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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 19891114 .a PAGE 1 ` `~ APPROVED 12 19 89 , ~,~ MINUTES - -• ~~ ORANGE GOUNTY BOARD OF GOMMISSIONERS SPECIAL MEETING NOVEMBER 14, 1989 The Orange County Board of Commissioners held a Special Meeting on November 14, 1989 at 7:30 p.m. in Superior Gourtroom, Hillsborough, North Carolina. The purpose of the meeting was to receive public comments from individual citizens, non-profit agencies, and other local government bodies concerning program and budget priorities for the next fiscal year which runs from July 1, 1990 to June 30, 1991. BOARD MEMaERS PRESENT: Chairman Messes Carey, Jr., and Gommissioners Stephen Halkiotis, John Hartwell, Shirley E. Marshall and Don Willhoit. STAFF PRESENT: Gounty Manager John M. Link, Jr., Assistant County Managers Albert Kittrell and Ellen Lim ton, Deputy Glerk to the Board Kathy Baker, Clerk to the Board Beverly A. Blythe, Finance Director Ken Chavious, Purchasing Director Pam. Jones, Budget Officer Rad Visser and Budget Analyst Donna Wagner. Chairmari'Moses Carey explained the proceedings for the meeting and opened the meeting for comments. He explained the meeting was held at this time of the year to allow citizen input into the priority setting process at an earlier time of the year than at the budget public hearing in June. The budget represents the priorities that the Board feels are in the best intexest of the citizens of Orange County. All suggestions will be given consideration by the Board at their woxk session scheduled for December 9. The following is a list of speakers and a detailed summary of their comments. GEORGE ESSER, Chairman of the JOCCA Board, stated concern for three kinds of poverty that are increasing in the County and in the society. The first is the elderly, the second is the working poor and the third are young people who must be equipped with talents and skills so many are not getting if they are to compete successfully in the economy of the future. With respect to the elderly, he recommended that there be a facility for poor and moderate income people similar to Carol Woods and Carolina Meadows but which can be done within existing budgets for the care of the elderly. In this community, there is an increasing number of people who are earning simply too little income to live in the community. He feels the Commissioners can be an advocacy force. for dealing with these problems especially in being sure that the pay for Gounty employees is comparable to pay of other public employees in Orange and Chatham Gounties. He expressed concern with the economy of the future that obviously is not going to permit young people without a high school education or without the skills to compete in a technological society. An increasing emphasis must be placed not only an those who are going ahead with college but those who are stopping at high school but must compete in tomorrow's economy and therefore find ways to ensure they can find jobs that provide a decent income and a decent career. (A copy of the complete text of JOCCA's presentation is in the permanent agenda file in the Clerk's Office) PAGE 2 FRED STANGE, stated that the farces are coming together so that in Orange Gounty as well as in Chapel Hill there will be a coordinated effort by the different groups that come into contact with victims and perpetrators o~dornestic violence to give a. -•-, clear message that their need for safety is considered a high priority. Protocols~_. '1 are in the process of being developed which are going to probably establish proarrest procedures. Officers and deputies are going to be much more attuned to victims and their perpetrators. Because of that more victims and more perpetrators, . will be coming into the system. They will be. identified and once they have been identified services are going to be necessary for them. His concern is that with this heightened identification, they will be left hanging if the services are not there to back them up. It doesn't take much to provide these services since most of them are being provided to the victims and perpetrators in Orange County by volunteers. What it will take is a few staff people to back them up. He asked the County Commissioners to allocate additional resources for the victims and perpetrators of domestic violence-- to give a clear message that this community is concerned about their safety. As long as there is safety for the battered woman, the perpetrator can be changed as well. LINDA FOXWORTH of the Kidscope Program made reference to their annual report and stated that Kidscope began because of a community need. I..ast year they served F5 children and families in 27 childcare settings. In the first quarter of this year, she has already seen 35 children and 20 daycare centers which indicates an increase in this need. By helping one child in a childcare center, all the children in that center benefit. In terms of community resources, their program is very specific in that it is designed to help children who are having emotional, social or behavior problems in childcare settings. This program does compliment other services and programs in the County including the school systems. They want to offer direct consultation services to childcare settings as well as parent education, and therapeutic intervention for children. They hope the Orange County Commissioners will continue to assist with the other parts of their direct services and parent education. The school system funds are for children who can be labeled for school system purposes and for 3 and 4 year olds. They will continue to seek grant proposals. Their funding should not replace other QPC funding because Kidscope has a totally different faces. She asked for the Board of Commissioners commitment to continuing the funding that will allow them to offer the core services and to make Kidscope a priority for the next year. MR. ALIBREY BOWIE, Executive Director of the Arts Center, .distributed a summary listing all the different programs and activities that take place at the ArtsCenter. His complete statement is in the permanent agenda file. In summary, during the past year the ArtsCenter has undergone tremendous change, moving from a founder-orie,~ted institution to abroad-based community organization. They have reorganized both the management and financial structures. In the process, the ArtsCenter has continued to develop programs and community services that are attracting an increasing number of citizens. He asked that the Commissioners give serious consideration to increasing the allocation to the ArtsCenter next fiscal year to more accurately reflect the ArtsCenter's value as a community service organization. MR. CHARLES MILCH, the administrator of the Home Health Agency of Ghapel Hi11, - stated they were incorporated twenty years ago as a nonprofit agency to provide - home health care. They provide a full range of services -- nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, medical social work and home health - aide services. Last year, they provided care to approximately 1600 individuals. f PAGE 3 They received last fiscal year a county grant in the amount of $25,500. With these. funds, they provided home health care for 4S patients, making 455 visits and in addition supplied medical equipment and supplies in tli~nount of $3200. H~wever,- the need did not stop there. The Home Health of Chapel Hill provided an additian~l'' $15,000 in home health care in donated services to needy individuals in this County. He described some of the citizens in the county who need this assistance. In order to help meet the growing needs as the County grows and the population -. increases, he respectfully requested an increase in their County grant funds for fiscal year 1990.91. He asked for the Board's continued support. CLARA PAGER, member of the Planned Parenthood Board, thanked the County Commissioners for their support during the past years. One of the primary goals of Planned Parenthood is the prevention of teenage pregnancy. The heart of prevention is education. The education of the preteens and the teenagers with increased communication between the teenager and parents is their goal. The Natural Helpers program has been particularly successful. She asked for the Board's continued support. SUE HARVIN, representing the Dispute Settlement Center as a volunteer, stated they take cases from the court and also help people upon request to solve problems ' between themselves. About 40$ of the cases come from the D.A.'s office. A lot of people came directly to them without referral. They have a youth program which teaches teachers and kids to become conflict managers in their schools. They do a lot of workshops in the high schools. They have a new program which is called Public Disputes where they handle community wide problems such as assisting neighborhoods and government to talk about zoning issues, noise problems, trailer court dog problems, etc. These take a lot of coordination and staff time and then a lot of followup. They did 23 last year. They also are called upon to do facilitating for staff planning. One of the most important programs that is growing is the Community Penalties Program. This is being monitored through the State Division of Crime Control and Public Safety. Non-violent felons who are probably prison bound and the caseworker work either with the public defender or with their defense attorney to make a recommendation to the court at the time of sentencing to keep these people out of jail. This program requires 15~ matching funds from the local agencies. The other area where The Dispute Settlement Center has had a dramatic increase is in the public's awareness of the advisability of not fighting out divorce and separation in court. The volunteers have had special training and this year have already done 82 cases. The county money has helped to support this program. They do charge those people who can pay for this service. PETER KRAMER, Social Worker for Mental Health, talked about the mill closings. OCIM has a Financial Counseling Service to help dislocated workers, two income families and others who have a problem in being self-supporting. The program is financed by the Duke Endowment which pays for a less than full-time person. He feels it extremely important that everyone be able to manage their money. He is a citizen volunteer and Chairman of this committee. He asked that Orange County consider supporting this program. MARY WOOD, Volunteers for Youth, presented four reasons for the County to consider increased financial support far this program. She stated that the Department of Social Services can only serve children and families of dire need. What Orange County desperately needs is a program that can step in and help families before the problems become extreme. Volunteers for Youth is such a program and is very cost effective. Last year with only one full-time director and one part-time clerical PAGE 4 assistant Volunteers for Youth were able to provide between 300 and 400 hours per month of one on one interaction between an adult volunteer and a troubled youth in Orange Gounty. Second, the young people today lack po~tive role models. A .. .,,..~.~ positive role model can help prevent substance abuse, juvenile delinquency, suieide~:. and school dropout. Volunteers for Youth is a program that can provide a tremendous difference in a young person's life. Third, they are making a concerted effort to better serve northern and central Orange County. They are training a _ . half-time (12 hours a week) staff person to recruit volunteers in the northern and central area of the Gounty. Last year 20$ of the youth served by the Volunteers for Youth were in northern Orange County schools. With more money, a youth staff person could increase the number of northern Orange youth who could be served by Volunteers for Youth. Finally, Volunteers for Youth is a growing agency. 7n the eight years it has been in existence, they have served over 150 children. With the current budget, the number of young people they can match is at its limit. This month they are serving 26 youths which is the maximum set by State guidelines. They have four trained volunteers who are waiting to be matched with troubled youths. In addition, they have eight approved volunteers who are waiting to be trained to work with the youth and at this moment they have 30 youth referred who are waiting to be served by a volunteer. If they are to serve more people, they must have more money. They-ask that the Board considers an increase in their financial support so that they can increase their potential. as a positive intervention force with Orange County's troubled youth. FRAN FTNNEY, volunteer and a board member of the Orange Gounty Rape Crisis Center, spoke about the needs of the sexual assault victims and survivors and for community education on sexual assault prevention. The data to support the need for these programs and the services provided by their center have been submitted to the County budget staff by the Rape Crisis staff. She feels the major issue facing the Center is securing sufficient funding to support the ongoing work. They depend on public funds far a sizable portion of their operating budget. Public funds include `,: ,? United Way, municipal; state and county monies. They were allocated from the County $16,500 for fiscal year 19.89-90. This amount is about 13~ of their operating budget. They receive money from foundations, local grants, donations and from fundraising. They applied for and received in 1986 a two year Federal Victims of Crime Act grant which enabled them to increase their staff from three to four. That grant was nonrenewable. Because of insufficient funds, they have reduced their staff to three full-time employees and plan to remain at that level. The person eliminated was the community outreach coordinator. This will reduce the number of people reached per year from 4,500 to 1,500 in educational programming. They plan to request county funds for 1990-91 in the amount of $18,000 to $20,000. Tkieir goal is to stabilize their programming and staff. N4NCY MASSEY'with the Orange County Public Library distributed a copy of .their goals and objectives for the coming year and a statistical report for the first quarter. of this fiscal year. During the first quarter of this year, the library circulation increased by 50~ over this same period last year. They have had 17,000 people visit the library during that period. The large majority of people served have been children. Their primary goal would be to expand services to children through the provision of one full-time position. She asked for the Board's continued support. MR. DON INGRP!'I spoke on behalf of the Animal Protection Society. The APS continues to be active in developing and implementing plans and ideas to maximize the benefits and services that they provide to the community and do so in an efficient PAGE 5 and effective manner. He talked about animal shelter services and education. They, supervise shelter operations through a shelter committee and through that committee and staff have developed several items to assist in pza~yding services to the county citizens. They have opened the shelter an Sunday afternoon sa that a - greater number of people can come and view the animals. This has resulted in increased traffic, sometimes as much as on a Saturday. This has increased the number of adoptions and the amount of income. Public reaction has been very positive. The shelter is also going through a time of expansion. The work is out for bid at this time. Improvements will address the overcrowding in the animal runs and also add the necessary multipurpose room for staff training, adoption counseling, education and administration. They are exploring ways to increase the educational aspect of their mission through continued educational training to both students and teachers in the schools. They have been active in publicizing the animal shelter and in curbing the animal growth with their spayed and neuter program. They have been active in cruelty investigations. He believes that with the new Animal Gantrol Ordinance and with the continued support for the Animal Shelter and the programs in shelter operation and education they will be able to continue enable them to continue to provide the high level of community service with the multiplier funds allocated by the County. These efforts are then being expanded upon by the volunteers and through the donation of additional equipment and materials that the County does not have to buy. He looks forward to continuing to work with the County to improve upon their efforts. Commissioner Halkiotis entered into the record a letter from Roland Giduz endorsing a local entertainment tax. Halkiotis endorsed this tax and requested that the Board look at some local legislation far the next session in Raleigh. The letter from Roland Giduz is in the permanent agenda file in the Clerk's Office. There being no further comments, the public hearing was closed. Chairman ~' Moses Carey adjourned the meeting. The next regular meeting will be held on November 21, 1989 at 7:30 in the courtroom of the old Post Office,'Ghapel Hill, North Carolina. Moses Carey, Jr. $everly A. Blythe, Clerk