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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 20030127APPROVED 3/24/2003 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS WORK SESSION JANUARY 27, 2003 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a work session on Monday, January 27, 2003 at 7:30 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Margaret Brown and Commissioners, Moses Carey, Jr., Alice M. Gordon, Stephen Halkiotis and Barry Jacobs COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill and S. Sean Barhanian COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr., Assistant County Managers Rod Visser and Gwen Harvey and Clerk to the Board Donna 5. Baker {All other staff members will be identified appropriately below) Chair Brown said that Commissioner Jacobs would like to add an item. She asked that this be added after item #1. Commissioner Jacobs said that this item is about picking up storm debris from Leslie Road, which is a private road that does not have public right-af-way. 1. Appointments a. Chapel Hill Horace Williams Citizens Committee Chair Brown said that she had agreed to be on this committee. The Board appointed Chair Brawn by consensus. b. Arts Commission -One Apaointment- A motion was made by Commissioner Jacobs, seconded by Commissioner Carey to appoint Flynt Burton to fill the unexpired term of David O'Dell, whose term expires March 31, 2005. VOTE: UNANIMOUS c. Commission for the Environment -Three Appointments Commissioner Gordon gave a list of those that she would like to nominate. The recommendations are Charles Daniel, Lindsay Wichers, and Kenneth Meardon. Commissioner Gordon made a motion to designate Mark Smith as the Air Quality representative (Environmental Specialist at N.C. Division of Air Quality) and Julie H. Tucker as the Engineering representative (Environmental Engineer -Bachelor's Degree in Engineering). Furthermore, she moved to appoint Kenneth Meardon to position no. 2, At-Large, to a first regular term which will expire December 31, 2005; to appoint Lindsay B. Wichers, to position no. 6, At-Large, to an unexpired term which will expire December 31, 2004; and to appoint Charles C. Daniel, III to position no. 13, At-Large, to fill an unexpired term which will expire December 31, 2003. This was seconded by Commissioner Jacobs. VOTE: UNANIMOUS d. Recreation and Parks Advisory Council -Appointments Commissioner Jacobs said that Lindsey Wichers no longer lives in the Chapel Hill City limits. A motion was made by Commissioner Gordon, seconded by Commissioner Halkiotis to appoint Robb English (#2), Frances Douglass (#9), Michael Beattie (#10), and Marla Fearrington (#12}, and to move Patrick Sullivan to position #5 and Tom Sievert to position #4. Position #1 will be left open for now. VOTE: UNANIMOUS e. Hvconeechee Regional Library Board - One Aaoointment A motion was made by Commissioner Jacobs, seconded by Commissioner Halkiotis to appoint Virginia Drill to fill an At-Large, Orange County position, which is an unexpired term ending March 31, 2003; and to extend this term to end March 31, 2006. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Storm Debris -Item added by Commissioner Jacobs Commissioner Jacobs has been getting emails and forwarding them to the Manager and the County Engineer. The emails are from people who live on Leslie Drive and they want storm debris picked up. Only 29 people live on this road. The problem is that the private road is not up to DOT standards and does not have legal right-of-way. DOT had some problems during Hurricane Fran where people sued them for the damage that their heavy equipment did to the private roads, so they have eliminated these kinds of roads from the consideration. The people on Leslie Drive do not think that this is fair. County Engineer Paul Thames is going to try and contact DOT or EMS to see if we can help the people on this road. John Link recommended that we ask DOT to do this if the citizens would waive liability against DOT for this road. He said that they would write a letter to DOT and Commissioner Carey asked that the letter be forwarded to the citizens also. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he would be surprised if DOT does this. 2. Introduction to Solid Waste Alternative Funding Issues Assistant County Manager Rad Visser introduced this topic. This is an issue that has been around for many years, and the Solid Waste Advisory Board has been dealing with this for the past 8-9 months. He then introduced the guests from the Solid Waste Advisory Board. He said that the plan is to have the SWAB Report brought to the February 26th work session. Solid Waste Director Gayle Wilson gave a PawerPaint presentation, which is incorporated by reference. He gave a history of alternative financing. The four entities adopted a Solid Waste Management Plan in June 1997, which includes a 61 % waste reduction goal. This goal was confirmed in the year 2000. The Alternative Finance Committee was established in February 1998 and the SWAB was established in September 1999. He then spoke about why alternative financing is necessary. The recycling programs are growing and there is minimal revenue from the programs. Commissioner Halkiotis asked about the revenue of the recycling programs. Gayle Wilson said that it is probably about $100,000 or less. Tipping fee revenues have been reduced due to waste reduction Regarding disposal, the County is developing a new C&D landfill, the MSW landfill will be closing in 2009 and this surplus revenue will be lost, a transfer station is needed, and there is leakage of waste to local out-of-county facilities. The options considered by the SWAB are to fund current projected shortfall between future expenditures and revenues, improve public understanding of general costs of solid waste services, and assure supplemental funding will be available in the 2003-04 budget. Other options include property taxes {including district tax), availability fees, combination of property tax and fees, and Prince William County, VA Fee Model (includes prepaid MSW disposal fee). The hypothetical tax increase is 2.5 cents per $100 valuation for next year. In FY 2008-09 with the closing of the landfill, the increase will be 3.5 cents per $100 valuation. Commissioner Gordon asked what we were trying to pay for. Gayle Wilson said that we were trying to pay for the difference between the revenue generated by the program and services in the enterprise fund and the overall expenditures. They are trying to fund the shortfall between the revenues and expenditures. The reason for the shortfall is the recycling program. All of the other disposal programs fund themselves. Gayle Wilson continued by highlighting the key issues identified by the SWAB. These include education and outreach, waste dynamics, implementation and administration, and finances. Commissioner Gordon asked about the model in Prince William County, Virginia. Gayle Wilson said that the Solid Waste Director from Prince William County came to a SWAB meeting and made a presentation. Prince William County uses an availability fee, but part of the fee is a prepaid refuse disposal cost. This means that once you prepay your disposal cost, there is no benefit to going outside the county to dispose of your material because you are going to have to pay again. The tipping fee would be a part of the annual fee. Commissioner Gordon asked Gayle Wilson to explain haw to avoid this dilemma that when you reduce waste you hurt yourself financially. Gayle Wilson said that the system now is that the tipping fee is $45 for MSW. Of that, about $27 pays for actual disposal costs. The remainder is utilized to fund recycling waste reduction. Commissioner Gordon asked what we could do to fix the system so that it works financially. She asked if there was some way to have an advantage if there is less waste. Gayle Wilson said not if you are funding a sophisticated recycling waste reduction program. The recycling and waste reduction could be detached from the enterprise fund. He said that you either have to reduce the recycling and waste reduction programs to where they can be funded by the disposal programs, or you have to find supplemental income to help fund those. The more you reduce, the less income you have. It is referred to as the financial spiral of death. Commissioner Carey asked if there was any jurisdiction that has attached the responsibility for paying for the fees to the occupants rather than owners of the structures. Gayle Wilson said that most go with the owners because occupants come and ga and you lose a lot of money in the shuffle. Commissioner Carey asked about the $2.4 million that would have to be replaced and if this includes only the cost of disposal and not the cost of collection Rod Visser said that it includes the cost of collections of recyclables but not the collection of mixed solid waste. Commissioner Carey said that he was under the impression that if a district tax model were selected that a district can be all or any portion of the County. Gayle Wilson said that he thinks this is true. Commissioner Carey made reference to the May 10, 1999 letter from Gayle Wilson to Cal Horton and the criteria to establish a service district (page 61) and he read as follows: "It is impossible or impractical to provide these services on a countywide basis." Rod Visser said that it is a statutory provision. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to "other considerations" and "Proceeds not yet distributed to enterprise fund from disposition of Greene Tract." He asked if there was a working number of what we will recover. Gayle Wilson said that Finance Director Ken Chaviaus has worked up these numbers. Rod Visser said that we do have those numbers and recommendations and they will be coming back to the Board with recommendations and the timeline and process and haw other municipalities will pay. Chair Brown said that some of the pay back amount was extended over the years or was postponed until the Greene Tract could be developed. Rod Visser said that the work group discussed having a triggering mechanism to have the jurisdictions pay money back to the enterprise fund. This way no one jurisdiction would be hit particularly hard in one year. Commissioner Jacobs said that we need to be clear on the payments that we are counting on. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to the funding for the neighborhood public water project where we added an extra dollar to the tipping fee to try and recover that. He asked if this was the second ar third year. Gayle Wilson said that before money was paid there was only one or two years of that dollar advance. The County paid $600,000 even though the dollar had only generated about $150,000. There was not a separate fund set up; it was just a way to generate same additional money. This dollar is still in the tipping fee. Commissioner Jacobs said that we could continue thinking about the dollar as paying back the $600,000. He said that when we do talk about increasing the tipping fee, we may not want to include this dollar. Commissioner Jacobs asked how much of the projections and hypotheticals are based on the 61 % waste reduction by 2006. Gayle Wilson said that the plan is assumed in the 10-year plan. The cost of implementation is included in the fees. The plan is assumed to be fully implemented in 2008-09. The leveling fees will be included in there. Commissioner Halkiotis said that a water bottle is worth 5 cents in Maine and in North Carolina we have to pay to have it recycled. He asked if there was a legislative package about solid waste asking the legislators for help. He feels that the legislature has failed in helping the counties to recoup recycling costs. Gayle Wilson said that they have not put a package together, but they stay up to date on the legislation. Commissioner Halkiotis said that we need to rise up and demand some action. The County Commissioners need to know how they can help him because the people do not want any more taxes. The public needs to be educated that recycling is not free. He asked what other North Carolina counties are doing. Commissioner Halkiotis asked about the closing of the MSW landfill in 2009 and if there was a downsizing plan. Gayle Wilson said that there will be a transfer facility and the waste will be transferred to out of county facilities. There will no longer be an MSW landfill. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he is very proud that the County is doing the right thing, but it has come at a tremendous cost. He said that he is glad to hear that the university has decided to use the County's services. The State has to be part of the plan. It is casting the County a lot of money to get rid of recyclables, and it should not be the County's expense. Chair Brown asked about the $2.4 million and if this needs to be made up every year. Gayle Wilson said that this is the recycling budget for this year and it will vary. Things are happening on the revenue and expenditure side. Primarily, the deficit is caused by the recycling program's failure to generate revenue. Chair Brown verified that $2.4 million would be a fairly constant amount. Chair Brown asked if this was going to be a tax increase and if the citizens would see what it was for. John Link said that the staff needs to talk through this first and bring it back. He asked Rod Visser to follow up and see if there are local governments that use a separate tax instead of availability fees. Chair Brown asked about the costs that have increased since the County took aver solid waste. She would like a report back on this. Commissioner Carey said that he noticed that all of these are fees and asked about the intricacies of tax versus fees. He would like to get same information from more experienced counties. Gayle Wilson said that they would rely on the legal staff for assistance in this. He said that they would try and find some governments that use district taxes. Commissioner Gordon said that this will not be cheap, but it will be a noticeable tax increase. She made reference to the statement, "failure to implement in 2003-04 could result in major program reductions" and said that we have to put it in a timeframe that is not too long. She said that this is not going to be good news to people. She would like to find a way to reduce prepackaged items. Chair Brown said that the LOG passed a resolution directly addressing this issue. It addressed prepackaging and it was based on a European model. Commissioner Jacobs said that we have a legislative goals subcommittee of this Board and they could have a legislative position about solid waste. He said that the Board could put together a package that could be forwarded to the Association of County Commissioners to say where we think we should be going as a local government and as a State. He also said that the County should publicize the recycling efforts on the trucks. John Link said that we should think about how we market our fee. He is more predisposed to a fee rather than a tax. He thinks there is potential to pursue this kind of model. Commissioner Halkiotis said that the only thing he remembers from the LOG studies is that they all came in around $100,000. He said that recycling is what citizens expect in this County and if we turn our backs on it, people would be upset. People are willing to pay if they know what they are getting. Chair Brown said that the Board would like to see the public education piece and the fee based issue and the legislative issues. 3. Action Plans for Lands Leaacy and Parks Development Environment and Resource Conservation Director David Stancil gave the presentation. The Board saw the annual action plan at the November 11`h work session. There is an 18-month plan instead of a 12-month plan that takes the plan through June 30, 2004. a. Lands Leaacv Annual Action Plan The annual action plan sets priorities of acquisitions for the next year On page six, an additional item #5 was added that speaks with collaboration with Duke and UNC on potential conservation easements and other efforts. David Stancil made reference to page nine and the summary and table of priorities. He then read the priorities. Commissioner Jacobs asked about the botanical garden and if it was being protected by the University. If not, then we would be protecting a property that is not being protected by the University. David Stancil said that it was not being protected by the University. Commissioner Jacobs would like to flag this and the University needs to have permanent formal protection of the property of the botanical garden, like with parts of Duke Forest. Rich Shaw said that the Botanical Garden Foundation has acquired land and conservation easements and has dedicated it as a State nature preserve. David Stancil said that they would recommend working with the Foundation. David Stancil continued with the presentation. He made reference to the Faucette Mill Historic Area and said that there are landowners in this area who are interested in banding together and pursuing donation of conservation easements. Regarding the Upper Eno Riparian Buffers, they would propose applying for a Clean Water Management Trust Fund Grant in June of this year to help fund this project. Commissioner Jacobs asked why it might be mare successful as a grant application. David Stancil said that they are in a position to have option agreements with same key landowners. Regarding future park sites, there are some additional sites in Bingham Township and north central Orange. Chair Brown asked about the sites. David Stancil said that these are proposed community parks, which are 25-74 acres. Commissioner Gordon said that she noticed that it was added on November 11th to work with UNC and Duke. She suggested that this be added an the matrix. David Stancil continued with talking about the accomplishments in the last couple of years. He made reference to page 15 and the new Triangle Land Conservancy State of Open Space 2002 Report. This has a special section on the Lands Legacy program. The recommendation tonight is to discuss the annual action plan and to adopt it. Commissioner Gordon made reference to page 13 and the public outreach. She thinks that we need to bump up the effort on public outreach because Orange County has done some astonishing things in the past two years. Commissioner Jacobs suggested that we highlight that we are opening up McGowan Creek Preserve and Little River Regional Park between 2002-2004. These are still goals, but they are highlights and achievements. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to the issue raised by Chair Brown about what a greenway is. He read from page six, number nine. He said that we might need to have our own definition of a greenway rather than being subject to others concepts. David Stancil said that we could work with the Intergovernmental Parks Work Group Greenways Committee. Also, in the 1999 Joint Master Recreation and Parks Report, there was a section on a rustic woodland trail as opposed to a greenway. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to page eight and the issue of school site co-location. He thinks that we need to re-examine our co-location policy because site based management of schools precludes the public from using these facilities for large periods of time. The theory is great. He would like to flag this to discuss in the near future. Chair Brown said that it could be added to the school standards. Commissioner Halkiotis asked to put two flags next to this because nothing has changed. Commissioner Jacobs suggested working toward a joint meeting with the schools on this issue. Commissioner Jacobs would like to invite the Morgan Creek Valley Alliance and the Friends of Bolin Creek on an agenda for them to make a brief presentation so the Board can know what they are doing. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to the River Park and said that it should be put back on the list of park facilities that we are doing something about. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to page 12 and working with OWASA. He does not remember the disposition of the discussions with OWASA. Chair Brown said that there is a very clear disposition on the mitigation tract and no development can be done there. OWASA may want to work with the County on other properties. Chair Brown made reference to page two and the missing link items. She said that we need to make sure that the whole 800 acres in Chapel Hill Township has its connections to the greenway and trail systems. Also, regarding the Smith Middle School fields, there was a report that Carrboro took over the use of it. She said that she just found the MOU with the schools and Carrboro and it is supposed to be a joint venture. The County and Carrboro are supposed to make a decision on the use of the field. Parks and Recreation Director Lori Taft said that she did send a draft of the proposed procedures. She said that none of them are adopted. Chair Brown gave her the MOU. She would like to keep our position solid on who is supposed to use the facility. John Link said that Carrboro has a new Parks and Recreation Director and we need to meet with the Acting Manager and take the opportunity to nail dawn the details of the agreement. Commissioner Gordon suggested writing a letter to Carrboro. Chair Brown made reference to page seven and the Smith Kohl House. This has been renovated and is up for sale. She talked with the people that renovated it and there is no interest in its historical preservation. The asking price is $985,000 and the land is ten acres. Chair Brown made reference to Lake Michael Park. She said that every year they ask for money. They asked for $140,000 and she would like for the Board to offer anything. John Link asked David Stancil and Lori Taft to work on this for capital for the current year. would be nice. Chair Brown does not propose to pay $140,000, but a small amount Commissioner Halkiotis said that it is a good gesture, but it needs to be in conjunction with the meetings with two County Commissioners, the Mayor, the Manager, and one member of their board. Commissioner Jacobs asked about the agreement with Lake Michael and if we have a written agreement. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to page two and the Chapel Hill Township Rustic Woodland Trail. He would like to mention the New Hape Corridor with this. Chair Brown said that we put the greenway out for the public and there is an expectation out there. The Board said that it was going to connect the two systems in Carrbara and Chapel Hill. She would like to stay with this idea. This item will be brought back an a consent agenda for adoption. b. Park Facility Plan (PFP) Process and Timetables David Stancil made reference to the new spreadsheet with the timetable. Page 29 is a suggested sequence of activities to begin the process for Cedar Grove Park, Efland-Cheeks Phase I I, and Fairview. They would like to prepare an interim facility and access plan to look at which of these sites might have limited access and facilities. This is for information only and will be adopted at a later meeting. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to page 23 and Fairview Park where Commissioners Halkiotis and Jacobs are the volunteers and on page 31 it says Commissioners Jacobs and Carey. Page 23 is correct and page 31 will be corrected. Chair Brown made reference to Cedar Grove and asked that the representative from the solar company come back and get serious about this. David Stancil said that one of the questions is whether to hold off on the park part for the building and try and do them together or go ahead and move forward with the park. Commissioner Halkiotis said that unless we start something up there nothing would happen at Northern Orange Center. He wants something to be done or he wants to come off the committee. Commissioner Gordon made reference to the Skills Development Center Pocket Park on page 25. She is very cognizant of steps and she noticed that it is dangerous over there. She would like for someone to look at the safety issues there with the steps. Chair Brown made reference to schools and said that she talked with the Chair of the CHCCS Board about proceeding with the third high school. The school board has not established that they are interested in working on a design for an urban high school. The standards committee has nothing to do until the school board decides that they want to do it. Her observation is that the school board is waiting for the Tawn of Chapel Hill to say whether the town will give them the park site. If so, then they are not interested in looking at urban designs. John Link said that based on the timeline from the school system in terms of building a school by August 2006, then a site needs to be identified by April but not necessarily acquired. John Link said that part of the discussion today at agenda review was how to address three major issues in February with one work session. One major issue, the pay and classification study, can be addressed at 5:30 p.m. on February 24t", which is the night of the quarterly public hearing. On February 26t" at the regular work session we could address where we are with school issues. Also on the 26t" the detail report on alternative financing could be addressed. Commissioner Halkiotis asked about the urban design and said that he thought they were looking at an urban design in the retrofit of the Lincoln Center. Chair Brown said that the southern high school site has funding and the Lincoln Center does not. Chair Brown said that the school board has no interest in an urban design for the high school in the southern part of the County. John Link is going to put together all of the options that have been brought before the Board from the very beginning and see how they fit into this timeframe that the school board has set up. Commissioner Gordon said that it is very clear from the October memo that the school system is talking about a 1,000-student comprehensive school. John Link said that the Board has $27.8 million dollars fora 1,000- student high school space. This money can be used for expansion of an existing high school or building a new high school. The Board has the ability to make this happen by 2006. The real issue for the school system is to define soon enough how the plan to provide the high school space needs so that the timetable can be met. Commissioner Jacobs said that they want a 1,000-student high school, but they also want to have the capacity to expand it to 1,500 with all of the facilities for 1,500 students. He said that when there was a meeting with the Mayor of Chapel Hill, it was clearly stated that we could do this with limited parking and maybe there could be a park and ride lot for students and teachers. The school board members who were there spoke in favor of this. Chair Brown said that when she met with Mayor Foy and Valerie Foushee, she completely agreed with this but her fellow board members did not agree. Commissioner Gordan asked if they discussed using the park at this meeting. Chair Brown said that they tried to figure out what the school board wanted. The board members are not as clear about the objectives. Commissioner Halkiotis asked when the Town was going to make a decision and Chair Brown said that it should be very soon. John Link said that it should be within the next couple of meetings. Commissioner Gordon said that it is not clear exactly what is being asked of the Town. She thinks that the school is interested in adjacent properties near a school site. 4. Issues from BOCC Retreat POSTPONED The meeting was adjourned at 10:00 p.m. Margaret Brown, Chair Donna S. Baker Clerk to the Board