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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 20020429 APPROVED 6/18/02 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ASSEMBLY OF GOVERNMENTS APRIL 29, 2002 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met in regular session for an Assembly of Governments meeting at 7:30 p.m. on April 29, 2002 at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Barry Jacobs and Commissioners Margaret W. Brown, Moses Carey, Jr., Alice M. Gordon and Stephen Halkiotis COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill and S. Sean Borhanian COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr., Assistant County Manager Rod Visser and Clerk to the Board Beverly A. Blythe (All other staff members will be identified appropriately below) CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Kevin C. Foy and members Flicka Bateman, Pat Evans, Ed Harrison, Mark Kleinschmidt, Jim Ward and Edith Wiggins CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL MEMBERS ABSENT: Bill Strom, Dorothy Verkerk CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEMBERS PRESENT: Mayor Michael R. Nelson and members Jacquelyn Gist, John Herrera (arrived late), Diana McDuffee, Alex Zaffron and Joal Hall Broun CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERMEN MEMBERS ABSENT: Mark Dorosin HILLSBOROUGH TOWN COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Mayor Joe Phelps and members Frances L. Dancy, Michael Gering, and Mark Sheridan HILLSBOROUGH TOWN COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Kenneth Chavious and Evelyn Lloyd STATE LEGISLATORS PRESENT: State Senator Ellie Kinnaird and State Representative Verla Insko NOTE: All other participants are listed in the text as appropriate. NOTE: ALL DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THESE MINUTES ARE IN THE PERMANENT AGENDA FILE IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE. OPENING REMARKS —CHAIR AND MAYORS Chair Jacobs said that Representative Hackney expressed his regret for not being in attendance tonight. 1. FY 2002 AND FY 2003 LOCAL GOVERNMENT BUDGETARY CONCERNS Orange County John Link made reference to a handout which gave a summary of major revenue and expenditure changes for fiscal year 2002-03. He gave potential ways to offset possible loss of state revenues for FY 2002-03. This document is hereby incorporated into these minutes by reference. Jackie Gist clarified that the 4.5-cent property tax increase was the projection following the recommendations and not what could happen if there is a loss of revenue. John Link said that if we were not able to address some of the reimbursement shortfall from the state, then the increase is inevitable. The 4.5-cent increase is the worst case scenario in terms of the tax increase. Pat Evans asked how much fund balance would be projected and John Link said $12 million. She made reference to the in-range salary adjustments and John Link said that he is not sure if these will be included in the budget or not. These adjustments happen all through the year based on employee performance. Mark Sheridan asked for the current tax rate and John Link said 80.5 cents. Mayor Foy verified that the County took $2.4 million from the fund balance this year and $3.5 million last year and asked about the difference. John Link said that the interest rate has decreased the investment earnings and he is only comfortable with recommending $2.4 million. Things may improve and he may recommend something higher. Mayor Foy asked if last year was unusual and John Link said that we have been building a fund balance to help offset the debt service from the 1997 bond. Mayor Foy asked for a clarification about the growth in tax base and the tax base lost because of Carol Woods. It was answered that there is not an actual increase in what Carol Woods is actually contributing. Ed Harrison asked if the County anticipates the contribution of Carol Woods to change based on the tax rate per year. John Link said that he would not expect it to decrease. Diana McDuffee made reference to borrowing funds from the affordable housing trust and delaying the contribution to the affordable housing initiative for one year and asked that John Link make comments about the impact on affordable housing if this happens. John Link said that he feels the County will still move ahead on providing affordable housing. The bond will provide $1.3 million for affordable housing for next year. Chair Jacobs said that these funds are County funds set aside for affordable housing. If we do borrow it, we are borrowing from ourselves with the intention of replenishing it. We know that we will have bond money for the affordable housing initiative. Mark Sheridan asked if it is the intention of the County Commissioners to put this money back in for affordable housing. Chair Jacobs said that it was the County Commissioners' intention to pay the money back to the fund. Commissioner Brown verified that the numbers presented are only for programs or reimbursements that have specifically had money held. Commissioner Brown asked about debt service. Finance Director Ken Chavious said that last July we sold $17.5 million in bonds, which accounts for the debt service. Mayor Foy said that the Town of Chapel Hill will have an increase in workers compensation premiums and asked if Orange County will have an increase and John Link said yes. Chair Jacobs made reference to affordable housing and said that we did get state funding for the Urgent Home Repair Fund, but we do not get it anymore. We are paying for it out of the monies set aside and we hired somebody to administer that program. Therefore, we are not doing anything less but we are just trying to do it in a different way. Chapel Hill Cal Horton, Chapel Hill Town Manager, said that the Town's budget would be about $50 million. They had to cut $1 million out of the budget. Next year's budget has no pay increases in it. The budget also includes the full year costs of the pay study that was done last year. He said that they hope that the reimbursements will be forwarded to them from the state for next year. At this point, their tax rate increase will be 6.6 cents. To put it in perspective, the State could impound $3 million of their funds, which is about a 7-cent tax rate increase. He made reference to two handouts he distributed — Commercial Garbage Collection, dated April 24, 2002; and Information on Pay As You Throw, dated April 29, 2002. He said that both of these ideas are affected by County policy. Preliminary implications from County staff indicate that any changes in commercial garbage collection charges might be problematic. He said that he would be glad to answer any questions from the County Commissioners. Commissioner Carey asked if Chapel Hill is assuming that the state is not going to come through with the reimbursements in building its budget. Cal Horton said that they have based their budget proposal on the fact that the state will not come through with the reimbursements. He said that he understands that the League of Municipalities and the North Carolina County Commissioners Association will ask for legislation to protect the counties and the towns. Senator Ellie Kinnaird said that there is talk of accelerating the % cent sales tax that can be levied, which may be a possibility. Representative Verla Insko said that it would be more likely that we would be able to pass legislation to protect the beer and wine franchise tax rather than the reimbursements, because reimbursements go through the general fund. She said that the Governor, through the Executive Budget Act, has the authority to take anything in the general fund. She is not sure how it happened that the other funds were taken this year, but she hopes that will not happen again. Mayor Nelson asked about the collection fee schedule and the statement made by County staff that it would be problematic to make changes to that this year. He asked in what way it would be problematic. Cal Horton deferred this question to the County staff. Chair Jacobs said that this is not an item on the agenda tonight, but Solid Waste Director Gayle Wilson can give a brief overview since Mayor Nelson may have to leave early. Solid Waste Director Gayle Wilson said that any significant changes in the commercial collection sector that would shift significant quantities of waste from being delivered to our County landfill would seem to be contrary to the interlocal agreement. The principle upon which this is based is that the waste disposal should carry the burden of funding the solid waste system to the extent possible. The profits from the waste delivered to our facilities are all used to fund the waste reduction and recycling program. If the waste is taken out of the County to be disposed of somewhere for less, then the County loses money to fund the waste reduction and recycling program and the private sector receives the profit. Mayor Nelson said that there is a way to set up franchise agreements so that franchisees are required to take the waste to the landfill. Hillsborough Eric Peterson said that the impact from the withholding of funds in Hillsborough is about $250,000, which is over six cents on its tax rate. The possibility next year is a ten-cent equivalent on the tax rate, which is ten percent of the general fund revenues. The Town basically cut the budget down as low as it could possibly go. There will actually be a 6.6% decrease in the expenditures for next year. This includes things like no cost-of-living increases, no merit, the elimination of one position, and elimination of commercial dumpster collection. They are also going to use an exclusive franchise agreement, which requires that waste be taken to the landfill. This will save Hillsborough 3.5-4.0 cents on the tax rate. Even with doing all of that, they are looking at a bare minimum increase of 3.75 cents to be able to maintain status quo. Commissioner Brown asked what state funding Hillsborough would lose and Eric Peterson said that the utility franchise tax would account for six cents on the tax rate. The inventory and intangibles and the ABC revenues are smaller. Carrboro The Assistant Town Manager Bing Roenick, spoke about the Carrboro budget. They too are proposing a tax increase. There are no pay increases or new positions included in their budget. Representative Verla Insko made some comments about the State's situation. The State is projecting a $1.2 billion loss in revenue, and the Appropriations Chairs have directed various divisions to cut certain amounts. She is on the Health and Human Services Appropriations this year. She said that you may hear that the State is overemphasizing the problem and that we actually have an increase in revenue this year. She checked with the economist for the General Assembly and he said that there is a 3% decline in revenue. Our revenue last fiscal year included some deductions to pay off some lost lawsuits. So it appears we have an increase in revenue but we actually do not have an increase. The Department of Health and Human Services was directed to cut $330 million out of its budget. The Department sent options for cuts, and those added up to $280 million, which means that the Appropriations Committee would have to come up with another$50 million in cuts in order to meet the goal of$330 million. In the Division of Aging, they are proposing to cut home and community care block grants 11 %, which would be $1.5 million. These provide in-home services including skilled home care and home aid levels (Meals on Wheels, etc.). The impact would be that 455 clients would not receive in- home care, 431 people would not receive congregate meals, and 431 would not receive home delivered meals. Another cut proposed was to cut 35 positions in child support enforcement. The cuts in the Health and Human Services Appropriations budget are very painful. The cuts from mental health will be $65 million, with $60 million coming out of area programs. The reason the proposal is to take the money out of area programs and not the state institutions is because state institutions are the safety net. This will be discussed later in the agenda. She said that the Orange County delegation would vote for many ways to solve this problem —cigarette tax increase, beer and wine tax increases, and other options. They would also cut some loopholes. The State has about $2 billion worth of loopholes, but there are some that do not benefit vulnerable populations. There would have to be 61 votes in the House and 26 votes in the Senate to cut the loopholes. She said that these are just proposals and there will be a long process. The hope is that it will not be this bad. Alex Zaffron said that we appreciate the extent to which the State has had to cut the budget. He said that it was bizarre that the State was operating on a 4% revenue growth projection when it was clear that the economy was really bad. He said that the municipalities are having to raise taxes to a painful extent in order to balance the budgets. He asked the Representatives to take this information back to the legislature. Jackie Gist said that she hopes that when the local delegation is making arguments from the floor that they would point out several things. One thing is that the State is saying that they do not want to raise taxes, but they are raising taxes all across the State by their actions. She does not think the public understands this. She would like to know what happened to all of the money. Money does not just evaporate - it had to go somewhere. Her feeling is that the money went upward in the organization. She said that the State was avoiding the political consequences of raising taxes and forcing it onto the municipalities, and she wishes that the delegation would make that argument. John Herrera arrived at this point at 8:35 p.m. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he and Chair Jacobs had lunch with a legislator from outside of Orange County, and he shared that Senator Basnight was trying to get $900,000 out of the Highway Trust Fund to build a new bronze statue of the Wright Brothers because of the big anniversary coming up. He heard a couple of weeks ago that some folks on the coast are lamenting that they were not going to have $7 million in state funding for the year long celebration of the Wright Brothers and that they were only going to get $800,000 for the celebration. Also, last week, he received an email that a proposal had been made to chop out the group within the North Carolina Department of Agriculture that was in charge of the Federal Commodities Program. For the Orange County school system, that is about $98,000 a year, but for many of the poorer school systems in the State, where 80% of their children qualify for free lunch, it would have a devastating impact. He asked what moron would come up with a suggestion like this. Today on NPR he heard that there is going to be a discussion in the legislature reference the Highway Trust Fund, which has almost $1 billion in it. By the year 2007, that same fund will have close to $6 billion accumulated in it. He said that maybe the "good road state" needs to become the "good people state" and put roads on the back burner for a short period of time and take care of the needs of those least able to stand up and defend themselves. Mayor Foy said that he feels the municipalities need to focus on what might be achievable. He said that what might be achievable for next year with the legislature and the Governor is an agreement not to take the utilities franchise fees. Further, it would be helpful to understand that we need to set the tax rate by July V. This gives a short window of opportunity to try to take into account any action that the legislature can take this year to secure those funds for us next year. Joal Hall Broun said that what the municipalities are doing now is dipping into their fund balances. Next year, they will not be able to do that. Even if the money the State has taken is returned, it will take the Town of Carrboro three to five years to recover. She asked that the local delegation look at what cutting funds in mental health will do to the jails and the increase in prisoners. She said that it would be worse long-term and these short-term solutions do nothing for the State. Representative Insko agreed with Jackie Gist that at the State level they are raising taxes by withholding money from the local jurisdictions. She thinks that this is a strong argument. Senator Kinnaird made reference to an article she wrote to the News and Observer. She said that today she got a fax from someone in Holly Springs who accused her of leaving the democratic party advocating for taxes. She made reference to the comment about where all the money went and said that there have been three hurricanes and one flood. She said that the tax revenue that is supposed to be coming in is actually increasingly going down, so that each year we have less revenue. The State has sent out pledges to each legislator saying, "I will not raise your taxes." She said that it is so frustrating because even though the statewide poll showed that 87% of the people are in favor of raising taxes on tobacco, they said they could not do it because it was an election year. She is to the point of despair and frustration. Chair Jacobs said that if the people in the legislature do not have the guts to do it, then they should give the municipalities the authority to levy revenues and the freedom to meet the responsibilities. He said that Orange County is not going to let elderly people starve because the State is cutting funds. Orange County will not turn its back on anyone, but we do not have the tools or the opportunities to help us meet those responsibilities. Pat Evans said that what is allowed for one municipality or county needs to be given to all municipalities or counties. John Herrera said that we need to go and sit with the Governor and have a negotiating team to get what we want. We need to put pressure on the elected officials. Senator Kinnaird said that on May 28`h, which is the opening day of the Legislature, a rally starts at the Clarion Hotel at 9:00 a.m. and it marches to the Governor's office and the Legislature. It is called a Rally for Justice and includes almost all of the non-profits. 2. CHAPEL HILL COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AMENDMENTS a. Chapel Hill Comprehensive Plan Amendments for the Northwest Area Chris Berndt made this presentation. At the Joint Planning Area Public Hearing on April 11, 2001, a series of amendments in Chapel Hill's Northwest Area were presented. The amendments were: 1) Changing the designation of land south of Eubanks Road from "Open Space to "Low Residential; 2) Changing the designation of land north of Eubanks Road between the existing landfill and Millhouse Road, from "Mixed Use, Office Emphasis" to "Open Space"; 3) Changing the designation of parcels between Millhouse Road and Interstate 40 from "Mixed Use, Office Emphasis" to 'Rural Residential'; and 4) Changing the designation of the Greene Tract from "Landfill Pending Further Study"to "Housing/Open Space." The Planning staffs of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, and Orange County note the following options for proceeding toward adoption of the proposed amendments to the Joint Planning Land Use Plan and map: 1) Adopt the proposed amendments to the Joint Planning Land Use Plan and Map as adopted by the Chapel Hill Town Council on May 7, 2001; or 2) Adopt the proposed amendments to the Joint Planning Land Use Plan and Map as adopted by the Chapel Hill Town Council on May 7, 2001, but leave the designation of the Greene Tract unchanged from its 1986 Land Use Plan designation ("Future Landfill, Pending Future Study") until a final use is determined for the Greene Tract; or 3) Adopt the proposed amendments to the Joint Planning Land Use Plan and Map as adopted by the Chapel Hill Town Council on May 7, 2001, but designate three uses (housing, open space, and recreation) for the Greene Tract, as adopted by the three governing bodies in November and December of 2001; or 4) Postpone adoption of the proposed amendments to the Joint Planning Land use Plan and Map until the Greene Tract Work Group finalizes recommendations for a concept plan on the Greene Tract. Chair Jacobs asked if the staff is looking for direction as to which of the four approaches to take at this time. Chris Berndt said that they were laying out the approaches at this time. Chair Jacobs said that one way to approach it would be to wait and incorporate the Greene Tract which is option #4. Everyone agreed to this approach. b. Southern Portion of Chapel Hill Transition Area Within Joint Planning Area Orange County Planning Director Craig Benedict made this presentation. He said that adoption of the new Chapel Hill Comprehensive Plan in May 2000 resulted in a northward shift of the Urban Service Boundary away from the Southern Triangle Transition Area. No change to the Joint Planning Area Land Use Plan has yet been proposed for this area. Mayor Nelson left the meeting at this point at 8:57 p.m. Commissioner Brown asked Craig Benedict why we would not want to do this and he said that it would be consistent to an amendment to the plan. That area would be similar to the other rural buffer areas that are not being serviced with urban services. It would take a formal public hearing and a formal amendment process. There are areas within the extraterritorial jurisdiction of Chapel Hill that would not be serviced by urban services, but that could stay within the planning jurisdiction. Mayor Foy said that his board has not really discussed this, and he does not think they would be comfortable taking an action to move it forward without having given it consideration. He would like more time. Commissioner Gordon concurs with the Chapel Hill Town Council taking the initiative. Commissioner Brown asked and Mayor Foy said that they could put it on the next Assembly of Governments meeting agenda. Commissioner Brown said that it was her understanding that it already has been adopted into the water and sewer boundary agreement. Craig Benedict said that the water and sewer boundary agreement was a separate document. The agreement reflects the change in the map. Ed Harrison clarified that all areas in the rural buffer are in the Joint Planning Area, but only Orange County has zoning jurisdiction in them. He asked if areas have been added to the rural buffer over time and the County Attorney said that no change has been made. 3. REFRESHER ON SOLID WASTE INTERLOCAL AGREEMENT a. Greene Tract Disposition/Reimbursement Commissioner Carey made reference to the work that has been done by the Greene Tract Work Group. He said that a 60-day extension has been given by Orange County and Carrboro. Chapel Hill will be considering it on their agenda soon. He commended the work group for the six meetings and the hard work. There is a little more work to do and the staff has to pursue a survey of the area around the Greene Tract to learn the best (most appropriate) route to get public sewer to the site. This will help in deciding where affordable housing can go on the site. Pat Evans said that the Chapel Hill Council has worked to try to integrate types of housing rather than having a single range of housing types. In the resolution that the Council passed in regard to the Greene Tract, they included moderately priced housing as well as affordable housing because of their policy of not locating public housing all in one neighborhood. They would prefer to have mixtures of housing types. Commissioner Carey said that he believes that most people in the work group want to maximize the amount of affordable housing that can be built on the site because there are so few opportunities available for affordable housing. Flicka Bateman asked if the Greene Tract Work Group has talked about the number of units that may be allowed on the rest of the tract because that would better tell how many people would be served as opposed to talking about the acreage. Commissioner Carey said that they started out talking about the number of units but gravitated toward talking about acres. The work group will talk about this further after the survey is finished. Jackie Gist said that the work group needs to further discuss the future of the 11-acre tract. She asked that this 11 acres be put in a trust to be used in 25 years to provide affordable housing. Kevin Foy made reference to the map of the Greene Tract. He noted that the blue on the map is the location of the eleven (11) acres in question. He made reference to the pink and brown areas located to the north and adjacent to the eleven acres and said that water and sewer could probably be provided to this area most economically. This is the area where the survey will take place. A lot of money will be invested for some housing on the pink and brown part. He feels that the neighborhood needs to be involved in the decision for this entire area. He urged all of the boards to also put the 11 acres in a trust for affordable housing use at a later time. Jim Ward said that it seems that this is going to be a very close dense affordable housing project. The transportation issues concern him. He wants the County to take the next step to decide on the acreage that is solely owned by Orange County. Commissioner Carey said that the Greene Tract Work Group acknowledges that further work will need to be done, after a decision is made on this 109-acre tract, for other tracts of this property. Jim Ward said that he wishes that this property could be reviewed all in one piece rather than ignoring what is going to happen next door. If we knew what was going to happen next door, we would get a better product. He asked about the variety of uses and where those uses are going to take place. Mayor Foy said that the rationale for designating the areas (colored pink and brown on the map) is that they abut the Neville Tract. The County has not made a formal commitment, but it seems logical that since that area is going to be level that it would be a place for playing fields and development of active recreation. He said that they were sort of counting on that. Commissioner Carey made reference to the estimated Greene Tract reimbursement amounts and said that the work group wants to make a recommendation back on this subject. Unless there is a strenuous objection about the recommendation from the work group, then they will proceed. Ed Harrison made reference to transportation access to any of the lands and said that it would be helpful to have the basics of a transportation plan so that we do not lose any access options. Commissioner Carey said that the towns would have to give additional instructions on what they want the work group to achieve after the basic charge has been met. He thinks that the work group will want to continue to work on it since so much time has been spent on it already. Chair Jacobs said that the work group will be making a recommendation back about what the next steps should be and this could include addressing some of the concerns about how to look at the whole property, how it works together, how we maintain our transportation options, how we incorporate the potential future parts of the landfill operation, etc. He agreed that the master plan should include the neighborhood so that the neighborhood is part of the process also. Commissioner Gordon said that the time pressure of the work group is to make a recommendation for the 109 acres. Two years after the agreement was signed, there was supposed to be an agreement about the disposition of the 109 acres. When the County talked about the 60 acres, she thought that it would be open space. Jim Ward suggested that a percentage of acreage for affordable housing could be designated instead of locking in on a specific part of the land. Commissioner Carey said that the specific 25 acres was selected for affordable housing because of the studies that were done on the land. Mayor Foy said that part of the reason they are waiting on this survey is because of the topography of the land, which may require a pump station for running water and sewer. b. Commercial Solid Waste Collection/Disposal Assistant County Manager Rod Visser made reference to the interlocal agreement and read several sections from this agreement. Flicka Bateman said that it would seem to her that counterbalancing the revenue would be the extension of the landfill if all of the commercial waste does not come to the County landfill. The less you put into the landfill, the longer the landfill can be used by the County. Gayle Wilson said that the amount of time that the landfill life would be extended would be very small. The income loss would be significant. Diana McDuffee asked if once we get a transfer station, would the County still count on profitability. Gayle Wilson said that the more tons you have, the less it would cost per ton, so if the County had a transfer station we could eliminate the ban on out-of-county dumping. There would not be a capacity issue. We want to maximize the reduction of waste. Diana McDuffee said that there is a contradiction of wanting more garbage and wanting to reduce the amount of garbage. Mayor Foy said that Chapel Hill does want to talk about the entire solid waste issue. The problem they see with wanting more garbage but simultaneously wanting to promote recycling, and also the difficulty with pay-as-you throw, is that if they institute a pay-as-you-throw system they will generate too much recycling for their system to handle. This is why they want to bring this up so they can figure out what to do. Chair Jacobs said that the County is working toward making those decisions. We are still working on implementing our C&D ordinance, which will make a significant dent in some of the waste stream. Commissioner Gordon asked Mayor Foy about the focus of the concern of the commercial collection. Mayor Foy said that they did not plan to get out of the business of providing waste collection this year, but possibly institute a fee. If a fee is instituted, then some of the volume would probably go somewhere else. It would be helpful to institute a fee. John Link said that the LOG spent two years talking about alternative financing for landfill operations. There are fundamental questions that need to be answered. Diana McDuffee said that Carrboro has never considered that they would have to competitively price a fee for waste collection. Mayor Foy said that his staff said that a private hauler could haul everything away, but Chapel Hill requires separating out different materials. Someone might choose to go to a private hauler even if the price were lower in the town. Cal Horton said that diverting materials from the landfill would divert those dollars from the town. There was consensus to ask staffs to delineate the issues and the alternatives in order to have some basis of discussion. C. Other Significant Provisions of interlocal Agreement There was no discussion on this item. The information was included in the packet and is incorporated herein by reference. 4. MENTAL HEALTH REORGANIZATION Mental Health Director Tom Maynard said that a lot of people need mental health services. Orange-Person-Chatham Mental Health has done a good job providing services. All of this is going to change because we are changing the way the system is being run. There have been complaints about mental health services in our state for a long time. A number of adverse incidents such as people that have died, State hospitals have lost patients, etc., have prompted the legislature to ask questions. Also, families have been complaining that services are not adequate and that local programs are not accountable enough and they are not doing enough. There have been a number of studies done over the years, but they have been put on a shelf. What is different this time is that the studies that were done are being taken seriously and have resulted in a change in the law. There is universal agreement that the system is broken and needs to be changed. Our state spends more than average on mental health and the result has not been optimal. The solutions result in some very profound change. The County Commissioners will now be directly responsible for administering mental health services for every county in the state. They will not be permitted to operate the system as a County Department because the goal is to reduce administrative overhead expenditures. What is required by January of next year is that the County Commissioners must submit to the state a business plan for how they will provide mental health services. We will be required to focus on strengthening services for citizens who need the service the most. Part of the plan calls for reducing the capacity at state institutions. The planning process is described in the agenda. There are steering committees from each County that are overseeing this process. Jackie Gist said that we owe Tom Maynard a great debt of gratitude because he works under incredibly hard conditions and challenges and he does such a wonderful job. Commissioner Brown said that she asked this to be put on the agenda because of the County's concern for people who cannot take care of themselves. The reduction in services that is anticipated is probably going to affect a lot of people in the community. She asked that anyone who wants to help in formulating this plan to contact her, and Jackie Gist volunteered to help. 5. SHAPING ORANGE COUNTY'S FUTURE UPDATE Gene Bell, Comprehensive Planner for Orange County, made this representation. He said that two years ago, a report was brought forth to all the governing boards. He distributed a list of five options for consideration by the governing boards, which is incorporated herein by reference (green sheet). Ellen Ironsides, Co-Chair of Shaping Orange County's Future, asked that the County Commissioners consider all the recommendations from the Shaping Orange County's Future Committee as stated in the report. A motion was made by Jim Ward, seconded by Joal Hall Broun to approve options 1, 2 (a and b), 4, and 5 as follows: 1. Agree that content of SOCF Provisional Report is complete and pass a resolution. 2. Direct staff to pursue graphics specialist firm/company to: a. Prepare an abridged version of the report for a newspaper insert; and b. Do necessary style and formal changes to the full 96-page report and publish it. Note: There are 15 appendices containing over 200 pages that accompany the report— it is not recommended that they be included). 4. In lieu of option three, attach letters of city/county accomplishments supporting the SOCF initiative from mayors and Board of County Commissioners Chair. 5. Refer the issue of a "Citizen's Roundtable"to town and county staff for evaluation and recommendation due back to all governing boards early in calendar year 2003. VOTE: UNANIMOUS John Herrera commended the leadership of the Orange County government and also the Towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro for passing the resolutions calling for immigration reform, which has a lot to do with their future. He reminded everyone that on Wednesday night, May 1't, at 7:00 p.m. at the Carrboro Arts Center, there will be a panel of professionals who know about the issues of immigration. He recommends it for employers who have immigrants as employees. Chair Jacobs reminded everyone that Thursday, May 2"', at 7:30 p.m. at the Friday Center, Orange County and Chatham County are co-hosting a regional terrorism forum. 6. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned by consensus at 10:15 p.m. The next Orange County Board of Commissioners meeting will be held on April 30, 2002 at 7:30 p.m. at the Government Services Center in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Barry Jacobs, Chair Beverly A. Blythe, CIVIC