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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 20031027APPROVED 2!1912004 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS WORK SESSION October 27, 2003 7:30 p.m. The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a Work Session on Monday, October 27, 2003 at the Southern Human Services Center, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Margaret W. Brown, Moses Carey, Jr., Alice M. Gordon, Stephen Halkiotis and Barry Jacobs COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr., Assistant County Managers Rod Visser and Gwen Harvey and Clerk to the Board Donna S. Baker (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. A motion was made by Commissioner Gordan, seconded by Commissioner Halkiotis to cancel the November 11, 2003 dinner meeting at 5:30 p.m. The meeting will begin at 7:30 p.m. VOTE: UNANIMOUS 1. Discussion of County Capital Proiects Jahn Link said that the tier approach outlined below offers a framework to guide Commissioner discussions related to various County capital projects. a. Tier 1 Projects -Projects That Require Funding Beyond the Currently Programmed Capital Funding Revenue Stream 1. Emergency Generators 2. Northern Human Services Center Commissioner Jacobs said that he would like to talk about same larger principles before discussing specific projects. For instance, he thinks it is time that the Board adopt some kind of environmental ethic for how to design buildings (i.e., green building, deconstruction). He would like for the Board to develop a principle to adopt that applies to all projects. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to openness and accountability. If the County is going to give large sums of money on an annual basis or on a one-time basis to any entity other than a County department, there should be some standards that require a level of openness and accountability. The SportsPlex and APS are good examples where this has fallen short. The third principle has to da with the ratio of money that is spent an education projects and County projects. In the last 15 years, 77°l0 of the funds have gone to schools and 23°~ have gone to County projects. He would like to consider a target. He thinks 77123 does not do justice to the other needs of the County. The Schools Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance is a tool to project what is absolutely essential for school construction. The last principle Commissioner Jacobs suggested is the idea of a construction manager, project manager, facilities coordinator, etc. for County capital projects, since there are so many projects going on. These are all umbrella issues that relate to specifics. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he generally agrees in principle with Commissioner Jacobson the issues, but he does not know why we need to put generators at 22 facilities for $1.25 million. He would not support that. He said that there are legitimate facilities that need them that deal with public safety. Generators are not needed in gyms, the Skills Development Center, and other similar places. These places do not need to be open during power outages. Commissioner Halkiotis made reference to combining the Heritage Center, a new library, and a document storage facility. These things have not been discussed by the Board. There is also a lot of misinformation about what the Board has approved regarding capital projects. This is troublesome to him. Commissioner Halkiotis also agrees with Commissioner Jacobs about the project manager, and that this person should report directly to the County Manager and no one else. This person should also be empowered to find ways to economize and make recommendations above and beyond anyone else's decision-making in the County. Commissioner Gordon agreed with looking at the issues brought up by Commissioner Jacobs. She added another one -the relative priority and possibly the target for mandated versus non-mandated County facilities. Jahn Link said that aside from schools and the justice facilities function, others are elective. Human services are mandated but not the specific facilities. The County is obligated to provide social services and health. Commissioner Gordon made reference to the generators and she thinks that it is important to have same generators in key facilities. She echoed Commissioner Halkiotis' concern about the generators. Commissioner Carey also agreed on the generators and he said that he was shocked at the list of generators. He suggested asking the Chair and the Manager to survey the Commissioners on what constitutes "key" facilities and then come back with a recommendation of which ones fit the definition of "key" and to come up with a priority list. John Link said that he would like to offer a priority list tonight and some generators need to be addressed this month before a weather incident occurs. The County Commissioners went through the priority list of facilities that need generators, as follows: Northern Human Services Center -first tier Public Works -first tier Orange Public Transit -second tier EMS Efland -second tier Southern Human Services Center -first tier Animal Shelter -first tier Franklin Street (Skills Development Center} -second tier Orange County EMS -first tier Jail -first tier Eno Mountain Tower -first tier Whiffed Center - a portion of the building -first tier Planning and Agriculture - a portion of the building -first tier Animal Control -second tier Government Services Center -first tier Government Services Center Annex -second tier Northside Buildings -second tier New courthouse and courthouse addition -second tier Commissioner Halkiotis asked about the generator at the jail. Sheriff Pendergrass said that the generator at the jail does not operate the entire facility. The Sheriff supports adding this generator at the jail. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he thinks this list is too much and that the County cannot afford it. Commissioner Jacobs agreed with Commissioner Halkiotis. However, he does not agree with the process to sort through the projects. He said that in the spring the Board agreed to have an analysis of which buildings could do without a generator or be taken off the grid. He is open to talking about mobile generators. Commissioner Carey said that he is not comfortable with this process, but he knows that there are some generators that may be needed now. He is comfortable with getting the three or four that may be needed now. He asked Commissioner Jacobs what it meant to be taken off the grid. Commissioner Jacobs said that it means to have a solar or alternative energy capability to switch to in case of an outage ar even to operate under. Commissioner Carey asked for more information. He realizes that we need to be prepared far this winter. Commissioner Carey made reference to Commissioner Jacobs' list and an environmental ethic. Commissioner Jacobs said that he was going to bring this up at the retreat about doing an environmental assessment of County operations top to bottom {how the sinks and toilets use water, fuels used, how buildings are built, etc.). Commissioner Carey asked for clarification on the point about percentage of funds spent on education versus County needs. Commissioner Jacobs explained this point further. Chair Brawn said that the priority list for generators needs to be fleshed out. She is also confused because at the last Social Services Board meeting, the DSS Director said that Smith Middle School was going to be a shelter and it is not even an the list. She does not understand how this is funded. Rod Visser said that Smith Middle School is wired for a shelter. The big reason why Smith did not come on line is because of the roads being so narrow and so many trees being dawn. The decision was made on the spot during last year's ice storm to go to Woollen Gym on the UNC campus because it was easier to access. And Smith Middle School is generator- ready. John Link said that he would come back with a recommendation. He asked for a general threshold to spend far this year for addressing basic County services in the event of an emergency outage. The first threshold will probably be $200-300,000. Commissioner Gordan would like to have critical government functions and emergency services. Commissioner Halkiotis said that there are governments and private organizations an the west coast that are generating their awn electricity and selling it back. He would like to study this. Chair Brown said that doing an analysis of our buildings is fine, but there is no one on staff that could do this. A consultant would have to come in and do this work. A motion was made by Commissioner Jacobs, seconded by Commissioner Halkiotis to ask staff to come back with a proposal for a consultant to analyze County facilities as to the applicability of generators versus other energy sources and to analyze energy alternatives, including cast projections. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Chair Brown made reference to accountability and said that she is interested in clarifying how to work with non-profits. She would like to upgrade the policy if there is one. Commissioner Gordon would like to see the policy written out. She thinks openness and accountability should obviously be included in the policy. A motion was made by Commissioner Gordon, seconded by Commissioner Jacobs to charge the staff to came up with a policy for openness and accountability far capital projects and contracts. John Link said that the County Attorney should also look at to what extent the County can prevail with expectations upon boards of non-profits in terms of how they operate. Commissioner Jacobs suggested that there be a qualification for new construction and developing some environmental standards (efficient use of water, etc.}. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Chair Brown made reference to the Northern Human Services Center. She said that there are legitimate reasons for why the center is at the place that it is now. John Link said that the Board is making incremental positive movement forward on the building front and the park front. The question is, as it relates to money, how to fund the building. The park is funded. Commissioner Jacobs asked for clarification on tier one projects and Budget Director Donna Dean explained. Rod Visser said that they were asking for guidance from the Board about its priorities. Chair Brown said, regarding the Northern center, that the Board is waiting for a report back from the architect. There are some things that could be done this year such as enclosing the breezeway, revamping office space, and upgrading sinks. Purchasing and Central Services Director Pam Jones said that attachment ten is the proposal from Mike Nicklas and it would be helpful to correlate the items that the Board wants to pursue with this proposal. Commissioner Gordan said that she found the information in the packet fragmented and she asked for a priority listing and a possible phasing. Also, she does not understand how this fits into the debt capacity. Rod Visser said that the staff wanted to hear the Board's priorities and then they would go back and crunch the numbers for the debt capacity. Chair Brown said that they have the money to go ahead with the park and to expand athletic facilities. Then the office space could be redone to make it more efficient and then later we can redo the library and the computer lab. Also, the daycare could be consolidated atone end to make it mare efficient. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he would like to wait and see how much the grant is. He would be hesitant to enclose the breezeway because Mike Nicklas may have something else in mind. Chair Brown asked if the Board wanted to use Innovative Designs to develop energy saving systems for the building. The proposal from the staff does not involve energy savings. Commissioner Halkiotis said that this would be a wise investment. A motion was made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded by Commissioner Jacobs to put the proposal from Mike Nicklas, from Innovative Designs, on the consent agenda. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Commissioner Jacobs agreed with Commissioner Gordon in that he would like to know the debt capacity before making decisions. Chair Brown said that the Northern Human Services Center is on the priority list to do as soon as possible. John Link said that the County will be able to finance the Northern center once they know the numbers. He said that since the citizens are interested in moving forward, he thinks that decisions on the cafeterialkitchen will need to be made next year. The interest in the community has been a large meeting area with a kitchen. Chair Brown asked to put a placeholder for this kitchen/cafeteria in the numbers. 3. Animal Shelter John Link said that they need to find a location and build a new shelter by 2006. The question is how much money to set aside and over what period of time. Donna Dean said that they have $425,000 set aside in 2005-2006 in the CIP, and if the shelter will be open in 2006 then they will need money sooner. There is also an unfunded section. The total for the whole facility is $2.8 million. Chair Brown asked if the Board needed to approve the $2.8 million tonight. Rod Visser said that they could show it as an alternative financing piece and it would be worked into the debt capacity calculations. Commissioner Jacobs suggested putting it in as a placeholder, but the task force was supposed to discuss the type of programming for the shelter. This will drive some of the cost. Chair Brown said that she would want a budget and for the task farce to work within the budget. Commissioner Halkiotis asked about a rough square footage and Donna Dean said 19,000 square feet. Commissioner Carey said that a placeholder would be appropriate just far planning purposes, and it could always be adjusted down. He would like to give the staff some direction and put in some figure now to hold the place. Commissioner Gordon would like to scrutinize the projections to find out if it is a reasonable amount of money. She suggested putting a placeholder with an unknown dollar amount. Chair Brown and Commissioner Carey would like to put a specific amount as the placeholder. Commissioner Halkiotis asked for information on the capacity of the existing shelter, the projected one, and why it changed. Chair Brown would also like to get in touch with Greensboro and Wake County (they have just built shelters) and review their requirements and costs. 4. SportsPlex John Link said that there will be an upcoming meeting for the Board to address this issue. b. Tier 2 Projects -Planned Projects That Need to Be Programmed Into the BOCC Approved September 3, 2002 Debt Issuance Schedule Donna Dean said that they had changed Elementary #10 from bond funding to alternative financing, they added Chapel Hill-Carrboro City High School #3, and they added Whiffed Human Services Center Renovations. She reiterated that there are placeholders far the Northern Human Services Center and the Animal Shelter. They will bring this back at a future work session with the numbers. 1. Whitted Human Services Center Renovations 2. Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Elementary #10 3. Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools High School #3 4. Other Projects Approved By BOCC Tonight Commissioner Jacobs asked for clarity on the justice facilities and the farmer's market. He said that there is not even a timeline. Pam Jones explained the timeframe. Commissioner Jacobs said that he would like a schedule for the justice facilities and a timeline because it has changed from a year ago. The Board has not seen or adopted a schedule. He would like to be able to tell the Sheriff and the judges when things will happen. Pam Janes said that what has driven this timeline has been other projects. They will get the architect selection group together in the next month to review the RFP. She is in the process of putting together an RFP. Commissioner Jacobs asked for the timeline to be put in writing. It will be put in the Manager's memo. Commissioner Gordon said that the Board should accept the "Easter egg" sheet entitled Debt Issuance Schedule by Fiscal Year. Donna Dean said that they would come back with apay-as-you-go for the immediate needs for generators. They are also looking for homeland security grant funds to help match for the generators. c. Tier 3 Projects -County Commissioner Proposed Projects Not Currently Programmed into the County's Capital Funding Revenue Stream 1. Pre-K Facility Chair Brown said that Michele Rivest will be coming to the November 2Qt" meeting and will give the Board an understanding as to what pre-K facilities are all about and how they work in North Carolina. She did the cost estimate in the packet. She said that they need to hear that report from her first. She said that if the Commissioners feel that this is a good idea, she thinks this is an excellent item for collaboration for the two school systems. It could be a big money saver because the space used throughout the County for this program takes up almost an entire school. Commissioner Jacobs asked if this had to be a stand alone facility. If it is not, he would propose athree-story building for the one central office with apre-K facility on the ground floor. Also, he would like to consider having daycare as part of it (daycare for staff or affordable daycare). John Link said that this might be better addressed by Michele Rivest. Commissioner Carey would like to know what impact this would have on the SAPFO thresholds. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he would like to know how many classrooms this proposal is and how many children will be served. He said that this is a great opportunity far collaboration at a minimum cast. Commissioner Gordon said that she thinks we need to inform the school systems that we are considering this and how they think this would fit in as a courtesy. She would like to invite the school systems on November 20`" John Link will let the superintendents know. He will also give an update on the number of rooms used far pre-K and how many children at each site and where they are located. 2. Heritage Center 3. Library (relocation} Chair Brown said that these two items were linked together. Commissioner Jacobs said that someone should look at the issue of whether a library makes sense to co-locate. The Library Task Force looked briefly at the idea of co- locating with the community college, but no one has done an analysis. Before a collaboration with the community college goes too far, we need to make sure that Durham Tech would be comfortable with it. Information such as the additional costs, square footage, etc. is needed. He suggested making this part of a capital project -either the community college or Whitted expansion or an existing building. Also, the Heritage Center idea could be folded in regarding local history and archiving some historical materials. Chair Brown said that she likes the idea of putting these two together -the Heritage Center and the library. She is also in favor of having the library with the community college because it is so compatible. Commissioner Gordon said that the Board has not decided yet to do these and the analyses are needed first. She wants to know what the community college is going to put in there anyway. She wants to know how much Durham Tech will put in for a library and if they would like to partner. Commissioner Carey agreed with Commissioner Gordon. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he would like to see collaboration and/or co- lacation with the community college. It is difficult to get two organizations to work together. John Link suggested that there be two point people as this is pursued -Library Director Brenda Stephens and whomever Dr. Phail Wynn (DTCC President} designates -and to refer this as an exploratory opportunity. He thinks the more time that is spent on this to explore the possibilities, the better. In the short-term, the library will be moving back to Whitted. d. Tier 4 Projects -Potential Future County Projects That Require Funding Beyond the Currently Programmed Capital Funding Revenue Stream 1. Emergency Services Communications Infrastructure Rod Visser said that they had consultants and there is $40,000 to begin phase 2 of this plan. He said that this is an unfunded project and they will work with the same consultant and this is now underway. Commissioner Halkiotis asked about the facility upgrade. Kent McKenzie said that the current location could be anywhere in the County (but atone time it was landlocked to phone lines}. 2. Other County Space Needs Identified in the March 2000 County Space Needs Study Commissioner Jacobs made reference to attachment 4 -Orange County Agricultural Center. He asked for a placeholder for this. Chair Brown said that this has morphed into something different than the one from 20 years ago. She said that Agricultural Extension should be involved in this. Commissioner Jacobs said that they are on the list to use the facility. He said that Environment and Resource Conservation Director Dave Stancil was at the meetings and the original idea was to co-locate all of the farm services under one roof. Dave Stancil said that Cooperative Extension Director Fletcher Barber is very involved. fed beef. Commissioner Jacobs said that Mike Lanier said that there is an interest in grass Chair Brown asked haw to develop niche markets. Commissioner Gordon asked about the little building at the Southern Human Services Center being turned into a conference center. John Link said that he would like for the Board of County Commissioners to reinstate their support for this project. The Board agreed. Commissioner Jacobs said that he would like to follow Chapel Hill to set aside 1 °fo for public art. Commissioner Jacobs said that he is looking at all capital projects and whether that is a model they want to follow completely. If it is worthy on that project, then it should be on others. Chair Brown suggested bringing this back for discussion at the January retreat. e. Tier 5 Projects -Projects With Identified Funding Sources to Be Scheduled far Discussion at Future BOCC Meetings or Work Sessions 1. Affordable Housing 2. Efland Sewer Extension 3. Lands Legacy 4. Recreation, Parks and Open Space {to include Soccer Superfundj 5. Senior Centers Rod Visser said that these are projects that they will be talking about at a later date and will be added to future work sessions and/or the Board retreat in January. Chair Brown said that she is going back to a couple of the suggestions that Commissioner Jacobs brought up at the beginning of the meeting as far it relates to the idea of having a project manager an staff full time. In her opinion, this is not feasible but instead the County could contract with a project manager. John Link said that they would come back with suggestions/proposals. Commissioner Halkiotis said that there has been sharing of project managers between entities and this might be an option to look at. Chair Brown said that the ratio of the percentage of funds that goes to the schools and the County issue is an important one and she asked Commissioner Jacobs to bring back a written outline and when staff brings back total indebtedness, they can discuss this further. Commissioner Jacobs said that only 213 of the funding now is for new school construction and Commissioner Carey said that the rest is used for whatever they want. Chair Brown asked if numbers could possibly be misused and Commissioner Halkiotis said that of course they can. Commissioner Gordon said that in the County's awn planning they can have targets for budget and they have to look at what they can afford. With no further items to discuss, a motion was made by Commissioner Gordon, seconded by Commissioner Halkiotis to adjourn the meeting at 10:05 p.m. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Margaret Brown, Chair Donna S. Baker Clerk to the Board