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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 19980608APPROVED 11/17/98 BUDGET WORK SESSION ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS JUNE 8, 1998 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met on June 8, 1998 at 4:00 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center, Chapel Hill, North Carolina for the purpose of holding a budget work session. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Margaret W. Brown, and Commissioners Moses Carey, Jr., William L. Crowther, Alice M. Gordon and Stephen H. Halkiotis. COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr., Assistant County Managers Rod Visser and Albert Kittrell and Clerk to the Board Beverly A. Blythe (All other staff members will be identified appropriately below) NOTE: ALL DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THESE MINUTES ARE IN THE PERMANENT AGENDA FILE IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE. ALL RECORDINGS OF THE MEETING WILL BE KEPT FOR 5 YEARS. REQUEST TO COUNTY COMMISSIONERS FOR ALLOCATION FROM CAPITAL RESERVE The Chapel Hill/Carrboro City Schools passed a resolution asking the County Commissioners to appropriate $3 million for the acquisition and development of a site for a middle school. In summary, Neil Pedersen said that the number of potential school sites in their school district is dwindling rapidly. At this point they don't know whether or not they will need to purchase an alternative site for the middle school proposed for construction on the Meadowmont site. However, they feel it would be prudent to proceed with the purchase of a site which could be used for a middle school or for an elementary school in the future. Since this will be a combination school/recreation facility, he asked that this money be allocated from the one-cent property tax setaside for this purpose. The County Commissioners decided that this item will be discussed at the meeting scheduled for tomorrow evening with the two school systems. COMPENSATION PLAN FOR COUNTY EMPLOYEES Personnel Director Elaine Holmes summarized the major elements of the employee compensation proposal. A copy of the overheads is in the permanent agenda file in the Clerk's Office. Commissioner Gordon asked for additional information on the total benefit package that County employees presently receive. In answer to a question from Commissioner Halkiotis, Elaine Holmes said that there are 38 positions unfilled at this time. These positions are in different stages of recruitment. Elaine Holmes outlined the employee retirement benefits. She will provide this information in writing for the County Commissioners. Commissioner Halkiotis asked about the lowest end of the salary scale and how the County compares with the school systems and the University and examples including comparative information for lower paid positions including custodians. 2 Commissioner Carey asked for an explanation of the $100,000 performance award. Elaine Holmes said that basically each department will get $250.00 and then another amount distributed on a prorate basis. Commissioner Gordon made reference to the performance awards and suggested having Commissioners' meritorious service awards based upon a recommendation from the Manager up to 10% of an employee's pay. The $100,000 would be used for these meritorious awards. This would give the County Commissioners a chance to reward the very highest outstanding employees. She will write this up as a proposal. Commissioner Halkiotis said that it sounds Pike a good concept but he has a problem with the County Commissioners picking and choosing. He will wait for a written proposal. Commissioner Carey said that he generally has a problem with having elected officials getting involved with individual employee decisions. Commissioner Halkiotis asked for information on what Person, Alamance and Chatham counties are offering for a pay plan this year. John Link made reference to the suggestion from Commissioner Gordon and said that this may have an implication with the Personnel Ordinance which outlines the responsibility of the Manager and the responsibility of the County Commissioners. Elaine Holmes said that she will bring back information on how much the 401 K benefit will cost over a five year period. Commissioner Carey asked if this proposal will best address all three of the issues. John Link said that it would. He feels you need to put money as part of the base or move people up on the salary scale. Commissioner Gordon said that with regard to compression she would like more information on how this is happening. She asked where we are having particular problems and asked about the people pertorming well and paid very little. She feels that this needs to be addressed. Commissioner Halkiotis said that last year we had 31 outstanding evaluations and 40 this year and asked how many were repeats and how many come from the lower end of the scale. Commissioner Carey said that his organization is also experiencing recruitment problems and also the compression problem. Elaine Holmes emphasized that these problems are across the board. DEPARTMENT BUDGETS County Commissioners' Office Clerk to the Board Beverly A. Blythe distributed information on the workload in her department and explained how the workload has increased over the last year. She presented information on the work duties of the Information Specialist in her department. She explained the duties of the new part-time position she is requesting saying that this person will be the staff support for the Human Services Advisory Committee and manage the database for all the County Boards and Commissions. This position replaces a position shared with the Manager's office since that half-time position is part of the Manager's staff. 3 Courts John Link summarized the information in the budget document pointing out their need for more space. He said that if the legislation for two new positions is approved, the County will need to provide additional space. Board of Elections Director of Elections Carolyn Thomas said that her budget reflects a decrease, although there is a request for an increase in hours from 37.5 to 40 . She explained the state's requirement for information that they must enter twice. She was commended for a good job this year. BREAK Soil and Water Conservation Deaartment John Link commended Director Brent Bogue on his outcomes and measurements. County Engineer John Link said that they have requested an engineer's assistant. County Engineer Paul Thames expanded on the need for this position. He said that implementing the outcome of the Efland Sewer Bond will take a great deal of work. Also, policy management aspects of how we can implement a greater level of review for school projects would be added to this position. He said that they would need someone with construction evaluation experience. In talking with architects he has found out the particulars of what would be involved with oversight of buildings and in most cases it is straight forward, depending on the type of building. Chair Brown asked if this could be contracted out and Paul Thames said that this would need someone constant to keep up with the projects under construction. This would be more of a technician type individual. Commissioner Gordon asked what this person would be doing long term and Paul explained that there will be a lot of other duties that this person will take on including acquisition of easements for the Efland sewer system which take a lot of coordination and time. Commissioner Halkiotis asked if he was looking for someone who was a licensed contractor and Paul Thames said that generally there are design professionals with construction experience and that most of these people are not licensed contractors. In answer to a question from Chair Brown, Paul Thames said that his duties are technical in nature. He coordinates the activities of the Eno River Capacity Use Group and manages the Efland Sewer activities. He works on public works projects, heating and air conditioning projects, reviewing cost estimates for letters of credit, helps with technical landfill issues, deals with any regulatory or environmental utility issues and reviews CIP projects. This new position would be under his supervision. Commissioner Halkiotis feels that Paul Thames has done an outstanding job. Chair Brown also commended him for his help on many issues. Commissioner Gordon asked about regulatory environmental utility issues. Paul Thames explained utility extensions and potential environmental impacts of extending or not extending utilities to address a problem. Commissioner Gordon asked about utilizing GIS and Paul Thames explained that with the GIS he will be able to identify all the utilities in the County and be able to easily make changes and keep updated. 4 Budget Department Budget Director Donna Dean explained her budget. There were no questions. Personnel Department Personnel Director Elaine Holmes explained that her budget reflects an increase in advertisement cost and $20,000 in contract services for a pay equity study to be done for the department heads. Finance Department Finance Director Ken Chavious explained his budget. His budget reflects no increase in money. However, he has restructured his personnel, increasing one position from 20 to 30 hours. Purchasing Department Purchasing and Central Services Director Pam Jones summarized the budget for purchasing, central services, rents and insurance. Information Svstems John Link commended Information Systems Director Dick Taylor on his measures and outcomes saying that they are very specific. Dick Taylor told about the new position he is requesting. This position will deal with the ongoing problem they have had with responding to individual user problems and network issues. He has covered this need with temporary positions. He mentioned his objectives as listed in the budget document on 4-19. He wants to improve their response time for county departments. This person will also have the ability to repair PC's in the office so they can be put back into service quickly. Also, this person will keep an inventory of all the computers, printers, etc. In answer to a question from Commissioner Halkiotis, Dick Taylor said that there are 45 computers in the Southern Human Services Center and 120 total in DSS. In answer to a question from Commissioner Carey about the year 2,000 issue, Dick Taylor said that all desktop PC's will be replaced by the year 2,000. Regarding the legacy system or mainframe, he said that the Risk6000 is year 2,000 certified. They have a process developed to look at all the software to see where the problems are. They think this will be an 800 hour project. They are one-fourth into that project and plan to be done by June, 1999. He does not think it would be appropriate to contract out this position because this person would need to know each user and their specific needs. Register of Deeds Register of Deeds Betty June Hayes explained how she restructured a position. She noted that the offsetting revenues would be greater than indicated in the budget. She said that eventually they will be able to issue from a work station information requested from citizens. In answer to a question from Commissioner Gordon, Betty June Hayes said that this new person will be trained in several of the positions to help cover all areas of the office. Land Records Land Records Manager Roscoe Reeve said that the costs have peaked for GIS and should start decreasing from now forward. They have had an increased number of documents come into their office which has increased their workload tremendously. ADJOURNMENT 5 With no further items for the Board to consider, Chair Brown adjourned the meeting. The next budget work session will be held on June 9, 1998 at 7:30 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Beverly A. Blythe, Clerk Margaret W. Brown, Chair