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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 20040212APPROVED 04/20/2004 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS WORK SESSION FEBRUARY 12, 2004 5:30 -Dinner 6:00- Meeting The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a Work Session on Thursday, February 12, 2004 at 5:30 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Barry Jacobs and Commissioners Margaret Brown, Moses Carey, Jr., Alice M. Gordon, and Stephen Halkiotis COUNTY ATTORNEY PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill, Sean Borhanian 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} Chair Jacobs welcomed everyone and asked for any additions to the agenda, and there were none. NOTE: ALL DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THESE MINUTES ARE IN THE PERMANENT AGENDA FILE IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE 1. Soccer Sunerfund - Palicv and Guidelines Chair Jacobs said that Recreation and Parks Director Lori Taft tried to highlight the issues raised at the last meeting and incorporated the changes. Lori Taft said that she asked that the Board look at this again and discuss the issues raised last time. She asked for any comments and clarifications. She would like to resolve these issues and bring it to a consent agenda at the next regular meeting. Commissioner Gordon said that she had suggested putting in language that is less prescriptive but still allows for half of the monies to be used for amulti-county soccer park of at least six fields. She said that they could still do this, but she did not want it to be so specific. She suggested the following wording: "The Board of County Commissioners may reserve approximately one-half of the total fund far a soccer park of at least six fields." Chair Jacobs made reference to #2 where it says, "facilities constructed for matching grants for qualified private, non-profit," and he suggested saying "or public entities." Commissioner Gordon made reference to the matching grant recipients and said she would like to discuss whether to provide grants to private non-profits when there is only $2 million. She would like to just talk about qualified public entities, excluding schools. She would rather not get into the private agencies this time through. Commissioner Halkiotis said that this is not a huge pool of money to develop soccer fields, and he thinks that he would feel better with developing a soccer complexlpark and maximizing the funds. He is worried about a public purpose. He wants to know how to really guarantee public access and opportunity when there is a matching grant process with a private entity. He said that if the County owns the fields and Recreation and Parks manages them, then it is the County's decision. Commissioner Carey agreed with Commissioner Halkiatis. He said that these comments are consistent with what was said at the last meeting, regarding striking the language in 1A about constructing fields on private land. He said that it depends on whether this policy is focused only on the current funds available or if it will apply beyond the current funds. If this policy is only for the funds available now, then he would like to strike all the language about matching grants. Commissioner Brown said that striking #2 would be good and using the money to construct public fields for the County that are open to the public. Geof Gledhill said that the way that this is written, it does not mean that the facilities have to be built on private land. It is written such that the County could provide the land and a soccer group could agree to develop the property. The matching money might help to develop the facilities. Commissioner Gordon said that she knew this when she made her comments, and she stands by them. Chair Jacobs said that this is a policy that he sees extending beyond the $2 million. He would like to leave the opportunity open on a case by case basis to create partnerships with private entities that may have money and may want to help build a soccer field. Lori Taft said that if all of this language is struck in terms of private non-profits, there is still a lot of opportunities to interact with these agencies. Commissioner Carey said that he thinks that leaving the language in does provide the County with more flexibility. He said that even if the language is left in, the Board does not have to approve anything that it does not want to approve. Commissioner Brown said that a private agency would have a very strong sense of ownership and it will be very confusing for scheduling, etc. She would prefer to leave this item out of the policy. The agency could donate money without the County obligating itself to their needs. Commissioner Gordon said that she supports what Commissioner Brown said and that there could be expectations from groups that provide funds. She suggested that these policy guidelines should be specified for the $2 million for now, and then the policy could be amended if needed. She would like to have this limited to public entities for now. Chair Jacobs said that when they did the Soccer Symposium Task Force and report, all of this was addressed. He thinks that leaving the language in would be inconsistent with what was said and he does not think the County would be obligated to da anything that it would not want to do. Commissioner Brown said that if her memory serves her then, she does not remember encouraging anyone to become partners. She thought that the Board asked far a survey of the soccer groups to see what the needs were and the composition of the groups. She said that it was clear that there were very few women involved and it cost a lot of money to join the clubs and get the equipment. She was impressed with the survey that the groups did not really serve a lot of purposes far a lot of people in Orange County. She said that she has received several emails from some of the clubs almost demanding the new soccer fields. All of the emails were from out of County people. She thinks there could be a lot of misunderstanding. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he remembers the issues that were discussed about the survey. He asked for the information from the Soccer Symposium Task Force report to be pulled and reviewed. Commissioner Brown agreed with Commissioner Gordan and all of the money needs to be for funding far what the county wants to develop now. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he agrees with Chair Jacobs now with respect to having opportunities with other public entities. He made reference to the proposal from the Planning Director about soccer fields next to the new middle school. There could be a joint agreement with the school system about using the parking lots and the fields at the school. It should be stated upfront and put in writing. Chair Jacobs said that the policy says to exclude schools. He asked if Cammissioner Halkiotis was suggesting to take this away. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he thinks they should keep schools in mind and not preclude other public groups. Commissioner Gordon agreed with adding schools back in. Commissioner Brown said that maybe there should be one page outlining what a relationship would be with both private entities and with schools. Chair Jacobs suggested having bullet points instead of a template and use the Smith Middle School contract as an example, and have a series of bullets that deal with schools, municipalities, or private entities. Commissioner Brown asked if they were going to use this $2 million for other places such as the Northern Human Services Center. She thinks there are other places such as the new middle school. Chair Jacobs said that #8 on page five supports this in that the Northern Human Services Center wauld be covered by this money. Commissioner Gordon made reference to #8 and said that she thought the Commissioners asked for a list of the previously approved projects. Lori Taft said that Southern Community Park was the only one that would not be included. Commissioner Brown asked about #2F and if this was saying that we would be using public money to build fields on private land. Geof Gledhill said that this could be changed to "if". This statement will be taken out, because the Board decided not to build fields on private lands. Chair Jacobs said that Lori Taft could come back at the next meeting with two different #2's - one referring to only public agencies and one referring to public and private agencies. Lori Taft made reference to the ownership of land issue and if matching grants were provided to schools and asked if Orange County would have to own land or if the Board of Education could. John Link said that as long as there is an agreement between the County and the entity would not matter who owns the land. Commissioner Halkiotis said that these buildings and lands belong to all of the people of the County. Chair Jacobs said that Smith Middle School and the field are built on the University's land. Commissioner Gordon asked about free and clear ownership and said that it might be good for the entities to have this. Geof Gledhill said that it also limits the ability to use alternative financing. Chair Jacobs said that this will come back one mare time with bullet paints about what would be in the agreement with an agency and then two different #2 scenarios. Commissioner Gordon said that they agreed that this would be for the $2 million. Chair Jacobs said that subsequent Board of Commissioners could have another bond issue, general fund monies, or a new policy. 2. Consideration of Work Session an February 23. 2004 Craig Benedict said that there are no items for the quarterly public hearing on the 23rd and they are considering the discussion of two other items: --agriculture business alternatives to diversify the farm economy --Comprehensive Plan Land Use Element update Regarding the comprehensive plan, the staff took it to a presentation advisory board and received some feedback. This was a group of about 20 residents. The Planning Board has also looked at the proposal to provide input. These are presentation issues only. Next week they are having an outreach pre-run of what they expect from the upcoming township meetings. Commissioner Halkiotis asked about the recommended permitting process and if there is a check and balance system to make sure that we are optimizing flexibility in doing these things and helping people change their agricultural focus. For example, transitioning from tobacco to something different. He said that there has to be a happy medium. He said that they have lost a couple of businesses that felt that they could not expand in Orange County. He said that they have been through the success story of the Maple View Farm process and it was a tortuous process. He would like to help these people. He said that we need to bring in all the permitting people and streamline this process to show people that the County wants to help them. He made reference to an article put out by NaCo regarding eight big things that are facing counties all over the country, and disconnect is one of them. He asked that this article be copied for the next department head meeting. He wants to put together a permitting process for the residents that they can understand and that will help them. Chair Jacobs said that there was a brochure that was done that walked people through the process and that ought to come with this. He said that they had a meeting with Mr. Nutter {Maple View Farms) and Portia McKnight {cheese operation} and they made suggestions about streamlining the process. He would like to share this thinking. Craig Benedict said that he agrees that farms operate differently today and that there are a lot of new things coming down the line and the County needs to adapt. Commissioner Brown said that there is also an increase of people using rural property far bike racing, etc. She asked haw to protect neighboring properties. Craig Benedict said that this will be another discussion. It is related to the use and enjoyment of someone's property. This is an indication of changing times. Commissioner Brown asked if this interacts with the noise ordinance and Craig Benedict said that they work with the Sheriff's office. However, the noise ordinance relates to continuous noise and a retying motorcycle does not qualify. He will give an update on this at a later time. Chair Jacobs said that Craig Benedict will try and get audio and video tapes from the focus group meetings as well as census tract data. Commissioner Halkiotis said that there are a lot of really nice horse farms in central and northern Orange County. The average house size in northern Orange County is also increasing. Craig Benedict said that the last part of the comprehensive plan will be the timeframe that they are seeking with outreach and compilation of information. The Board agreed to having a work session in place of the QPH on February 23rd 3. Breastfeeding Education and Support ProgramlExpanded Food & Nutrition Education Program Cooperative Extension Director Fletcher Barber introduced Mary Rose Tully, Director of Lactation Services at UNC Hospital; and Alice Pettit, Family and Consumer Educator and immediate supervisor far this program. He thanked the Board an behalf of the participants of this program and for allowing it to continue for two months. They would like to extend the program for four more months. They have made progress in receiving additional funds. Mary Rose Tully said that she started out working at Wake Med and was one of the founders of this program there. She said that it is important for babies to breastfeed for at least six months. Many women start and then feel frustrated at home and the poorer women do not have access to help. This is why they developed the in-home visit program. The women who do the home visits are all women who have been law-income eligible themselves and have breastfed their own children. These women are well-trained and they do not want to lose them. She said that at UNC Hospital, they have seen a decrease in the number of readmissions of babies with hyper-bilirubinemia and with poor weight gain because when babies are having problems, the mothers call the breastfeeding support person and she goes to the home and helps the mother. There are also lactation consultants at the hospital. She gave some statistics of program participants. Program participants tend to breastfeed longer and more exclusively than non- participants. At six months, 48°l0 of the participants in the state are still breastfeeding. Only 12°~ of non-program participants who are on WIC and law-income eligible are still breastfeeding after six months. She said that UNC Hospitals felt that this program was important enough to give in-kind support to this program. The Nutrition Network requires that there be a local match of 100°~, and most of the match is provided by UNC Hospitals. Commissioner Halkiotis asked Mary Rase Tully to profile this group of women Mary Rose Tully said that 60°~ of babies born at UNC Hospitals every year are low-income eligible. And of those, aver half are Spanish-speaking. They are immigrants and many are working at minimum wage jabs and do not have a good connection with the health care system. They are not welfare moms; they are working but not making a lot of money. They are often not living close to their families and they are typically young and maybe having their first or second child. They do not have a lot of education. She said it is so much better when you have someone that speaks the language. Commissioner Halkiotis said that Health Director Rosemary Summers had given them a report two years ago about folic acid and babies. This is a very inexpensive supplement. He said that these are the people that da not know how to lobby and this supplement for them was taken away by the State. Mary Rose Tully told a story about how she saw one of the clients that works at a Mexican restaurant and the woman was so pleased by the help she received from the program. She said that her baby had never been into the clinic for a sickness. She said that there are statistics that show that babies who are breastfed far the first six months had an average of 11 doctor visits in the first year and babies who were formula fed had an average of 18 doctor visits in the first year. Alice Pettit said that there is also the expanded nutrition assistance program along with the lactation program. She said that they also get referrals from other agencies in the County. Commissioner Halkiotis said that it was wonderful that he was involved in a program with different groups teaching kids haw to eat healthy in the school system. He said that this is the kind of stuff that communities and schools should be doing and he commended this breastfeeding program. Commissioner Brown asked how they lost their funding and Mary Rose Tully said that they do not know exactly, but there were changes at the federal level for how nutrition funds were allocated. The funds for this program come out of the food stamp program. They were told that a new panel of people is now deciding how food stamp money is going to be used and someone decided that breastfeeding belonged in nursing, which is in maternal/child health care. There were also some things that happened at N. C. State. N. C. State has now put through a new application on the Fast Track. They think they might get some funding back because these are non-competitive dollars. Chair Jacobs said that their legislative goals subcommittee met today and they talked about whether it would be useful to ask the congress to look into restoring this funding. He said that there could be a joint letter from the Board of County Commissioners and the Department of Lactation Services at UNC Hospitals and explain this program and why it is valuable. Mary Rase Tully said that she would be happy to work on this. A motion was made by Commissioner Gordan, seconded by Commissioner Halkiotis to approve the Manager's recommendation to approve the continued funding of the four positions attached to EFNEP within Cooperative Extension through June 30, 2004 at a total cost of $35,000, with funds to be transferred form the Human Services Safety Net. VOTE: UNANIMOUS 4. New Initiatives a} Environmental Responsibility Goal for County Government b) Social Justice Goal for County Government c) Creation of Orange Unified Transportation Advisory Board DEFERRED 5. Appointments aj Adult Care Home Community Advisory Committee A motion was made by Commissioner Brown, seconded by Commissioner Gordon to appoint Francis Koven to a one-year training term to expire March 31, 2005. VOTE: UNANIMOUS b) Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau A motion was made by Commissioner Carey, seconded by Commissioner Gordon to appoint Mr. Mark Sherbourne and Ms. Edith Wiggins for terms expiring December 31, 2006. VOTE: UNANIMOUS c) Commission for the Environment A motion was made by Commissioner Gordon, seconded by Commissioner Brown to appoint Mark Ginsburg to position #13 for a term to expire December 31, 2006, and to continue advertising for position #7 for more diversity. Chair Jacobs suggested appointing Mark Ginsburg to position #7 for a term to expire December 31, 2004, since he resigned from another board after only one year. Commissioner Gordan agreed with this. The Clerk will advertise far position #13. VOTE: UNANIMOUS d} Library Services Task Force A motion was made Commissioner Carey, seconded by Commissioner Gordon to appoint Commissioner Jacobs to the BOCC position on this task force and to also change the composition titles for the board of education representatives and the municipalities' representatives to specify school board or town board designee. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Break - 5 minutes 6. Commissioner Proposals on Equal Opportunity in Education Rod Visser said that the last time the Board of County Commissioners talked about this was at the December 9t" meeting where they continued their discussion of the four proposals that were previously presented at the November 11`" work session. Commissioner Carey put forward a new proposal at the December 9t" meeting and Commissioner Gordan clarified her proposal by adding the rationale for the proposal. The Board talked about making some decisions on how to move forward from this point. It was scheduled for the retreat, but the Board was unable to address it. In the packet are the various proposals and a verbatim transcript of the December 9t" discussion and an answer to how the dollars in a countywide supplemental tax would be distributed to the school systems on a per pupil basis. Chair Jacobs said at their places is a salmon sheet with a memo from Commissioner Brown and a yellow sheet from Rod Visser concerning Commissioner proposals on equal opportunities in education and the formation of an Educational Excellence Committee. Rod Visser made reference to the yellow sheet and said that a couple of the proposals from the County Commissioners had to do with the creation of an Educational Excellence task force. Other proposals included verifying the efficiency of the utilization of resources. The suggestion was made to staff to touch base with the Public School Forum. He said that he touched base with the Executive Director, who was aware of the County's merger discussions. He said that the Public School Forum does not get involved in merger discussions. The Executive Director did express interest in studying equal access to quality education. He said that the Executive Director brought up the term "school collaboration" and that the Public School Forum had been engaged by the Gates Foundation to administer $11 million worth of grants for public education initiatives in North Carolina. The Public School Forum is very interested in pursuing the middle college program and there could be some grant funding for this. Commissioner Carey made reference to his proposal in November and said that he is not going to ask the Board to vote an merger tonight. He said that he is still interested in pursuing equal funding far both school systems and equal opportunities for educational achievement for all children in Orange County. The other proposal that he made in December was to submit to the voters for a public referendum the option of merger or a countywide district tax. He thinks that this is an interesting possibility and he gathers this will not be easy and that the Board may not have the legislative authority to do this. He asked for the County Attorney's perspective on this. Geaf Gledhill said that a County Commissioner initiated merger does not provide for a referendum, but a board of education initiated merger can call for a referendum. The third way to accomplish merger is through the General Assembly. If the General Assembly were asked to approve a bill which would enable Orange County to hold an election on merger, then an election could be held. There is no inherent authority in Boards of County Commissioners to hold elections. He said that a bill having an election on merger would probably not pass the rules of a General Assembly far a short session because these types of bills in short session cannot be controversial. John Link asked if there was any additional legislative requirement that would have to be in place prior to the County Commissioners adopting a countywide supplemental tax. Geof Gledhill said that there is authority for an election for a countywide supplemental tax. Commissioner Gordon referred to her proposal on December 9t" and said that she still supports this proposal. She would like far the Board of County Commissioners to give direction to staff about a countywide supplemental tax at some upcoming election, perhaps in November. She made reference to page 14 and said that they would need to explain to the voters why the tax was being put in. Equity would need to be defined as well as the total tax increase necessary to achieve equity. The Board would also have to set the maximum tax rate. She said that there would also have to be an educational campaign to explain what is involved. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he is intrigued by a countywide supplemental tax, but he would not give one penny more to either school district until they have carried out the proposed school efficiency study in conjunction with the proposed educational excellence evaluation. He said that the Board has a responsibility to look at this because it is public money. Commissioner Brown said that she is in favor of pursuing the three recommendations that have to do with the analysis piece and the collaboration effort with Andy Sachs. She distributed a salmon sheet, which is shown below: MEMORANDUM To: Board of County Commissioners From: Commissioner Brown Date: February 12, 2004 RE: Commissioner Proposals on Equal Opportunity in Education Madeleine Grumet, UNC Professor of Education George Noblit, and I met with Bill Friday on December 11t" at Mr. Friday's office to discuss the formation of an Educational Excellence Committee to work with UNC's School of Education faculty. Mr. Friday would be a member of this working committee along with Ms.Grumet and Professor Noblit . Neither Mr. Friday nor Ms. Grumet would be chairing this group; however, they would be actively involved and would provide direction and guidance in formulating the objectives far a report to be brought back to the Commissioners in a timely manner. The next scheduled meeting with Mr. Friday will be March 17t" at Mr. Friday's office. Other individuals included in this meeting will be Commissioner Jacobs, Commissioner Brown, John Link, Rod Visser, Ms. Grumet and Professor Noblit. At this meeting, the group will recommend a chair for this committee. At the meeting in December, it was decided that it would be important if the Cammissioners could develop a series of questions, topics, and other interest areas that this committee could review and use to develop a proposal for the scope of work based on the Commissioners' input. Please forward to the Clerk to the Board, in writing, any questions, topics or other interest areas that you would like to present to this committee, no later than March 5t" Thank you. She said that the question is what this study wauld actually study. She made reference to a meeting with President Friday. The first thing would be for each Commissioner to write down concerns and expectations for such a study. She asked that the concerns be given to the Clerk by March 5t" for their March 17t" meeting. She would like to understand the salaries of the teachers and personnel. She would also like to know how teachers are hired. She would like to see thane comparisons. Also, she would like to see the availability and differences of library books. She said that President Friday suggested John Dornan might be a good person to talk to. Chair Jacobs asked her if she wanted to invite him to the next meeting on March 17t" and Commissioner Brawn said yes. Chair Jacobs asked her if she proposed to have staff as a supportive capacity or as participants in the study. Commissioner Brown said that Rod Visser and John Link need to be there because they are the most knowledgeable and Chair Jacobs has the most communication with schools. Chair Jacobs said that he agrees with Commissioner Brown and Commissioner Halkiotis. He thinks that the next steps would be to create the Educational Excellence Task Force, continue with the collaboration work, and look at the school system operations from an efficiency and business standpoint. Chair Jacobs said that he supports a countywide supplemental tax in theory. He would not be willing to endorse a tax before he knows if we need it. He thinks there is a general agreement that this is the direction that the Board might go. He thinks that three County Commissioners are not ready to go there now. Chair Jacobs made reference to the work group and said that they have made progress on the collaboration discussions, including identifying points of collaboration ideas in the past years. They put the ideas on a grid and each school system and the County Commissioner representatives put yes or no for each. The County Commissioners voted yes for each one. There were only two that the school systems said no to. The school systems both said yes to the idea of looking at operational efficiencies as a collaborative effort. He said that he got a positive sense that this will work and it can be done with full cooperation. The other point that was raised by the two school board chairs is that they bath felt that the superintendents should be involved in the Educational Excellence Task Farce. He thinks this would be a good gesture toward the school boards and improve the quality of the work to include the superintendents. Commissioner Brown said that this is a Commissioner proposal and she would like to make sure all of the County Commissioners' concerns are brought forward and any suggestions that could be done by the school of education would be appropriate. Commissioner Carey asked about the composition of this educational excellence work group. He said that everybody agrees that we need to pursue education excellence, and he wants this for all students of the County regardless of where they live. He said that there are some people that feel that finances are not related to educational excellence and there are those that do. He supports having a group of people looking at educational quality and what is meant by equal opportunity in education. He has questions about the timeframe and composition of the work group. He asked if questions about merger would be left on the table for the group to discuss. Commissioner Brawn said that direct questions about merger are not appropriate to this committee. She said that Mr. Dornan has been asked several times about merger and he notes this. Commissioner Carey said that he knows that some of the people in the committee do not want to talk about merger. Commissioner Brown said that the questions that the Board of County Commissioners wants to look at with this committee can be looked at. Commissioner Carey asked how the issues of finance play into this. Commissioner Brawn wants to make sure that they craft a good proposal and to propose this to the Public School Forum. Commissioner Halkiotis said that just within the last two years, they received the best report of haw non-Orange County departmental funding organizations have been using money that Orange County gives them. The total amount of money given to non-public departments and agencies is about $1.5 million. It has taken a long time to get feedback from these groups for only $1.5 million. He said that they should take it a step further and look at all Orange County students (charter and private schools) because it is all under the umbrella of resources. Commissioner Gordon said that she would support the school efficiency study. She wants to make it clear why the school systems need the money. She said that it seems to her that the merger issue was raised because of the funding disparity due to the district tax in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro and not in the Orange County Schools. There is a big disparity, and what she heard the public say was to correct the funding disparity. She was convinced that something should be done as soon as possible and that is why she thought the supplemental tax should be pursued. She said that she does not understand haw the Commissioners intend to address the funding disparity in the short term by setting up these groups. She is concerned because she does not see an end paint where the funding disparity is going to be fixed. She wants clarification concerning how many groups are being proposed. Chair Jacobs said that he thinks there are three groups: The first is the collaboration group - two school board chairs, County Commissioner Chair, superintendents, County Manager and Andy Sachs. The two school boards are going to work together with the idea that there will be something on an interim basis coming back at the joint work session toward the end of April that will give some ideas on what the two systems think they can collaborate on. The second group is about efficiency in operations. He would think that the County staff would work with the staff of the school systems. The third group is the Educational Excellence Task Force, which will come back with a charge and timeline. He would add that there is a fourth point of a supplemental tax and what it would look like. John Link said that he would propose a structure. He suggested finding the end result and working back from there. He said that the Task Force could help staff with the pros and cons about pursuing an efficiency study and in collaboration with the school boards. Commissioner Gordon said that she understands about the efficiency and collaboration groups, but she does not know what the Educational Excellence Task Force is doing and why we need this group over and above the other two groups. Chair Jacobs said that they are not analyzing aspects in the collaboration group of ways in which to go about education, but ways in which to work together. Discussion ensued about the Educational Excellence task force Commissioner Carey said that it will take time for these committees to be appointed and then to get the work done. He said that they began this discussion because there were serious concerns about inequity in funding, and that the majority of the public wanted to increase funding for the Orange County Schools. He said that they need to be responsive to the public and instruct the Manager to begin to address this. He thinks the Board should instruct the Manager to reduce the CHCCS district tax by at least three cents and to raise the difference by the property tax this year. He would like to hear from the other County Commissioners about this. He said that the Board does not have to wait to respond to the public. He understands that Commissioner Halkiotis does not want to give any more money to either school system until the study is conducted, but there is a budget decision in June. He thinks the Board has to maintain its commitment to education. He would like to know more precisely how the money is spent, but he does not want to hold either system back on program development. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he has always supported the CHCCS district tax. He said that he has always supported and respected residents in Chapel Hill-Carrboro because they are the ones that pushed the bond issue and enabled it to get passed. He said that he was on the first efficiency study group where an outside agency examined the County. He knows that OCS needs more money because he has worked far them for 30 years. He thinks we need to look carefully about how we spend our money. He agrees that we need to make sure there is an equal playing field for all children. Commissioner Carey said that he does think that we need to do the efficiency study and that he is not anti-CHCCS district tax. He is proposing to increase the burden on the general tax and relieve the burden an the CHCCS district tax so that more money can be provided to the OCS. This will begin to correct the inequity. Commissioner Brown asked what John Link would came back with at tax time, based on this discussion. John Link said that the mathematics are on page 34 as the tax rate is increased countywide. He said that the Board can give him further instruction, but he can point out what has already been mathematically created. Commissioner Gordon said that it would be reasonable to ask the Manager to reduce the CHCCS tax and raise the countywide general property tax. She would be hesitant to say the exact amount. She would like to leave it to the Manager to come up with alternatives. She said that the thing that would hold them back is the huge tax increase that Orange County residents would have to shoulder. Chair Jacobs said that he agrees with Commissioner Brown and he feels comfortable that the Manager will come up with a suitable recommendation. He also expects that the Manager will make the recommendation based on the fact that there are other functions of County government. He trusts that the Manager will do it in context. Commissioner Carey said that he trusts the Manager's recommendation too and he thinks the Manager expects the Board to give him direction. He referred to the fact that 213 of the households in the County do not have children in schools and the number of senior citizens in the County almost equals the number of children in schools. He said that the $18 million that can be saved on the cost of one middle school, plus the additional $10-15 million in interest over a 2Q-year period would go a long way to meet the needs of the other households. He has not forgotten about them and he hopes the Board does not forget about them when they decide about merger. Commissioner Halkiotis said that he is supportive of having the Manager bring back alternatives, but they have no idea what County government may ask far. He is afraid of the mental health reform and what the State is throwing back at counties. Commissioner Brawn said that there could be proposals at the March 18t" work session, especially if the Board could bring forward information and questions by March Stn Commissioner Gordon asked Commissioner Brown for an outline of what she is proposing. Commissioner Brown said that it was on page three of her proposal. Commissioner Gordon said that one of the reasons to have the countywide supplemental tax is that it would be a way to get a vote from the people. She asked the Board to consider this. Chair Jacobs said that the County Commissioners all agree that they want to pursue the Educational Excellence Task Farce meeting an March 17t" and bringing back an outline on March 18t", with the idea that from that may grow the articulation of the efficiency study. The Educational Excellence Task Force will identify a timeframe for itself and a composition, which will come back to the Board. He said that the BOCC is funding 1/3 of the cost of the facilitator for the collaboration efforts. This effort has no end point timeframe, but has an interim report an April 26t" Chair Jacobs said that he has not heard anyone that has spoken against the countywide supplemental tax. He would suggest having staff work an Commissioner Gordan's proposal an page 14 about all issues related to bringing this to the voters. Commissioner Brown said that it would be important for the meetings on March 17t", March 18t" and April 26t" to be public meetings. Commissioner Carey said that they are public meetings if an elected body appoints the group. Geaf Gledhill said that if they are appointed by County Commissioners they are public bodies. A motion was made by Commissioner Carey, seconded by Commissioner Gordon to appoint these members of the collaborative group. Geaf Gledhill said that if any school board members are there, then it is a public meeting. Commissioner Halkiotis suggested speeding up the process and for staff to look at professionals who specialize in doing these kinds of studies and what groups they have worked with before. Commissioner Carey said that he would remove the motion that he placed before in reference to appointing members of this collaborative committee. He just wants the meetings to be noticed so the public knows about them. A motion was made by Commissioner Carey, seconded by Commissioner Gordon that the collaboration meetings involving the Board of County Commissioners be noticed for the public. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Commissioner Carey asked if they were instructing the Manager to begin to provide additional funds for the County schools consistent with what they heard from 80-90% of the people who spoke at the public hearings. He proposed a reduction in the district tax and an increase in the general property tax to provide some additional support for the County school system without adversely affecting the CHCCS. He asked if the Board would like to move in this direction. He said that he is not saying that it should adversely affect any other agencies. John Link said that he will propose to the Board of County Commissioners two to three alternatives for how to finance schools and the rest of County government. He said that there are 2 stages -the normal budgetary process and addressing equity. Chair Jacobs pointed out that if they go by the 450 new students that are projected, and they use the same $2,500 per pupil that was used last year, this is $1.125 million, which is more than one cent on the tax rate just to keep up. A motion was made by Commissioner Carey, seconded by Commissioner Brawn to adjourn the meeting at 9:15 p.m. VOTE: UNANIMOUS 7. Twin Creeks Park- DEFERRED Barry Jacobs, Chair Donna S. Baker Clerk to the Board