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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 19850606V~ 1~ti~ MINUTES ORAIdGF COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS BUDGET WORK SESSION JUNE 6, 1985 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met on June 6n 1985, 7:30 p.m. in the Courtroom of the old Post Office in Chapel 'gill for a budget work session. C SIGN PRB Chair Don Willhoit and Commissioners Shirley Marshall, Moses Carey, &en Lloyd and Norman Walker. T. Geoffrey Gledhill. STAFF PRESENT :_ County PSanager Kenneth R. Thompson. Assistant County Manager Albert Kittrell, Director of Personnel Beverly Whitehead. Director of Finance Gordon Baker, Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass, Director of EMS bobby Baker, Financial Analyst Donna Clayton and Clerk to the Board Beverly A. Blythe. Chair Willhoit announced that the meeting would cover the implications or' the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Sheriff's budget and the revenues and pro- posed changes from the current year. A determination needs to be made from which agencies additional information is desired. Kenneth Thompson reported on the implications of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The departments most affected are those in the public safety area. Every effort will be made not to work anyone over the number of hours allotted. However, money will be put in the budget for areas whew overtime cannot be eliminated. There is a reporting procedure involved. Additional information is yet to be received from the Department of Labor. Beverly Whitehead indicated a review of all the overtime practices of each department was made and a determination made of what departments had overtime and if a schedule change should be made to eliminate the use of such overtime. The total amount of money in the Manager's recpmmended budget for overtime is $72,03D. Plowever, a meeting with the Department of Labor indicated that additional money would be necessary in the amount of $39,400. The question remains for the Emergency Pianagement Services Department of whether paid personnel may volunteer far the rescue squad. The Labor Department interpretation is that the volunteer hours must be paid at time.and one half. Bobby Baker explained that active employees also serve as volunteers. Because o£ a lack of trained volunteers it would present a problem if the active employees who are also volunteers had to be paid at time and one half. Commissioner Marshall indicated that a restructuring may need to be considered. It does not make sense to extend hours and pay time by one half if other people could be employed. She stressed the importance of working with the employees. Geoffrey Gledhill gave background information on the Garcia decisioa and indicated that the 1985 decision overruled the 1976 Usery vs. NLC decision and states that Congress does have the power to regulate fair labor standards for state and local governments. The Garcia decision applies to all employees in the workforce including local government employees. Labor Department inter- pretatioas of the decision are still being received. r Sheriff Pendergrass indicated that people working a regular schedule of G2 hours a week will be making more money than his employees. After further dis- cussion it ~>as decided that the jab designs would need to be reviewed and changes made, if necessary, to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act. Sheriff Pendergrass noted that the primary objective and goal of the 4hn iff re Te„arr,..ent to rnnti ne.e rho nroaant lavPl nF~~ti VitV and Rpi'V 1Ce& aoo~~~ to the citizens of Orange County. The number of service complaints has in- creased by approximately 2,000 over the previous year. Pstrol has driven a total. of 838,SZ9 mi7.es through June 1. Almost 12,000 papexs have been served. Because of the tremendous increase in paperwork, he requested that a part-time secretary be upgraded to fulltime. Calls into the sheriff~a office average 188 a day. Approximately 51 people are received in the office daily and an average of 133 letters are being mailed a day including jury notices, etc. In the investigative section, 7$~ of the cases have been cleared. Forty-five child sex abuse cases have been investigated. He requested the inclusion of one investigator in the budget to handle the increase in child sex abuse cases. What has placed a burden on the department is when several courts take place at the same time. The operations increase in the budget amounts to $5.959 of which $2,000 is for special operations and $3>389 is fox telephone and postage. The capital equipment request was increased to $90,070 which will provide for furniture and office equipment. The Sheriff also included in his budget a request for upgrading five (5) employees from Deputy I to Deputy IT. The projected revenue from the jail for 55-86 is $250,OOD. xt was a general consensus to add $15,000 to the mark-up list to include the reclassification of five (5) deputies and a part-time secretary. RE4~NUE REPOA~ Gordon Baker summarized the changes in the sources of revenue. A discussion and comments were made on the fund balance of 2.5 million dollars. A further review will be made and a report brougl}t back to the Board on fund balance. The Board discussed revenue sharing and implications of the percent of funding. If it is cut by 25% it would mean a decrease of $125,000. Chair Willhoit noted that if the County included revenue sharing in the budget it could be earmarked for several capital items where a commitment would not be made until the money was received. Chair Willhoit indicated a meeting needs to be held with the two school systems to discuss the sales tax revenues that are intended to fund the larger capital items and suggested Juue 17 at 7:30 p.m. Commissioner Marshall suggested moving the Public Hearing from Tune 18 to June 26 and set June 27 for the adoption of the budget. After further discussion it was decided to meet on June 14 for presen- tations from the following agencies: Department on Aging 1epartment of Social Services OPC N,ental Eealth Recreation and Parks Department Library Health Department , Gommission £or Women June 25 was set for the Public Hearing to be held at Lincoln Genter in Chapel Hill and June 27 was set for the adoption of the budget in Rillsboraugh. ~4DJOiiRN'MEIVT Chair Willhoit adjourned the meeting. The next meeting will be a Joint Planning Meeting held June 11, 1985 at Chapel Hill Righ School at 7:30. Don Willhoit, Chaiz Beverly A. Blythe, Cleric