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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 19991013I APPROVED 3/21/2000 3 MINUTES 4 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS 5 WORK SESSION 6 OCTOBER 13, 1999 9 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met in regular session on Wednesday, 10 October 13, 1999 at 8:00 p.m. in the meeting room of the Southern Human Services Center in 11 Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 12 13 COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Alice M. Gordon and Commissioners 14 Margaret W. Brown, Moses Carey, Jr., Stephen H. Halkiotis and Barry Jacobs 15 COUNTY ATTORNEY PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill 16 STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr., Personnel Director Elaine 17 Holmes, Planning Director Craig Benedict, and Clerk to the Board Beverly A. Blythe (all other 18 staff members will be identified appropriately below). 19 20 NOTE: ALL DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THESE MINUTES ARE IN THE 21 PERMANENT AGENDA FILE IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE. ALL RECORDINGS OF 22 THE MEETING WILL BE KEPT FOR 5 YEARS. 23 24 1. Department Head Pay Equity Study Update 25 Elaine Holmes made the presentation. She said that in August she provided a draft plan 26 activities and timetable to the Board for any feedback. Since that time she has been proceeding 27 to implement the plan. The study involves two areas, salary grade relationships of department 28 heads and the work tools that are provided to department heads. She summarized the quotes 29 she had received from outside consultants - Municipal Advisors quoted $12,000; Scott Group 30 quoted $11,500; and DMG Maximus quoted $9,000. She was asked to look at doing the study 31 in-house. She said that there are two issues involved in doing the study in-house, workload and 32 objectivity. She does not think that the study could be done in-house in this fiscal year. 33 Chair Gordon said that there are funds in the approved budget to bring in an outside 34 consultant to do the study. 35 Commissioner Halkiotis is opposed to hiring a consultant to do this study. 36 Elaine Holmes highlighted two issues that will be taken into consideration when doing 37 the study. The job descriptions will be compared internally and a labor market survey will be 38 done externally. She said that doing the study in-house would move the completion into next 39 year. 40 Commissioner Halkiotis asked where the roots are in this pay equity issue. 41 Chair Gordon said that it started out as gender equity but was not limited to that. 42 She said that she has been interested in this issue for some time. She feels it needs to be 43 looked at from a woman's point of view because there is a perception that there are inequities in 44 terms of pay, office space, etc. She feels that there are inequities in the way women are treated 45 as department heads. It appears there are inequities in terms of space. She is not sure if it is 46 just the position the women hold or whether it is actual discrimination. 47 Commissioner Halkiotis asked about the number of department heads. 48 Elaine Holmes said there are 29 department heads including the two assistant managers 49 and the engineer. 50 Commissioner Halkiotis said that he has a personal problem with going out and hiring a 51 consultant because one or two people feel that there are inequities among the women I department heads. He does not fully understand access to fax machines as being 2 discrimination. He said that when he came on board, the County had just gone through a 3 detailed job study. He said that someone has to be placed in the position of evaluating the 4 coworkers. He said that his perception is that the pay of the County's department heads is very 5 good. He has a problem with doing this study and having it done by a consultant. With regards 6 to the solid waste transition of the County's employees, he does not see this as a problem. He 7 indicated he would not vote to spend any money on this study because he feels the study 8 should be done in-house and that there are enough staff to do it in-house. 9 Commissioner Carey said that he does not share the perception that there is gender 10 discrimination in County Government. He feels that if a study is done that it should be done for 11 everyone. Doing a study implies that something is going to be fixed. He questioned the 12 perception a study like this would give to the other employees when they may have some of 13 these same issues. He is not convinced that there are any big problems with gender equity or 14 on any front. He said that this study is very expensive. The County treats the department 15 heads well and a lot is expected from them. It could be perceived that the department heads 16 are being treated better than the troops. He said that if a study is done, it should be farmed out 17 because the study would have more credibility if someone outside County government does it. 18 Commissioner Jacobs said that he agrees with Commissioner Carey in that all of County 19 Government should be studied and not just part of it. He thinks the County is moving toward the 20 place where it makes sense to look at these issues wholistically. He said that he has no 21 problem with having the study done in-house. He said that he is not concerned that this study 22 be done this year. He realizes it might put the Personnel Director in an awkward position, but 23 the Manager can work with the Personnel Director to make sure that objectivity would be 24 achieved. He reiterated that all of County Government should be studied. 25 Commissioner Brown said that she was interested in this from the beginning because 26 she wanted to understand what the department heads did. She does not know in terms of the 27 market how fair the salaries are. One issue is that there is a disparity because of the longevity 28 of employees. She said that some of the information that she would still like to see goes back to 29 a space analysis which is addressed in the study. 30 Commissioner Carey said that the space study is a higher priority than this salary study. 31 Commissioner Brown would like to know how the salaries in Orange County compare 32 with other county governments. 33 Elaine Holmes said that she could call and survey the salaries of other counties. The 34 difficulty in surveying other counties is that job functions may be different. 35 Commissioner Halkiotis questions why the Sheriff, the Register of Deeds, and the Clerk 36 to the Board are considered as department heads. 37 Chair Gordon does not understand why this Board does not want to do this study. She 38 has had people come to her about different situations. She said that the study should not be 39 limited to just women. 40 Commissioner Brown asked about space. She asked about the criteria and the 41 information that would be collected about office space. She asked what would be accomplished 42 if any inequities in space were found. 43 Chair Gordon said that something would be done only if there was a consistent pattern 44 found. She said that some citizens have noticed the inequities of space. 45 Commissioner Carey said that for him it is a matter of priorities. This is something that is 46 interesting but he has heard many things that people are dissatisfied with in County 47 government. He said that it is a matter of priority and what is important right now. A space 48 study is more important at this time. It is not that he does not want to know about pay equity, 49 but stakeholders have expectations when it is finished. Everyone should be looked after. 50 Chair Gordon said that she is surprised at the reaction of the Board on this issue. I Commissioner Brown said that she has been in everybody's office and she is not sure if 2 this study is going to tell her anything. 3 Commissioner Halkiotis said that the County has built buildings to help with space 4 needs. He feels that if a space study is done first that maybe it will show something. 5 John Link said that a comprehensive study was done in 1990 or 1991. They have, since 6 that time, revisited some positions and upgraded some of these positions. He said that he 7 hopes that the salaries in Orange County would be compared with those of Durham, Wake, 8 Guilford, and Forsyth Counties and not Caswell, Alamance, or other counties the same size 9 because recruiting in Orange County is done against the larger counties to find and hire the best 10 people. He feels that a space study can help to focus on what space needs should be 11 addressed. He said that department heads should complete their own job description and take 12 it seriously. 13 Commissioner Brown told Chair Gordon that she wants to address her concerns and 14 wonders what can be done to get the information and make some determinations, such as a 15 space study, job descriptions, and office descriptions. 16 Commissioner Carey said that the findings could be compared to the counties that are 17 selected. 18 Commissioner Jacobs said that the Board has discussed starting the Innovation and 19 Efficiency Committee fairly soon and this study could be an early task for that committee. 20 Chair Gordon said that there was already a committee formed for space study. 21 Commissioners Brown and Gordon are on this committee. 22 Commissioner Jacobs said that the committee could be charged with looking at whether 23 or not there is any readily perceivable equity issues among the department heads. He feels that 24 if a Board member identifies a concern with the way County employees are treated, it should be 25 addressed. He said that maybe this study does not fit under innovation and efficiency. He 26 suggested asking Elaine Holmes for her opinion and her perception. 27 Elaine Holmes said that she has heard that jobs have changed over the last ten years 28 but there have been no discrimination complaints. 29 Chair Gordon asked if anyone was in favor of this study besides her if it was done in- 30 house over the next two years. 31 Commissioner Carey said that it is reasonable to think that a lot of things have changed 32 with regards to job descriptions, but it has changed for everybody and not just department 33 heads. He said that a lot of the changes have to do with the expectations of County 34 government. He does not mind doing the study in-house. For the sake of credibility he feels an 35 outside firm should do the study, but he can accept it being done in-house. 36 Chair Gordon asked what a pay equity study for all County employees would do to the 37 scale of the study. 38 Elaine Holmes said that it would require information from the job study. She said that a 39 study on 684 positions could not be done in-house. 40 Commissioner Jacobs suggested asking the Personnel Director and Manager to come 41 back to the Board with additional information that is needed. He said that this issue could be left 42 at the information gathering stage. He suggested getting the department heads to do job 43 descriptions. He said that the department heads could be asked to identify any inequity 44 concerns anonymously. He thinks that this is not something that is at the point where the 45 Commissioners need to do anything other than getting more information. 46 John Link said that a job description of each department head was needed, and within 47 that process the department heads would describe any perceived inequities in their space or 48 any other job aspect. The department heads would also describe their responsibility in 49 supervising, how long they have been in local government, etc. He said that the historical 50 factors could not be controlled. He said that it would take several months to get the report. 4 Elaine Holmes will prepare a summary of the information to be gathered and a timeline and bring it back to the Board for approval. John Link said that this could be dovetailed with a space study as well as Innovation and Efficiency. Commissioner Halkiotis said that Orange County's pay levels are comparable if not better than most of the counties in the state. Chair Gordon asked if the Board wanted to discuss Flexible Development or go into Closed Session. John Link said that the closed session is not a decision on buying or not buying, but only if the Board is interested and what kind of timeframe is needed to evaluate the property. He said that the owners of the property would rather sell the property to the County as opposed to others who are interested in it. Commissioner Jacobs said that when the Board meets on October 19th, Chatham County is also meeting and will be considering University Lake watershed and its jurisdiction. He would like to authorize the Chair to send a letter to the Chatham County Commissioners thanking them for reconsidering it and expressing support for watershed protection and stating that Orange County stands ready to work with Chatham County in the future on similar efforts that are of mutual interest. Commissioner Carey said that the Board should, by consensus, authorize the Chair to send a letter to the Chatham County Commissioners reinforcing the Board's previous communications. 2. Text Amendments: Flexible Development Provisions Conservation Approach - there were no questions about this approach. Cluster Approach - there were no questions about this approach. Transfer of Density - Craig Benedict said that density is not transferred into a protected watershed. Configuration and Placement of Open Space - Craig Benedict said that open space was redefined to legitimately be counted toward the open space requirement. Chair Gordon said that she read in the estate option that the open space had to be contiguous, and she wonders how that is always possible. She asked how this could be required. Craig Benedict said that open space might not be contiguous but to the highest degree possible it will be contiguous. The intent of the amendment was for open space to be contiguous to the highest degree possible. The Board approved this amendment by consensus. Chair Gordon asked about carports and open space. Craig said that they would handle that through land use ratios. Buffer - Craig Benedict said that the buffer has been increased for the conservation cluster approach to 100 feet. The Board had no problems with this amendment. Placement of Septic Systems - this amendment was to clarify how much encroachment could occur for placement of septic systems. Geoffrey Gledhill said that on page S of the abstract, in the last bullet, there is some confusion. He thinks this was intended to mean that no more than 25% of the property could be occupied by the septic system, including septic repair system. He made a correction on the first I sentence to say "can only be allowed." It was decided that the wording would come back for 2 item C on page 8 of the agenda abstract. 4 Estate Lots - amended to reduce minimum lot size of estate lots from 4.0 acres to 3.0 5 acres with average lot size of 3.5 acres. 6 Chair Gordon said that her recommendation would be to leave the minimum lot size of 7 estate lots at 4.0 acres and look at it again more comprehensively. The Board agreed to leave 8 the minimum lot size of estate lots at 4.0 acres. 10 Provide for Internal Access - it is only for estate lots now but will be considered for all 11 approaches. 12 Commissioner Jacobs suggested that the Board hold off on this amendment. The Board 13 agreed to keep this for estate lots only. 14 Craig Benedict said that he would add to the definitions what open spaces are, and 15 make a more persuasive point with developers. 16 A motion was made by Commissioner Jacobs, seconded by Commissioner Halkiotis to 17 approve the Planning Board's proposed amendments to the Orange County Subdivision 18 Regulations, as revised above by the County Commissioners. Item D1 (c) will be brought back 19 on the consent agenda. 20 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 21 22 3. Closed Session 23 A motion was made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded by Commissioner Jacobs to 24 go into closed session in accordance with General Statute 143-318.11(5) to instruct the public 25 body's staff on negotiating the price of real property. 26 VOTE: UNANIMOUS 27 28 ADJOURNMENT 29 A motion is made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded by Commissioner Carey to 30 adjourn the meeting. The next meeting will be held on October 19, 1999 at 7:30 p.m. in the 31 Board room of the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. 32 33 Alice M. Gordon, Chair 34 Beverly A. Blythe, Clerk 35 36 37 38 39