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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 19990608APPROVED 2/14/2000 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS BUDGET WORK SESSION JUNE 8, 1999 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met on Tuesday, June 8, 1999 at 5:00 p.m. in the Board Room at the Southern Human Services Center, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Alice M. Gordon and Commissioners Margaret W. Brown, Moses Carey, Jr., Stephen H. Halkiotis, and Barry Jacobs COUNTY ATTORNEY PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr. 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. Link. Chair Gordon called the meeting to order. She turned the meeting over to County Manager John 1. REVIEW OF SCHOOL BUDGETS a. Manager's Presentation John Link explained the current expense appropriation for the Orange County and Chapel HilltCarrboro City Schools as noted on the blue sheet distributed. The recommended allocation per pupil in both school systems is $2,256. This is an increase per pupil of $216. The Orange County School system is projecting to have an average daily membership of 6,406. The Chapel Hill/Carrboro City School system is projecting to have an average daily membership of 8,903. There are 2,500 fewer students in Orange County than in Chapel Hill/Carrboro. The Orange County School system does not have a district tax. In the budget message, he made a specific recommendation that the County Commissioners and the Orange County School Board talk about setting aside a certain amount of fund balance next year toward the startup of the new elementary school. He said it would be a challenge to fund both ongoing expense as well as address any kind of expansion and startup costs by relying on the per pupil allocation that goes for both school systems. He said the Orange County School system's total request is 18.4 million dollars, and his recommendation is 17.7 million dollars. He asked Donna Dean to explain the adjustments and mandates for this funding. Budget Director Donna Dean reviewed the adjustments and mandates as listed on the blue sheet distributed. She said the expenditure decreases come from savings that the Orange County School system is going to have from what they put in their budget as clerical. They have savings from clerical substitutes, overtime, and vehicle liability insurance. All of these savings total $16,000. She said the mandates were those items that the system felt that they had to do, including salary increases for certified and classified personnel. There was a health insurance increase of 35%. This was the first increase in about seven years. There is some increased cost for utilities and liability insurance. The mandates total $848,884. There are also some additional needs at the A. L. Stanback Year Round School. These needs total $159,773. She explained that the additional charter school students that would be added next year would be figured into the per pupil allocation. The school system requested 1.2 million dollars to fund new initiatives, and the County agreed to provide $532,119. b. Presentation from Orange County Schools Superintendent Randy Bridges made a Powerpoint presentation that he distributed and which is in the permanent agenda file (PAF) in the Clerk's office. He gave an update on the success stories of the school system, including increased academic proficiency and teacher recognition. Superintendent Randy Bridges pointed out that the Orange County Board of Education initiatives are part of what the County Commissioners asked them to do last year, which was to spend money from fund balance. He went over some of the new initiatives. They would like to consider a non-negotiable appropriation of $889,225. He explained that the first three positions are listed as expansion items, but they are really non-funded mandates. The exceptional children population is growing and they do not have an option. The state does not fund the expenses for special needs children. He explained the need for a Pre-K Teacher. He said that Orange County still does not have a Pre-K program or Head Start. In a system-wide survey, the number one thing that the parents requested was to have Spanish classes in the elementary schools, and there are three of these positions in the budget. He explained the need for the remainder of the initiatives. He said that the biggest item on the list is the increase in the local teacher supplements. He explained that this is to compete with the surrounding counties. He explained what the Orange County School system considers as non-negotiable items: the mandates, the three Exceptional Children positions, the year-round programming, and the local supplement that comes to $1,513,348. This amount is under the $1,540,776 that the staff recommended. Superintendent Randy Bridges made reference to the fund balance. He pointed out that in the 1997- 1998 school year and the 1998-1999 school year they appropriated 1.8 million dollars from their fund balance. They have been advised that this amount should not go any higher. They would like to get this amount decreased. He explained that they could prioritize the items in the budget that are not funded and fund them through fund balance. Another option is that they could use the entire amount of the fund balance as startup costs for the new elementary school. They would like to have some money in reserve. He said that the fund balance would be spent. Their concern is that this balance is their safety net and it is being removed. Delores Simpson, Chair of the Orange County School Board, said that they are here to support their budget. She feels that the County Commissioners should give more to the schools. She said that if the Orange County School system is going to keep going and progressing as in the past, they will need additional funding. c. Questions from the Board of County Commissioners - Orange County Commissioner Carey asked about the 2.7% for fund balance and it was clarified that this would be 2.7% of the total end-of-year expenditures. Commissioner Carey asked about the three slides that were presented with salary enhancements and asked if there was anything in the Manager's budget that would preclude them from doing the salary enhancements. Superintendent Randy Bridges said that the danger with funding the salary enhancements from the fund balance is that these are permanent items and not just one-time expenditures. Commissioner Brown asked for general information about the dropout rate. Superintendent Randy Bridges said that the dropout rate for this year was 2.13%, which is down from 3%. Commissioner Brown asked for information on how they are working with their non-proficient students. Superintendent Randy Bridges said that they are appropriating funds per pupil to enable them to hire tutors during the school day and after school. They use state dollars to run this program. They use reading recovery teachers for the non-proficient students also. Commissioner Brown asked about the Pre-K program. Randy Bridges said that they want to start a Pre-K program and expand to the other Elementary schools during the next few years until they have one in every Elementary school. Orange County School Board member Susan Doverbarger made reference to the expansion items and said that there is a significant part of the budget that is geared toward special populations. When the school board discussed this, they realized that more and more dollars are going into education of special populations for which they do not get any federal or state funds. More local funds are going into educating the special population, and less is going toward the middle, where they need to maintain and improve. Keith Cook made reference to the Pre-K program and noted that there are a large number of kids who come to Kindergarten who are unprepared. He feels there needs to be a large community effort in reaching these kids and providing a Pre-K in every Elementary school will definitely help. Orange County School Board member Brenda Stephens asked that the County Commissioners realize that these are the needs of our children. Delores Simpson feels that if these children get started with education early, money will be saved in the long run because there will not be a need for reading recovery programs, remedial tutors, etc. John Link made reference to page 2 of the overheads and asked which items on the blue sheet would not be addressed in his recommended budget. He asked if the list on the blue sheet of new initiatives lists the top priorities of the Orange County school system. Superintendent Randy Bridges said that the local supplement and the three exceptional children positions would be their top priorities. Commissioner Carey made reference to attachment 1 B and asked about the supplements as listed on this sheet. He asked if this was the current supplement for the County school system. Randy Bridges said that their current supplement is 5%. He explained that the $311,000 would increase the classified staff from 5.5% to 6%. The supplement for non-tenured staff would increase from 5% to 7%, the supplement for the tenured staff would increase from 10% to 11.5%, and the supplement for the employees with 10+ years in the system would increase from 12% to 14%. Chair Gordon asked about the average class sizes. Superintendent Randy Bridges said that the class ratio is currently 1:22 for K-5 and 1:25 for all other grades. Orange County School Board member David Kolbinsky said that on the whole they realize that Orange County has funded the school system generously. A lot of their efforts now are to reach those children who do not benefit from the opportunities available to them. He said that most of the parents are pleased with the school system and are grateful to the County Commissioners. Chair Gordon commended the Orange County School system on all of their achievements last year. d. Presentation from County Manager for Chapel Hill/Carrboro City Schools John Link went over the blue sheet as distributed. He said that their average daily membership is expected to be 8,903 students. When the increase per pupil of $216 is combined with the district tax increase the total funding for the Chapel Hill/Carrboro School system is $24,100,000. In terms of the total request and the recommended funding by the Manager, there is $744,629 that could be used for expansion and new initiatives. He said that the PREP Academies item is the first priority in terms of expansion. Donna Dean explained the adjustments and mandates as listed on the blue sheet. She said that the County Budget staff has been able to identify that the Chapel Hill/Carrboro City Schools is going to collect about $96,000 more in their district tax than what was originally thought last year at this time. This amount has been added to the adjustments. There have also been some sales tax refunds that were identified. She said that the mandates have been addressed. The total amount for mandates is 1.7 million dollars. She explained that the increases due to student population growth were mostly associated with the opening of the two new schools. The total for the student population growth increases is 1.6 million dollars. e. Presentation from Chapel Hill/Carrboro City Schools Harvey Goldstein thanked the Board of County Commissioners for their strong support in the past. Superintendent Neil Pedersen made the presentation as on the handout. He summarized the budget priorities for next year. The five priorities are to accommodate the growth, have the state and federal mandates supported, help all students to become academically proficient, provide a competitive compensation package, and support technological advances. The Chapel Hill/Carrboro City Schools' enrollment has increased by almost 50% since 1990. He explained each of the priorities and their increases in the budget as summarized in Attachment 4. He said that the school board is very concerned about the competitiveness of the salary schedules. He explained a chart that showed Durham and Wake Counties and how Orange County is not competitive with the Triangle area at this time. In terms of technology, he said that one half of their technology specialists have resigned this year. The school board is proposing to extend the technology specialists' contracts. He then explained the cost reductions that totaled $163,600. He said that the County Manager's budget would fund many items, but the salary enhancements, the technical support, and the class size reduction would not be funded. Harvey Goldstein continued saying that the Manager has recommended a 2.7-cent increase in the County and a 2.8-cent increase in the district tax. He said that an additional 1.8 cents in the County would fully fund the Orange County schools, and the balance would require a 1/2 - cent increase in the district tax to fully fund the Chapel Hill/Carrboro City schools. L Questions from the Board of County Commissioners - Chapel Hill/Carrboro Commissioner Halkiotis asked John Link about the costs for opening new schools and why there is $700,000 of startup costs for one Elementary school and $918,000 for another Elementary school for two different systems in the same county. John Link said that the difference is centered on the priorities in each system and the class sizes. He said that County staff was not in a position to make any judgments on the policies of the individual school boards. Commissioner Halkiotis said that the County Commissioners have set up a task force to look at and recommend construction standards for Elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. The County Commissioners plan to put in place the concept of value engineering. He said that he has given up on the equity issue a long time ago. He supports Chapel Hill/Carrboro City Schools using their district tax. He feels that there are opportunities where equity can be considered in the opening of new schools and their associated costs. He asked that the startup costs be examined more closely. Commissioner Halkiotis asked Neil Pedersen how much square footage they expect each of their custodians to clean. Superintendent Neil Pedersen said that each custodian was expected to clean 20,000 square feet of floor space. Commissioner Halkiotis asked if they were moving to PC's in the schools. Superintendent Neil Pedersen said they are using Mac's in their offices and PC's in their classrooms. Commissioner Carey said that it would be interesting to look at the differences in each school's startup costs. Superintendent Neil Pedersen said that these are ongoing costs that are going to be with them for the operation of that school. A lot of the one-time costs have already been covered in last year's budget or in the CIP. He said that the issue was funding the personnel. The startup costs from Chapel Hill/Carrboro are different from Orange County because the resources between the two school systems differ as a result of the district tax. Commissioner Carey asked how the special education needs could be considered a mandate in one system and an expansion item in another system. Superintendent Neil Pedersen said that they are required by law to serve students who have exceptional needs. Commissioner Carey asked about the average number of square feet that the County maintenance staff is expected to maintain. Rod Visser said that custodians are cleaning about 21,000 square feet. In answer to a question from Commissioner Brown, Superintendent Neil Pedersen said 400 students are expected at Mary Scroggs Elementary School. He outlined the allotments allowed by the State for new schools. Commissioner Brown asked about the PREP academy and how many children would be in attendance. Superintendent Neil Pedersen said that it remains to be seen. He said that after the initial testing, they had approximately 50-60 non-proficient students per grade level in both reading and math. There was a re-testing, and that number has been reduced to approximately 35-40. The school system is trying to reduce this number to 25 students per grade level. He said that he hopes that this program would not be permanent. Commissioner Brown asked about the contingency fund for administrative salaries and if what the school board has requested this year is the second half of these increases. Superintendent Neil Pedersen said he did not remember it being part of the contingency fund, but it was in the budget. Commissioner Brown asked how the salary cap was established. Superintendent Neil Pedersen explained how they tried to increase pay at the lower range and limit those coming into the system to 10 years experience. The percentage for the lower range was increased from one percent to three or four percent. This has led to conflict between teachers. The cap was an effort to raise the minimum of the supplement schedule without coming to the Board for additional funding. Commissioner Jacobs thanked both School Boards for being advocates for the students. He asked about the contingency fund on page 2. 1, and asked what this was a contingency for. Superintendent Neil Pedersen said that this would cover expenses that they did not know about ahead of time. It has been used to support an exceptional education teacher and unanticipated situations that the school system is mandated to address. It was increased last year because of the uncertainty of how Charter schools would affect the budget. Commissioner Jacobs asked about Option Two for the two PREP schools. Superintendent Neil Pedersen said that they frequently use the phase-in approach. John Link asked Superintendent Neil Pedersen about his position on fund balance. It looks like he is increasing the amount of fund balance when he has all of these needs. Superintendent Neil Pedersen said that fund balance is something that is not constant. These monies are used to fund occurring and non-occurring costs. They ended the year with approximately one million dollars in unappropriated fund balance for 97-98. He said that they expect to end this year with 1.3 million dollars. Commissioner Jacobs said that it was helpful to put the needs in priority order. The school system then has the responsibility to change the order of their priorities to fund needs as identified. Commissioner Halkiotis asked about Mary Scroggs Elementary School and if it was designed for 600 students. Neil Pedersen said it has 25 classrooms and they increased the capacity by using the 23 and 25 class size. Commissioner Halkiotis said that the only discussion he recalled of getting into a contingency issue was five years ago. Contingency in his mind means unforeseen obstacles. He has a problem with any Board asking for a contingency budget. There have been people coming to the County for ESL teachers and/or to address the cap issue. He does not support a line item for contingency. Commissioner Brown asked about the clarification of classroom size. She did not see anything on school capacity numbers this year. She pointed out that listing priorities is good and gives the School Board the flexibility to support those items as they determine necessary. Harvey Goldstein made reference to the contingency fund and said that it has not been treated as a slush fund but has been used to fund non-mandated programs. If it is not used, it goes into the fund balance. They can also take this money and fund line items they think may need additional funding. Commissioner Halkiotis said that the use of this money is open-ended and is not an appropriate use of funds. Chair Gordon asked about the average class size. Superintendent Neil Pedersen said the ratio for K-2 is 23:1 and 26:1 in third through eighth grade. The ratio for ninth grade is 25:1 and the ratio for grades 10-12 is 29:1. Chair Gordon asked what it would cost if those classes were reduced to 22 students in each grade level. Superintendent Neil Pedersen did not know the answer to this question. Chair Gordon asked about the supplement for the two school systems and the difference between the two. Neil Pedersen explained in detail the difference and how the scenario has changed over the last 12 years. In summary, Harvey Goldstein said that Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools has a 91 % proficiency in grades one through eight. He said that the funding provided by the County Commissioners has made the difference. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School Board is asking for additional funding to continue with the progress they have made. He said that the School Board reviewed their budget before they sent it forward to the County Commissioners. They thought very carefully and hard before sending the budget forward. The remaining items are very vital and critical with meeting the covenant they have with the community to support public education. The community is willing to pay higher taxes to maintain that level of support. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School Board supports their budget in full. There was a meal break and the Board came back together at 8:15 p.m. 3. HILLSBOROUGH BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT Chair Gordon asked about adding an agenda item for the Hillsborough Board of Adjustment. She explained that there is a vacancy for a County alternate. A motion was made by Commissioner Brown, seconded by Commissioner Jacobs to add to the agenda the vacancy for a County alternate for the Hillsborough Board of Adjustment. VOTE: UNANIMOUS A motion was made by Commissioner Jacobs, seconded by Commissioner Brown to approve Cannie B. Lloyd as a County alternate on the Hillsborough Board of Adjustment for a term ending 6/30/2002. VOTE: UNANIMOUS 4. PERSONNEL BUDGET a. New Staff Resources Chair Gordon said that these positions are not finalized until the budget is approved. The Board will be making tentative decisions on these positions tonight. She suggested reviewing each position to see if there are any questions. Commissioner Carey feels the first four positions need to be funded. These positions are OPT Receptionist, Healthy Carolinians Coordinator, Healthy Carolinians Project Manager, and Civil Rights Specialist. Chair Gordon asked when the grants for these positions end. Elaine Holmes said that the grant which funds the OPT Receptionist is a continuing funding mechanism. For the Healthy Carolinians Coordinator, half of the funding is from the County and half is from outside sources. The University of North Carolina has agreed to fund 25% of that position for three years and other contacts are in progress to fund the remainder. The Healthy Carolinians Project Manager is fully funded by a grant from Duke University for three years. The Human Rights Specialist would be funded by reimbursement for cases from EEOC and HUD and that funding is ongoing. In answer to a question from Commissioner Jacobs, Elaine Holmes said that the employees are hired contingent upon grant funding and are hired as permanent employees. She said that commonly the people who apply for these positions are familiar with grant funding. Commissioner Jacobs asked how many grant positions have there been during the last five years. Elaine Holmes said that she would have to research how many grant-funded positions there have been in the last five years. She said that if the grant funds end, any proposal to increase the County general fund would come back to the Board. Commissioner Jacobs said he thinks it should be clear up front how many time- limited positions there are. Commissioner Carey said that in a lot of time-limited positions, employees in those positions find permanent positions in the organization or another organization. Because of the competitive job market, he does not support time-limited status positions. John Link explained that there is absolutely no guarantee that these jobs stay on the County roster. He said that it is getting more difficult to recruit for these positions. Commissioner Halkiotis suggested that the Board discuss at a work session the issue of permanent status versus time-limited status. Aging - OPT Receptionist A motion was made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded by Commissioner Brown to approve the Aging-OPT Receptionist as a new position. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Healthy Carolinians Coordinator A motion was made by Commissioner Carey, seconded by Commissioner Jacobs to approve the Healthy Carolinians Coordinator as a new position. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Healthy Carolinians Project Manager A motion was made by Commissioner Carey, seconded by Commissioner Halkiotis to approve the Healthy Carolinians Project Manager as a new position, contingent upon receiving the grant. Rosie Summers verified that this position is contingent upon grant funding. VOTE: UNANIMOUS The Board agreed that the outcomes should be tracked for all the new positions to ensure that the expectations are being met. A report on outcomes will come back to the Board of County Commissioners after one year to see if the outcomes are being achieved. Civil Rights Specialist Chair Gordon asked about the presentation from the Commission for Women and if this position was why they requested funding. John Link said that his understanding was that members of the Commission for Women were asking for items in the operating budget that are not in the recommended budget. Chair Gordon said that she would like for one half of this position to be devoted to working on Commission for Women issues. Commissioner Carey disagrees with Chair Gordon because it is the department head's responsibility to achieve the goals set for that department. Commissioner Brown asked Annette Moore about space requirements. John Link said that they might be successful in finding another location for Durham Tech classes that are held in that building. A motion was made by Commissioner Jacobs, seconded by Commissioner Halkiotis to approve the Civil Rights Specialist as a new position. VOTE: UNANIMOUS EMT Paramedic - 3 positions Commissioner Carey agrees with these positions because they are going to allow fewer overtime hours to be used and provide a response time that Orange County wants to achieve. Commissioner Halkiotis supports adding two of the three positions. He feels this is a lot of money. He asked how much revenue has been produced through EMS this year. EMS Director Nick Waters said the revenue for this year was $130,000. Chair Gordon suggested approving two positions tonight and to reconsider the third position during the June 15th Budget Work Session. Commissioner Jacobs agrees with adding two positions and would like to think more about adding three positions. Commissioner Carey said that the issue is what kind of standard the County is trying to achieve. He does not want to risk taking a chance with life and death. A motion was made by Commissioner Jacobs, seconded by Commissioner Brown to approve adding two EMT-Paramedic positions. VOTE: AYES, 4; NOS, 1 (Commissioner Carey) The third position will be added to the list for the June 15th Budget Work Session. Environmental Health Specialist There was no support for this position. John Link would like the complaints from the Health Department and individual citizens to be tracked. He has personally received complaints from citizens on the time it takes to get a septic tank permit. Commissioner Jacobs suggested making it clear to the citizens how long it would take to get a septic tank permit. This will be added to the June 15th Budget Work Session. GIS Technician Commissioner Carey said that he thought this position was brought up previously in a different department. Chair Gordon said that this position is in response to the goals and objectives from the Board of County Commissioners. Commissioner Carey said he did not want to make a choice between an EMT position and this position. He cannot support this position. They will wait on this position and bring it back to the June 151h Budget Work Session. Commissioner Halkiotis asked Craig Benedict for a full explanation of what this person would do. Commissioner Brown said that this is a position that has already been created. She feels that this could be contracted out or a time-limited position and then reevaluated. Public Works - Custodian for Skills Development Center Commissioner Brown talked about custodial staff and whether or not this position is approved. She spoke in support of having a custodian in the building during the day and evening. She feels it adds a level of safety, reliability, consistency, and responsibility to all of County government. She feels this position is very important. Commissioner Halkiotis supports this position and asked that the Manager and staff look at opportunities for hiring part-time senior citizens that would like to augment their retirement fund. A motion was made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded by Commissioner Carey to approve the Custodian for the Skills Development Center. Chair Gordon asked if this position could be used to help clean the other County buildings that are short-staffed since the Skills Development Center is only 13,000 square feet. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Chair Gordon summarized the decisions that were made about the new staff positions. At the June 15th Budget Work Session, the Board will reconsider one of the three EMS positions, the Environmental Health Specialist, and the GIS Technician. b. Existing Positions -Augmentation Elaine Holmes explained the lists of positions (appendix B-26 and B-27). It is being proposed to increase the hours for the Arts Coordinator position from 20 hours to 30 hours per week. The other types of changes are to convert grant-funded positions to County-funded positions. The EMS request is to convert time-limited positions to permanent positions. The proposal on the ERCD is a combination of changing the position to time limited and when its work ends in ERCD, reassigning it to Planning as a permanent position. Chair Gordon pointed out on page B-27 proposed changes that require no additional County budget funds. A motion was made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded by Commissioner Carey to approve the positions that require no additional County budget funding, as outlined in appendix B-27. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Commissioner Halkiotis said he was in support of all the changes in appendix B-26. He said he was looking at the EMS facility and he hopes that when a space allocation study is done that at least two County Commissioners are on the study group. He thinks that the existing center will no longer be able to handle the growth. He would like to know what the position in ERCD would become when it moves to Planning. John Link said that this position would help enforce a lot of the requirements and ordinances. There has been no staff to ensure that the expectations and conditions of new subdivisions are being met. This position would help with this function. A motion was made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded by Commissioner Carey to approve the changes to positions in appendix B-26. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Commissioner Jacobs asked about the Solid Waste Convenience Centers. He would like to know what it would cost to have these centers open on Wednesdays and at lunchtime. Commissioner Halkiotis agrees that the convenience centers need to be open additional hours. The staff will bring back an estimated cost on this at the June 151h Budget Work Session. c. Compensation Commissioner Halkiotis would like additional time to consider the percentages for the in-range and cost-of-living increases for County employees. John Link summarized the items that had not been discussed: innovation and efficiency, the waste treatment management program, and assisting the overall assessment of space needs for the County departments. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he could not support $45,000 for the Innovation and Efficiency Committee work. He feels this work could be done in-house. Also, he does not think someone needs to be hired to tell the County Commissioners about building space. He feels that the County needs to stop leasing space in Hillsborough. A motion was made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded by Commissioner Carey to complete the innovation and efficiency project in-house and not hire a consultant for $75,000. Commissioner Brown feels that there needs to be some secretarial help in this area of innovation and efficiency. John Link suggested getting interns to help on this project. There was a friendly amendment to the motion that the Board is not in favor of allocating $75,000, but they are in favor of coming back with some kind of a proposal about how to fund the necessary staff work in a more economical manner. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Regarding the waste treatment program, Commissioner Jacobs suggested that the Board wait until a program is adopted and also approach OWASA for funding of this position. Chair Gordon would also like to think about this issue and have the staff bring it back to the June 15th Budget Work Session. Commissioner Carey suggested starting it in January and cutting this amount in half. Chair Gordon reiterated those items which are outstanding that need to be brought back to the Budget Work Session on June 15th. These items are listed below: • Solid Waste Treatment Program • One cent for capital and the CIP • Outside agencies and non-departmental • Fire departments if needed • Follow up on earlier BOCC questions • BOCC deliberations on Commissioner Jacobs' budget issues • Consideration of $21,000 for the Commission for Women Commissioner Halkiotis asked that the County Manager get information on Freedom House who requested $15,000. He would like to know why the Manager recommended that none of this be funded. He would like to see the Historic Museum get an additional $2,000 for the Historic Commission making the total $5,000 for the museum. On page 11-13, he asked if the County gets money from cable TV why do they have to find $9,000 to fund telecasting the Board's meetings. Regarding the Employee Development item for $35,000, he would like to know why there is a separate line item for this item. He asked about the Board of County Commissioners' contingency and the need for $250,000 in that fund. He would also like to discuss the student generation and impact fee reports at the June 15th Budget Work Session. Commissioner Carey said that the Board needs to support the request from the Institute of Government. He would like to include this in the budget. Commissioner Jacobs asked about the County's share of the land trust seed money to establish a half-time position. He would be interested in contributing to this. Commissioner Brown would like to know how long it is for and what it would accomplish. Commissioner Jacobs also asked to discuss increasing the hours for the position in the Clerk's office to % time or full-time to answer telephone calls. He asked about the new position in the County Manager's office. John Link explained this Assistant to the Manager position. This position will allow them to fully address the solid waste issues and other things the County Manager's office is responsible for at this time. Commissioner Brown asked about page 11-11 and said she thought that the staff was going to come back with information on how the County could be associated with ownership of the YMCA and the American Red Cross buildings. If the County is going to contribute to the ownership of the building, she would like to protect the investment of the taxpayers. Commissioner Jacobs wants to try to fund these by matching - take the amount that is requested and cut it in half for capital campaigns. This would encourage a sense of participation with the citizens that is not present when the buildings are not owned. Commissioner Halkiotis mentioned that the County used to own some property where the old livestock market was in Hillsborough in the early 1940's. He said that no one is alive today who can explain how the County lost the land. He feels that if public monies are going to be used to buy buildings by any group, the Board needs to know what is going on and where the County's ownership is. He said that the state has still not dealt with the issue of the land that was purchased with Orange County per-pupil allocation dollars that went to charter schools. It is still unknown as to what would happen to this land if they ever went out of business. He feels this is a tracking issue. Regarding the capital campaigns, Commissioner Carey said he recalled the Board approving some contributions to the daycare and the YMCA. Chair Gordon made reference to a letter from the Board of Elections about an increase in the compensation for election officials. She thinks this should be considered at the June 15th Budget Work Session. She would also like to discuss the County's proposed allocation to the Chapel Hill Library and Parks and Recreation on June 15th. She asked for a detailed agenda for the June 15th Budget Work Session. Chair Gordon said that the Hebron issue is still alive, and she has been asked by Senator Kinnaird to write a letter saying that the County has no position on this issue. The Board agreed that the writing of this letter should be discussed further. The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled for June 15, 1999 at 7:30 p.m. in the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Alice M. Gordon, Chair Beverly A. Blythe, Clerk