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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 20060914APPROVED 10!1712006 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS WITH THE BOARD OF SOCIAL SERVICES WORK SESSION September 14, 2006 5:30 p.m. The Orange County Board of Commissioners met far a Work Session with the Board of Social Services on Thursday, September 14, 2006 at 5:30 p.m. at the Government Services Center in Hillsborough, N.C. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Barry Jacobs and Commissioners Valerie Foushee, Alice M. Gordon and Stephen H. Halkiotis COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Moses Carey, Jr., COUNTY ATTORNEY PRESENT: Geoff Gledhill COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: Interim County Manager Rod Visser and Clerk to the Board Donna S. Baker (all other staff members will be identified appropriately below) BOARD OF SOCIAL SERVICES MEMBERS PRESENT: Rosetta Wash and Karen Lang BOARD OF SOCIAL SERVICES MEMBERS ABSENT: Joe Robbins and Harold Russell DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES STAFF PRESENT: Director Nancy Colton and staff members Gwen Price, Joyce Lee, Denise Shaffer, Lindsey Shewmaker Dennis, Yvette Smith, and Dustin Lowell NOTE: ALL DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THESE MINUTES ARE IN THE PERMANENT AGENDA FILE 1N THE CLERK'S OFFICE. Chair Jacobs welcomed everyone. He said that Commissioner Gordon and Commissioner Carey would be late this evening. Rosetta Wash said that they appreciated the time they get to meet with the Board of County Commissioners and the staff has developed a section on the agenda for major accomplishments. She said that they have one of the most talented Social Services staffs in the state. She thanked everyone. She said that tonight they would discuss the major programs such as Work First. She said that the good news is that the state welfare rolls have dropped dramatically since the start of welfare reform from about 130,000 families in 1995 to 35,000 in 2006. The concern is that the people left on the rolls currently are not the easiest people to find work for {i.e., disabled, caring for disabled family members, parents of young children, etc.}. Regarding the food stamp program, she said that a lot of people who are eligible do not apply because of the stigma attached. They are thinking of changing the name of the program that focuses an the nutritional value of foods. She said that they appreciate the subsidies far childcare assistance given by the County Commissioners. Social Services Director Nancy Colton introduced staff and reviewed their responsibilities. She then gave a PowerPoint presentation. Review of Current Operations Nancy Coston said that on this particular budget, Medicaid is excluded, because it is so huge that it blurs the rest of the budget. In looking at the rest of the budget with the offsetting revenues and the net County cost, they have been very good stewards of County funds. The costs have been going up, but the expenditures have been constant. •Budget Summary •2005-2006 Total Budget •2005-2006 Budget Share Comparisons •2005-2006 Medicaid Provider Earnings •2005-2006 Medicaid Spending •Organizational Chart •General Programs (Charts and tables incorpor°ated by reference) Review of Current Operations: 2005-2006 Total Budget Review of Current Operations: 2005-2006 Share Comparisons Review of Current Operations: 200-2006 h7edicaid Provider Earnings Review of Current Operations: 2005-2006 Medicaid Provider Earnings Review of Current Operations: 2005-2006 Medicaid Spending Revie~~7 of Current Operations: 2005-2006 Medicaid Spending Review of Current Operations: Organizational Charts Review of Current Operations: General Programs • Medicaid •Food Stamps •Emergency Assistance •Child Protective Services •Work First •Health Choice •Child Care Subsidy •Adoption •Faster Care •Adult Services •Skills Development Center •Adolescent Parenting *LIEAP •LINKS Major Accomplishments of 2005-2006 • Developed alternatives for children previously served by Sheaffer House. These included new contracts for emergency placements with Caring Family Network and a new contract for a part time liaison position with OPC to assist with access to alternative services. Same funds are being used for specialized faster care as away to stabilize placements. • Expanded social work staff assigned to Orange County School system. Currently seven Social Services staff are providing services at the following schools: Cameron Park Elementary, Central Elementary, Efland Cheeks Elementary, Grady Brawn Elementary, AL Stanback Middle School, CW Stanford Middle School, and Cedar Ridge High School. Orange County Schools have social workers that provide services to the other schools. • Coordinated the Helping Neighbor Fund, which provided assistance to Katrina evacuees who were located in Orange County. Social Services staff provided counseling and support to 17 relocated individuals, as well as $5,220.83 in assistance. Additionally, the agency provided emergency Medicaid and Food Stamp benefits to 28 Katrina families. • Increased services to child welfare families through IV-E waiver, which allows for funds to be redirected from foster care board payments to individualized services for children and families. By redirecting federal funds, additional services can be provided to families without increasing county costs. Through these funds, 4 children now have guardians who are providing a permanent home for them, and other families have received special services such as parent training and emergency assistance. • Developed new equine therapy program through a contract that has served 8 children. This program assists children who have bonding issues by providing counseling while they interact with specially trained horses. • Provided financial counseling to 348 families through two contracts. (HR Consulting and The Women's Center) Financial counseling is naw an integral part of emergency assistance programs. • Provided 3754 emergency financial assistance payments to Orange County residents. See following charts for additional information about programs. Emeraency Financial Assistance Programs (Charts and tables incorporated iay reference) • Managed increased demand for public assistance programs, particularly in Food Stamps and Medicaid. See the following information on client statistics. Also provided assistance to Medicare recipients during transition to Medicare D prescription drug plan. • The number of Food Stamp cases have increased 103°k from 2000-01 to 2005- 06. • The number of Medicaid cases have increased 53°I° from 2000-01 to 2005-06. Chair Jacobs asked far the staff to identify by employer who has food stamp recipients. Nancy Coston answered that this information would be very difficult to acquire. Same service industry jobs only offer a certain amount of hours to employees. Major Accomplishments of 2005-2006: Medicaid Caseload Increase Major Accomplishments of 2005-2006: Food Stamp Caseload Increase • Continued to maximize revenues available to the county to provide needed services. Overall costs to county for all services except Medicaid was $4,608,019 in fiscal year 2005-2006 as compared to $4,977,667 in fiscal year 2004-2005, a decrease of 8°~. • Continued to advocate far additional relief for families waiting to receive childcare subsidies. Received sufficient state reallocations to assure that all existing cases could continue to receive subsidy. • Increased services to meet growing demand for various in-home services to support elderly and disabled adults. Expanded in-home as well as Community Alternatives Program. {CAP) • Decreased "backlog" of number of children in foster care by helping children reach a permanent plan. Last year 15 children were reunified with their parents, custody of 27 children was given to relatives, and 22 children were adopted. Work First Changes and Plan Development Gwen Price made reference to a packet in the chart entitled New Policy Requirements Effective October 1, 2006. She said that this is a tool used to get more information about changes as they affect Work First. This came about from the Debt Reduction Act signed in February. This act impacts the population that DSS serves as well as the department. She then explained the caseload reduction credit. She said that the fear with this change is that the caseload credit now will be too low and there will be state sanctions because they have to meet participation rates. They are challenged to find work-eligible activities. She said that one of the things that the State has identified to help work eligible activities is to set up pilot projects, and she would like the Board's permission to explore pilot projects. If they were approved for a pilot project, they would come back to the Board of County Commissioners. The ultimate goal would be to meet the participation rates. Nancy Coston said that the letters will came quickly on these pilot projects and the State wants them to submit a skeleton proposal so that they can get the money back out to the counties. She said that they would like to be able to pursue these pilot projects if they do become available. The money available statewide is $6 million. Commissioner Foushee asked if there was a template provided to help DSS create the programs. Nancy Coston said that the State would make the planning process very simple. The difficulty would be to think of what would meet the participation rate in keeping with the philosophy of how to serve families. Nancy Coston asked the Board if DSS could proceed with this process and the Board agreed. Gwen Price then reviewed the report in the packet about the Work First Family Partner program. •Work First Changes ^Policy Requirements (Handout) •Work First Plan Development 2007-2009 ^Work First Block Grant Plan Timeline {Handout) ^Pilot Programs ^Family Partner Program (Handout) Citizenship Documentation Requirements •Citizenship Requirements for Public Assistance Recipients (Handout} •Current Interpretation of Law •Social Security, Medicare, SSI Recipients Birth Certificates Continuation of Service •Alternatives •Orange County's Plan •Effective Date ^September 1, 2006 Gwen Price reviewed the information on the new requirements for citizenship documentation. She said that this will take up significant staff time, but the goal is to not impact the client negatively at all. Chair Jacobs asked if they would document how much time is involved and the costs involved. Nancy Coston said that they can do the costs but it may be more difficult to document the staff time. Chair Jacobs said that this information would be helpful to give to Congressman Price. Nancy Colton said that there is no federal obligation to help pay for these costs. She said they will help their clients to get this information and will continue to do this. Gwen Price said that Nancy Coston has been in discussion with the Register of Deeds to obtain Orange County information electronically (such as birth certificates). Nancy Coston said that if this is done an-line -all they have to do is check that they have viewed the document and do not have to have a hard copy of the birth certificate. Chair Jacobs asked about the new requirements for driver's licenses. Gwen Price said that they could use social security records for the elderly and the disabled because social security would have already verified the identifications. Child Care Funding •2006-2007 State Subsidy funds $4,027,928 •2006-2007 County Funds •Medicaid relief $100,000 •"Pay back" for county employees $30,000 •Sponsorship funds $50,000 •Spending 2005-2006 •State subsidy $3,894,950 •County funds including carry-forward $51,938 •622 Children Receiving Subsidy •227 Children Waiting for Subsidy (DSS only} •Average monthly cost for subsidy is $506 Commissioner Halkiotis asked about the average cost of childcare in Orange County. Nancy Coston said that for private pay infant care, it would be over $1,200 a month. Commissioner Halkiotis pointed out that schoolteachers cannot afford to pay for childcare in Orange County. Chair Jacobs made reference to the notion of the First School, where it starts off at age 3. He said that this might have an impact on child care costs. Nancy Castan said that she met with the Superintendents and they both expressed interest. The CHCCS expressed a lot of interest in having childcare available for their employees -not just for subsidizing, but making it available. She thinks that First School is a good option. Agency Goals 2406-2447 •Continue to handle workload while assuring that quality and desired outcomes are realized in all programs. •Implement additional phases of Multiple Response System in child welfare such as facilitated team meetings. •Improve applications of technology to decrease administrative burden on staff. •Expand IV-E Waiver services, particularly by utilizing individualized case plans in protective services and foster care. •Design new strategies to address changing Work First requirements. Utilize pilot funding from state to implement new strategies. •Develop new Work First Plan for 2007-2009. •Develop better mechanisms for utilizing data to track performance. •Support recommendations of Child Care Task Force and assure that Board of County Commissioners is kept apprised of progress and barriers. •Seek outside funding from foundations and private organizations to support special needs of agency. •Publicize positive outcomes at agency through reports, press releases, and community presentations. Commissioner Halkiotis said that the hallmark of Orange County DSS is the strong commitment of the directors and staff. He commended all of them. Chair Jacobs asked the staff haw the Board could help them. Commissioner Foushee said that it might be helpful for the Board to hear about the technology needs of DSS. Nancy Colton said that their agency is rich with opportunities to make a lot of this electronic and they need coordinated databases. She said that they have stacks of lists of forms they need to complete and they would like to go paperless. She has little automation to give them just basic information. With na further items to discuss, the meeting was adjourned at 7:25 p.m. Barry Jacobs, Chair Donna S. Baker Clerk to the Board APPROVED 10!1712006 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS WORK SESSION September 14, 2006 7:30 p.m. The Orange County Board of Commissioners met far a Work Session on Thursday, September 14, 2006 at 7:30 p.m. at the Government Services Center in Hillsborough, North Carolina. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Barry Jacobs and Commissioners Moses Carey, Jr., Valerie P. Foushee, Alice M. Gordon, and Stephen H. Halkiotis COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: Geof Gledhill COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: Interim County Manager Rod Visser and Clerk to the Board Donna 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. ALL RECORDINGS OF THE MEETINGS ARE KEPT FOR FIVE YEARS. (NOTE: BOCC Meeting with Social Services Board at 5:30 preceding this work session.) Chair Jacobs said that the report on the LEP would have to be postponed because Milan Pham is ill and could not attend. He said that the primary purpose of this meeting is to resolve the capital and debt related matters that were dealt with at the August 31St work session. Staff has brought back information to the Board. 1. Capital and Debt Related Matters Commissioner Carey asked what they were supposed to accomplish tonight. Chair Jacobs made reference to the purple sheet and said that the Board should decide what projects in which there is agreement, the plans for the projects (i.e., what they have agreed to do, what needs to be done immediately, and what they need to have more information about}, and what assumptions they accept as far as proceeding with the debt capacity. Rod Visser said that there are two major pieces: what the Board of County Commissioners asked for and what the staff developed. He does not think that the staff got everything that the Board wanted, but they got a good start on it. He went through the additional information points as listed on the abstract, as follows: • An assumption of the 9% annual growth in the General Fund is too high. Focus debt capacity calculations on a 7% annual growth assumption. Consider an S°~ growth assumption option as well. • Some preference was expressed not to exceed the current BOCC policy limiting debt service payments to 15°~ of General Fund expenditures. However, staff will solicit information from additional jurisdictions about established debt capacity ceilings, any examples of exceeding those, and circumstances involved (if applicable). • Show individual annual tax rate increases that accompanied the annual expenditure increases in the General Fund since 1989 that have produced average annual growth of 8.25°l0. • Provide rough estimates of operational, maintenance, and staffing cost increases associated with the specific projects listed at the August 315` work session far possible additional debt issuance. Provide an estimate of the tax rate impacts of those anticipated budgetary increases (Attachment 2-C). • Show a 10-year planning horizon for additional debt capacity, reflecting bondlalternative financinglpay-as-you-go projects, and plugging in cost estimates for other anticipated unfunded projects (page 57). • Provide an update on the overall status of soccer field development. Rod Uisser said that the decisions that the Board will make related to this in the coming weeks in terms of debt will have a fundamental impact on the pay-as-you-go dollars available because the capital funding policies provide for debt service to be taken off the top before pay-as-you-go allocations are split out to the County and school systems. Rod Uisser asked Donna Coffey to explain the workbook and the spreadsheets, which she did. Rod Uisser made reference to blocks 6 and 7 of the spreadsheets -the anticipated origination date of financing and anticipated date of first principal and interest payment and said that this is critical to the overall decision because the staff has looked through all of the projects, the cash flaw requirements, and laid it out in such a way that when all of the projects are considered, they can fit within the County's 15°I° debt capacity, even with looking at an assumption of 7% growth. Donna Coffey made reference to pages 58-63 and the charts on the pay-as-you- go funds and the telephone surveys with other counties. Donna Coffey made reference to page 5 and the summaries and said that they have gone through the County projects and the school CIPs from last year and the SAPFO projections. The SAPFO projections identified three schools for CHCCS (elementary school, middle school, and an addition to the high school} and there are no dollar amounts attached to these yet because they would be beyond the 2008 short-term timeframe. Rod Uisser made reference to the purple sheet, which is the decision matrix and the staff recommendation about proceeding. Commissioner Gordon made reference to page 5 (Proposed Schedule of the County and School Capital Project Debt Issuances-Projects on the Horizon) and noted that cost estimates were not available for the projects. She said that she did remember that there were cost estimates for the schools. Item #2, CHCCS Elementary School #11 is $22.2 million; item #3, CHCCS Middle School #5 is $34.7 million; and the high school addition is $24.7 million. This totals $81.6 million. She asked about the library facility and Donna Coffey said that they have not developed cost estimates yet. Commissioner Gordon asked if the Town of Hillsborough has been approached to help with this library. Chair Jacobs said that he has asked the Mayor, and Hillsborough may want to help with the Heritage Center. Commissioner Gordon said that at the August 31St meeting, they were given great charts. It was helpful to have the range of borrowing capacity included in those other charts. She was trying to match the charts from August 31St and the charts from tonight. She asked for some clarification. Donna Coffey said that she did not include the borrowing range on the new spreadsheets because they were looking for direction from the County Commissioners. The difference between the two charts is that they took what they thought was direction from the August 31St meeting, and put the numbers into the spreadsheet to take up the borrowing capacity, and programmed in all of the debt from the discussions on the 31St Column H in Chart 2-A is any remaining debt capacity after all of the projects have been programmed. Rod Visser said that they could take what is in column H and attach to that an estimation of how much additional face value of debt could be issued beyond these particular projects. Chair Jacobs asked about a ballpark equivalent and Donna Coffey said that for every $10 million, you can count on about $1 million in debt service payments. Commissioner Gordon verified that with the projects programmed now, the County would use all of its debt capacity for the next four years. They asked for verification of the accuracy of the charts (example, Chart 2-A) because there is duplication of figures in some of the later years. Donna Coffey will check the numbers. Chair Jacobs asked Donrra Coffey about how sure she was of the numbers in the nearest years and she said extremely sure. Commissioner Carey said that the information from the staff is very good. He asked about the projections of the operational impacts from each of the projects. Rod Visser said that there are some projects that they would not anticipate operational impacts, such as greenways. There are some projects that they have no information for but they put a placeholder in (saying that costs were being developed} because they knew that there would be impacts. Commissioner Carey said that, considering the fact that there is no information on the operational impact, and considering the fact that the debt is projected at a conservative level, it tells him that if they back off of the growth rate a little bit (maybe to 7%}, and factor in the actual rate at which they experience debt (probably less than 6°~), there is some room so that they do not have to be concerned. He does not want to change the 15% threshold, but there is same room to take care of contingencies. Commissioner Carey asked for an explanation of "Yes, Pending Refinement" on the purple sheet. Rod Visser made reference to line #5 on the purple sheet, which is CHCCS Elementary #10. He said that the Board has clearly stated its commitment to build Elementary #10. The staff is proceeding under the assumption that they are doing everything that they reasonably canto get it open in 2008. The question that remains is how much the total budget will be that the County Commissioners will approve for this project. He has heard that the County Commissioners want the staff to fine-tune this number. He would like to bring this back on October 3rd as a comprehensive agenda item. He said that "Yes, Pending Refinement" means that the staff recommends issuing the debt, but the exact amount is pending refinement. Chair Jacobs pointed out that #3 (Central Orange Senior Center) and #1 on the Enterprise Fund Debt Issuances (SportsPlex Addition} should both be "Yes, Pending Refinement". Commissioner Halkiotis said that he was not sure they came to full agreement on the numbers for these projects such as #18, the soccer complex. He said that they may be able to free up some money. Commissioner Gordon asked what difference it makes if something is on the list far "Yes" versus "Yes, Pending Refinement." Rad Visser said that it does not make a great difference since they are months away from taking actions resulting in the issuance of this debt. Commissioner Gordon requested that these charts from the August 31St meeting be kept for future reference. said that several weeks ago they were sent information about a potential partner in the community that may help them develop this project. Today they heard from this partner, and this company will provide any kind of loan that the County is interested in and a cash donation in the tens of thousands of dollars. Commissioner Gordon asked about the maximum amount of the donation and Lori Taft said that it would not be in the hundreds of thousands, but they did not give a figure. Lori Taft believes the amount will be something less than $100,000. This was a verbal commitment. Commissioner Halkiatis asked how much it would cast for one field of Astroturf and it was answered $600,000-$1 million and the life expectancy is at least 15-20 years. Commissioner Gordon said that she would like to start building two fields as soon as possible with the $730,000 and consider the rest of the project later. Chair Jacobs asked far an explanation of the cost effectiveness of building now versus building it all at once. Lori Taft said that there may be some economies of scale lost, but a lot has been gained to date with this concept and the pre-grading that was done in conjunction with the school project. She said that overall it would cost more to put the fields in two phases. Chair Jacobs asked for information on the numbers to build two fields now and four later versus doing it all at once. Commissioner Halkiotis said that, from past experience, it would cost as much to put in new fencing as it would be to take down old and reinstall it. He would like an entire cost for two phases versus the entire project at once. He would like to leave this project in. Chair Jacobs asked about an approximate timeframe for the numbers and Lori Taft said that she will bring this back on October 3rd Chair Jacobs asked Rod Visser to contact the OCS Superintendent to clean up the litter at the school site. A motion was made by Commissioner Carey, seconded by Commissioner Gordon to approve the 7% annual growth rate to replace the 9% rate. VOTE: UNANIMOUS 2. County Priorities Rad Visser said that this continues the discussion the Board had last fall and at the retreat where the Board identified County priorities. At the retreat, they introduced goals from 2002 and when they added all of them together they totaled about 70 issues. As was discussed, the staff is suggesting to the Board to discuss priorities with a smaller number and the staff can come back with a plan for each goal. They are trying to re- instill some of the discipline of the goals process. They are asking the Board to reinstitute the written goals and priorities. Chair Jacobs made reference to priority #2, "Continuation of the process for updating the County's Comprehensive Land Use Plan and Related Element." In the abstract, and overall as a goal, this would be one of the top priorities. He said that, in the next few months, there is very little that the Board will actually do other than give direction to the Planning Board to work out a process and then to proceed. On his notes, he associated with it the Hillsborough Strategic Growth Plan, the planning for the economic development districts, and the refinement of the Efland-Mebane Work Group Project. If they get to the retreat, he would say that one of the highest goals for the next year would be the land use plan update. For the next few months, there are more specific things that he sees as priorities that are in the same vein as land use planning. Rod Visser said that he does see staff involved in this goal. And because staff support will be needed far the Planning Board to move this along, he would be concerned about making sure that the Planning staff does not fall behind on this. Commissioner Foushee expressed concern that if they do not program this goal in, the ball may be dropped. She made reference to the group of six goals and said that, as a Board, they have made it clear that these six are the top goals. She agreed with the staff recommendation. She has been frustrated because they have started a number of times with formulating a list. Commissioner Foushee suggested identifying a number of priorities and then not adding on to the number until there is same movement an the original priorities. Commissioner Carey said that it is incumbent on the staff to let the Board know if it becomes too much. Rod Uisser said that he would like to go over the process in the next month and identify steps far each priority. Commissioner Gordon agreed with Rod Visser on the planning of this process for identifying priorities. She would like to support Rod Visser in getting this process underway. A motion was made by Commissioner Gordon, seconded by Commissioner Halkiotis to accept what the Manager recommended as the priorities listed (page 5 of the abstract) and that the Manager proceed with the planning process, being ever mindful that there are some things that will have to be followed through that are not on this list. This includes the modification of the two additional specifics associated with Justice Facilities, the animal shelter, and the County campus. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Commissioner Carey said that they need to hear from staff when the impact of something will affect other projects and time commitments. Rod Visser said that they need to look at other staff options both internally and externally for resources. He said that he would like to bring a project management element to this component. Chair Jacobs said that he and Commissioner Carey had talked about having a work session before the retreat and they could add this item of priorities updates to that agenda in December. 3. Report on the County's Efforts and Ability to Serve Limited English Proficient {LEP1 Populations Postponed 4. Closed Session A motion was made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded by Commissioner Foushee to go into closed session at 9:10 pm for the purpose of: "To discuss the County's position and to instruct the County Manager and County Attorney on the negotiating position regarding the terms of a contract to purchase real property," NCGS § 143-318.11(a)(5). VOTE: UNANIMOUS RECONVENE INTO REGULAR SESSION: A motion was made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded by Commissioner Foushee to reconvene to Regular Session at 9:42 p.m. VOTE: UNANIMOUS 12. Adjournment A motion was made by Commissioner Halkiotis, seconded by Commissioner Foushee to adjourn the meeting at 9:43 p.m. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Barry Jacobs, Chair Donna S. Baker Clerk to the Board