Promote ED that produces more revenue for county than it received previously, after factoring in the costs of providing capital funding and county services "community values" • Education: life-long learning, education at all levels • Social equity: heterogeneous, inclusive, sharing benefits of prosperity, lower poverty rate, higher affordability • High quality of life • Progressive on environmental issues, protection of natural environment • Focus on attracting businesses we do want instead of keeping out businesses we don't want (removing regulations that are a hurdle) • Regulation: flexibility vs. certainty? • Clarity of standards (regarding regulation) • Promotion of well-being of all county residents VI. Jonathan Morgan's presentation: Economic Development in Orange County (OC) Three main approaches to ED: • Recruiting new businesses • Supporting and retaining existing businesses • Growing new businesses Supplementary strategies: Creativity and Talent Strategies and Place-Making Strategies • Orange County is already doing this well. (Arts and culture, social capital, quality-of-life amenities, attracting residents, downtown development, etc.) • Partnerships are important ways to stay strong in these areas. Themes that emerged from the discussion: 1 . Provide INFRASTRUCTURE: • Orange County is already a very attractive place for businesses and residents. But we lack the capacity to accommodate all the businesses that might be interested in locating here. Big need for more space for these businesses, need to improve the infrastructure for them. • Existing businesses also need physical infrastructure: office space, wet-lab space. Improving infrastructure will help us retain/support those businesses. • The great shoe-store analogy of 2009: Our county is like a shoe- store. It's not just about attracting the businesses into the county (into the shoe-store), we also have to be able to accommodate them when they get here (we have to have the shoes they want in the right size!) 2. Streamline the PERMITTING PROCESS: • Think of how to bring in businesses we do want, rather than using regulations to keep out businesses/industries we don't want. • Use advocates to aid businesses to understand the systems and requirements. 3. Adopt TARGETED STRATEGIES: • We need to know what kinds of businesses we want to attract/retain/grow. We need to know what size shoes those businesses need. Then we can shape our efforts strategically around that. Need to focus and be proactive, not just take whatever scraps come along. 4. Focus on RETAINING EXISTING BUSINESSES: • Existing businesses are a big resource; let's not throw all our money and time into recruiting new businesses when we have businesses right here already. • Underscore the value Orange County places on home-grown business. • Be responsive to local businesses' needs by tracking needs and providing supportive infrastructure, space, etc. • Partnerships can help us retain and support businesses—need to work with the universities and with other city/county governments. 5. Build on the STRENGTHS and ASSETS Orange County already has: • Attitude: the Board is talking about ED in a new way: focusing on what they want rather than what they don't want. • Location—proximity to highways, universities, UNC healthcare system, etc. • Highly educated population • We're already doing "place-making" strategies well: lots of cultural assets • Agriculture • High quality of life here that is attractive to residents and businesses • County has some big parcels of land set aside yet undeveloped • Public education system, universities, community colleges VI. Understanding the role of the board, moving forward Questions that need to be answered: • What other partners do we need to engage for economic development? (talks are underway at the ED-staff level) • What is the next step for water and sewer w/ Mebane and Durham to EDD? (Board is ready to invest money—what needs to happen next?) • Which types of businesses/industries do we want to attract? There's general consensus on the following next steps: • Direct staff to begin working on improving infrastructure. This is a long process. Let's start now. • Find ways to make the regulatory process easier for businesses. Establish an "advocate" who helps guide businesses through the process. • Focus on retaining and supporting existing businesses. Broad agreement that this is an important strategy for Orange County. • Orange County already does a good job with the place-making strategies (amenities, etc.) We need to stay strong in that way, and add in these other strategies at the same time. • Continue to work on defining a more proactive, deliberate strategy: still need to answer the question of: what kinds of businesses do we want to recruit? • Communicate with the public about the Board's ED plan and discussions. Need to create a synopsis for the press.