HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 19820401~~'~4
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Ma]UTES
..APRIL 1, 1982
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The Orange County Board of Cc~mtiissianers met in special session an Thursday, ::.-
Apra.l 1, 1982, at 7:30 P.M. a.n the T~incoln Center .Board N3eer; n; RooQn, .Chapel Hill..,
North .Caarolina.
Conmiissa.oriers present: [!hair,nan T2i_rhaYi-d E. rnlhitted (who axxived at 7:50 F.M)
and Oa¢mtissioners.•Norm Gustaveson, Shirley E. Marshall and Don Wi].lhoit.
C~miissioners absent: Co~nissioner Noanan Walker.
The purpose of the meeting was a work session of the Board with. the Orange
CYJ13I1ty EilrnaIl SerV3.CG8 Needs ASSeSSmlellt Str ar-i m Cotimlttee cllld m~nbezs Of the
Human Services AdVisoay Ca~¢nission. Vice - ai,-man ~~,VeSOn shared the z[~et]ng
while awaiting the arrival of Chairman Whiffed.
Vice-r1~a; Y*~++~*: ~,istaVeson introduced Ms. Peggy Fo].litzer, ~aix • of the Needs
Assessment CamRdttee, who in turn introduced thane members of the Needs Assess-
ment Committee present: Wil Morse, Steven CaF~r, Tinder Potter, Sue Baker, Dee
Gamble, Martha Stucker, Dave Kiel, Ken O~rriatzer, De1~1,i.e Nordlund, Belinc'ia :Tones, .
and Mary Rita Gray.
Ms. Pollitzer gave a brief ha.stroical review af,the Human Services Advisory
Ccstmissipn and Needs Assessmanf Committee. Ms. Follitzer ~+*-ized the findings
of the Needs Assessm~nf Study for the Hoard (the Executive 5ummazy of the Study
is attached fo these Minutes on pageslO6-111 of this book).
Chairn~an Whitted arrived during Ms. Pollitzer's presentation and asked that
Vice-chaizm~n Gustaveson continue chazring the meeting. Eb1:lowing rls.: Pallitzer's
presentation, the Board made its statements and posed questions. Commissioner
Marshall, said she needed more information and wanted to know how this doctnt~nt
addressed County programs. Ci~tmissioner Willhoit said he was gratified that the
dac~mient found there was "no sic~ificant duplication of services" since that had
been a goal of the County for so~mie time. He added that. maybe it wa~ild be better
the HSAC made reaammendations. Oomnissioner Whiffed said he felt increased din--
cession was needed maw of haw current resources and programs (Oounty) could be .
meshed to meet those needs. Ccnmissienex Willhoit said it would be helpful to get
specifics; he clarified that one of -tree needs identified was unemployment and sai.3
Orange County had the lowest unemploym:nt rate in the State; how may the Wunty
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answer this need? Ctixrrcnissianer C}~astaveson voiced two main concerns: 1)How to
translate the document into County policy; and. 2) Taking into account the present
and anticipated Federal cuts, haw -the County may begin to "forge" strategy for
the C9'~uruty and the private sector to meet those needs. He paraphrased Camniss-
Toner Marshall, "How this document relates to the pblicy-~malsing role of the Board
of C7oR¢uui_ssi_oners• in this area?" and thereby opened the float for public comments.
Mr. Dave Kiel: Said that local units often had programs designed frcen afar
with little individual focus; this document says what the needs and desires are
in orange County.
Ms. Martha Stucker: Said this was the opportunity far citizens to say, far
ex~nple, that the."unemployment rate .is still too high." She said this i.s an
Grange County report, what the citizens want for the Cbtmty.
Mr. Wil Norse: Said that with regard to unemployment, on his caamittee, there
were things they felt the Board of oouumissia~uers aoulld da: 1) have a CEPA type
program; 2) with the IInplgm~r,.t Service Cxxusaission moving to Durham, the Board of
C]anmissioners could arrange a) for someone fran that office in Orange Cotmty tau
a part~tizrie basis, or b) transportation to Durham Ootnty for these who wished to
visit that agency to look for work, or c) get the k]nployment Security Ckzuanissian
back to this County.
Ms. Pollitzer said that same x+ecauanendations were ~ page twenty-eight of the
report and that when the question of what the Board of Cauunissioners ran do arose
several things came to her mind; for example, active pursuit of industry and funding
defined as the "ultimate policy decision."
NLs. 5ttucker: Added that "barriers" or "lILiSS]ntj sQrV1o~5° Were a~r„arni,,n~ Where
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programs were doing well they were not addressed.
Ckrumissioner lv-T.ct,~i l said that she hoped the HSAC would look at "specifics,"
'for example, when i.,~„a+-,~ ~++~~ into the Cnuuzty, axe people brought into the County
to fi1.1 those jobs? She added that she felt these were "barriers to upward mobility"
that may be specific to Orange County and these were the kind of specifics she t~uld
like addressed.
Mr. Bill Baxter, Director, OPC Mental Health Center and Ctuair of the HSAC, said
he thought the next step would be for -the HSAC to .make specific r'ecxm[tiesuc'13tions to
the Board of Gom<ai.ssioners about haw to apply this report.
Nit. Dirac Taylor: Agreed with Mr. Baxter, saying this discussi.~u was mast
~ helpful and that the HSAC: needed to know what the Board wanted and expected.
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Ms. Pollitzer said that the Needs Assessment Committee had felt that the
recommendaficsis on service should come Pram the HSAC.
Various mett~bers of the svboainnittees said they had mat made ~?ations•
because they had not thought this was part of their charge. _
Ms. Priscilla Qkto:: Said unemployment had been ranked high by hx.suboam~it:
because if the County could ease the unemiployment rate same of the pmbl~-c of
these peop].e...who tended to be County clients: wmild be erased.
Discussion confined with ~~ of the audience offering camu[isnts. Mr. Morse
•suggested better coordination_of agencies delivering services. Co~nni.ssioner
Willhoit said the ways tl~ mandated services restrict. the County should be checked.
He added the the Cbimty discretionary money was a-small part of the funding can-
pared with that allocated to mandated services:and was inadequate to meet all the
needs; the Cotmty needs flexibility in the use of ~TM,,~,i and State funds but
that resistance to withdraw all of the "strings" existed at those levels for .fear
that currently mandated services wou7,d be cut.
Cbsr¢ni,ss; nnpr_ (~astaveson challenged the Soard ~~*'s tQ sununargize their ideas
for the press.
Oa?¢nissioner Marshall said she was particularly interested in how we might
coordinate programer/services ant~ng the governmental and private agencies.
Ccsemissioner Willhoit said he wt7uld like the Hteaians Services Aovi~ry Canmisr~::
to address these reaommexedation and to strive for a balance befweers tY~ bro~:w -s~neral
isst~s, getting down to the specific proposals for. the Gounty to deal with sa`that
we can see Somme tangible-evidence of progress in addition fA the hrrs~.3ar pi_
He ailed that perhaps the Committees can be ~+.~tuted later to provide fair follow
up and an evaluation of progress toward ~~,a,-a~~ing.the recdaticres in the preset
report.
commissioner 4~iitted said he was interested S,n receiving mare "specific data in
terms of the 1eve1 of service" and how that relates to the e~rrnitment of iesources
and where those resources are going. mat is, what tn~ axe doing and what we rho 9
be doing in tenets of those resources. Oc~missioner ~a.tted said such information
would make the Oomani.ssioners more knowledgeable about issues or needs that we
can't address and what the County. is able to adcix+ess in tAl'1115 of better oo~~_i„rtion
and ocnreamication with legislators in Raleigh.
Ccannissioner Glastaveson said he was looking for ways for the County to employ
a "variety of strategies" in order to coordinate a unity-wide effort. He
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said the Oounty may not have the financial xosouroes available but it does possess
the leadership xole to mobilize various sectors of t1~e unity in order to address
needs.
Following wane wind up rc~narks from the audiena~ Vice-chain Gustavesan
thanked Ms. Pollitzer and her Needs Assessment Coaarcnittee for its work. Mr.
Baxter announced the meeting of the usnr Steering Qaanittee on April 8th at
8:00 A.M. and said he hoped to get the rp~Pn~aticais worked out to go t0 the
full aanmittee meeting caz April 15th: a'report with +~n~ations far the Board
of Crsnnissioners will follow that meting.
• mhe meeting,was adjourned }ay consensus.
Norman G1~staveson, Vice hair
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Paulekte Pridgen-Pared, Clerk