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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 03-15-2012 Work Session APPROVED 8/21/2012 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS WORK SESSION MARCH 15, 2012 7:00 p.m. The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a Work Session on Thursday, March 15, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. in the Link Government Services Center, in Hillsborough, North Carolina. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Bernadette Pelissier and Commissioners Valerie P. Foushee, Alice Gordon, Pam Hemminger, Barry Jacobs, Earl McKee, and Steve Yuhasz COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: John Roberts COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: Assistant County Managers Gwen Harvey and Michael Talbert, and Deputy Clerk to the Board David Hunt (All other staff members will be identified appropriately below) COUNTY STAFF ABSENT: County Manager Frank Clifton Chair Pelissier called the meeting to order at 7:03 PM. 1. OPC Local Management Entity (LME) — Transition Management and Retiree Health Insurance Planning PURPOSE: OPC (Orange, Person, and Chatham Mental Health LME) is effecting elements of an agreed upon merger with PBH (Piedmont Behavioral Health) effective April 1, 2012. The BOCC is asked to review two management proposals pertinent to the merger— First, creation of an advisory and governance structure; and second, a transition plan that provides continuation of healthcare benefits for OPC retirees. Details are presented in the following narrative and attachments. OPC Area Program Director Judy Truitt gave an overview of this item. In February of 2011, the North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation, which required that there would be a statewide implementation of a Medicaid waiver, a concurrent 1915 BC waiver. In May of 2011, she presented to the Board the recommendation of the OPC Area Mental Health Board that they move forward in negotiations with PBH, which is the area mental health authority that is located to the southwest. The Board of County Commissioners approved unanimously to move forward in those negotiations, which she has been doing. Commissioner Jacobs pointed out that he voted `no.' Judy Truitt said that she would change the information to reflect this. Judy Truitt said that, in the interim, in the fall of 2011, Alamance/Caswell joined with PBH. At the end of December, the five-county mental health authority also joined with PBH. On April 1 st, the Medicaid waiver will be open in Orange, Person, and Chatham Counties. Following the opening waiver in the communities, they will continue the due diligence with the expectation that OPC will dissolve on June 30, 2012. One of the issues is governance for the mental health in the state as it moves through the reform effort. In October of 2011 PBH posted a strategic planning meeting where all of the participating partners were invited to participate in the discussion about what they thought would work in the communities. Commissioner Yuhasz represented Orange County at this discussion. Judy Truitt said that the model that will be presented tonight was presented to the OPC Area Mental Health Board at the February meeting and it was approved by the members present to move forward to the Boards of Commissioners. The model that OPC is asking the Board to consider is one that recognizes that the way that area mental health boards are currently structured is by appointment of the local Board of Commissioners, a Commissioner designee, and citizen representatives. The board is currently a 19-member board and it has not been fully appointed for quite some time. The board made this decision, given the changes that were about to happen. The statute says that the board cannot be any larger than 30 members. Commissioner Gordon arrived at 7:13 PM. Judy Truitt made reference to page 8 of the agenda packet and said that the Community Oversight Board would be a 10-member board with significant community oversight. She made reference to the remainder of the PowerPoint slide in the packet. Community Oversight Board Responsibilities: - Advise the CEO on the evaluation and hiring of the Community Operations Center Executive Director - Recommend priorities for expenditure of state/county funds for development of the annual budget - Determine local priorities for inclusion in the area wide strategic plan, as possible - Identify community needs and concerns, monitor resolution of issues - Monitor performance at the local (COC) level: • Access to care • Financial status and expenditures • Service delivery • Provider Network size and composition • Outcomes • Consumer satisfaction Governance Board 13 Members Terms of office: max two four-year terms; as long as the individual remains a member of the Community Operations Center Board, regional CFAC, and County Commission. - One representative from each Community Oversight Board (Chair or elected member) - Two at large County Commissioners from among the counties. Governing Board asks for interested parties among commissioners serving on the Community Operations Center Boards. Governing Board elects two. - One representative from the regional CFAC, elected by the regional CFAC. - Six members with special expertise in healthcare, insurance, finance, and health/behavioral health physician or other professional; no more than 2 from any specialty area; from constituent counties if at all possible (initially appointed by the Secretary of DHHS. Board committee recruits for vacancies and recommends replacements to the full Board. Vacancies to be elected by the board.) Governance Board Responsible for: - Policies - Strategic plan - Budget - Hire, fire, and evaluate CEO - Monitor deliverables (e.g., performance, financial management) - Political advocacy - Strategic planning, including consideration of local priorities brought forward by the COC Boards - Accountable for organizational performance - Responsible for the overall health of the organization - Reporting to the constituent counties - Responsible for responding to concerns and feedback from COC Boards. The current statute allows for the 122-c Rules Around Governance of Public Mental Health to be set aside by agreement and resolution of all of the counties participating in the partnership. The plan is to use the existing statute, which would allow this governance model even if the legislation does not get changed. Chair Pelissier asked when this was on an upcoming agenda. Assistant County Manager Gwen Harvey said that there is a placeholder for March 22nd Commissioner Yuhasz said that he spent two full days working through this. He said that they struggled with the kind of governance structure that would serve the needs of a huge and geographically dispersed organization and still ensure that local governments could control this organization. He thinks that it is a scheme that will work. He urged the Board to approve this. Judy Truitt clarified that PBH has said that they would be providing a corporate function and the day-to-day relationships are still in this community with staff that are already in place. The staff at OPC will largely be able to remain in place, except for Finance and Human Resources. As part of the transition function, Finance and Human Resources will be moved to the corporate level. The clinical and administrative staff can be moved into the new organization. The staff will have to be reduced from 52 to 31. Judy Truitt said that the second issue is what will happen to individuals who retire from OPC. When OPC is dissolved, there will no longer be a health plan that the retired employees can attach to. A work group was established that included County management staff and Commissioner representatives to talk through this transition issue. OPC's policy has only contemplated that health coverage would be provided for retirees until they are able to access Medicare. There is an identified pool of individuals and it is limited and quantified. The funding is available to cover the cost for this, but an organization or entity is needed to accept the responsibility for it. Commissioner Yuhasz said that the risk to the County is small to none and the County should do this. Financial Services Director Clarence Grier said that the plans are similar and the retirees should be sufficiently covered. Commissioner Yuhasz said that there is a clause that if there is an overage that the three counties will split it. Judy Truitt said that there would be 10 individuals that would be eligible and would meet the requirements. The entire time is 95 months until the last person would be eligible for Medicare. Gwen Harvey said that United Health Care has agreed to accept these employees under the County's plan. The County Attorney is also working on a Memorandum of Understanding that protects the County and distributes any overages to all three counties. Commissioner Gordon asked to see this backup data. Chair Pelissier said that she thinks that this is the right thing to do. 2. Further Review and Discussion of the Manager's Recommended FY 2012-17 Capital Investment Plan (CIP) Financial Services staff Paul Laughton said that this item is to continue the discussion on the CIP. On March 1St, the Board got through page 43 of the County projects and also the school capital projects. He made reference to page 44 of the County projects. These are park projects. He made reference to the attachments. There is a replacement page for page 26 regarding IT. This change was related to putting an addition of$200,000 to bring County computers into Windows 7 compliance. This will be funded with existing funds from the project that is available, as well as financing $250,000 for the library management system software that was discussed at the March 1 st meeting. Also, there were replacements for pages 94-95. These are updated based on a request to show the revenue shortage for County capital projects and the source of those shortages. There is also additional information from Orange County Schools (OSC), specifically for Elementary School #8, which OCS has moved up several years in their CIP request. OCS also provided an analysis to show support for the Cedar Ridge auditorium and the additional classroom wing of 20 classrooms. Commissioner Gordon asked about when the Commissioners would be asked to approve this and Paul Laughton said that June 19th is the final approval of the CIP, April 19th is CIP follow-up and April 24th is a Budget Work Session. Mountains to Sea Trail There are no big changes from the current CIP for this project. New Hope Preserve — Hollow Rock access area This was on page 45. There are no big changes on this. In year 2015-16, there will be construction of the primary facilities on the Orange County side. The design work is in 2014- 15 and it is $100,000. Commissioner Jacobs asked if this was coordinated with our partners and Dave Stancil said that they met with Durham County and the Town of Chapel Hill last month. Durham County has $100,000 available now. It is possible that Durham County may submit a request to go ahead and do some trail restoration. Chapel Hill has not identified any funds at this point. Staff is working on an interim management plan for the property now. Commissioner Jacobs asked about the status of the issue of the road. Commissioner Hemminger said that this was discussed at yesterday's meeting. The discussion is that Durham County was instructed to go back out and have another public meeting and have another discussion with DOT before the summer break. Twin Creeks Park This was on page 48. There are no changes here. There is $600,000 in 2012-13 for an entry road. There will be a shared roadway. Dave Stancil said that MI Homes is the landowner to the south of the Twin Creek property. They share a driveway and what would be a joint entry road for Ballentine subdivision. The funding here is to assist in construction of the entry road. MI Homes might be in a position to construct that road sometime in the next fiscal year. Cedar Falls Parks This is the joint artificial turf soccer field with the Town of Chapel Hill. The County's share is on page 48 and is $623,000. This will be taken from the Twin Creeks available money and will be transferred to the soccer field project. Special Revenue Projects This is a new tab in the CIP. This is based on the quarter-cent sales tax proceeds of $2.5 million a year with 50% going to economic development and 50% going to education. Page 51 has a more detailed summary of these projects. Commissioner Jacobs asked if there would be any growth for five years and Paul Laughton said that they were being conservative and not projecting any new growth. Paul Laughton said that the schools have prepared how to use this money. CHCCS has several different initiatives. OCS has the 1 to 1 initiative district-wide for technology, which is to give laptops to each student. This will be done in three phases. Teachers and staff will get laptops first, and then students in grades 6-12 will be phase 2, and students in grades 3-5 will be phase 3. Commissioner McKee clarified that this money from the '/4-cent sales tax is additional money for the schools and does not replace any money from the general fund. Proprietary Projects (Water and Sewer Utility, Solid Waste, and Sportsplex) This started on page 53. The McGowan Creek pump station was dropped and brought in with the Central Efland-North Buckhorn with the hopes to use some of the money saved from the State lobbying loan and be able to fund this project out of it. The difference in the cost for construction is from $400,000 to $600,000 because of the remediation of the pump station. Commissioner McKee asked about the percentage this was complete and Craig Benedict said over 50%. The north Buckhorn area is 90% done. Buckhorn EDD Phase 2 The change is consistent with this year's CIP and is due to adding some gravity sewer lines instead of force main lines. The plans are under review by the City of Mebane and are 90% done. Buckhorn EDD Phase 3 and 4 This was on page 57. The construction is consistent with the current CIP in years 2014-15 of$2.9 million. The design was moved to 2012-13 to 2013-14 because phase 2 has to be done first. Then $50,000 was added in the 2012-13 for future utility and access right-of- way. Craig Benedict said that this area is north of 1-85 and is 300 acres. Efland Sewer No changes here. The total cost over the five years is exactly the same at $1.65 million. Eno EDD This was on page 61. This has been moved up two years because of the agreement with the City of Durham. The engineering and planning costs are $200,000 in 2012-13. Craig Benedict said that there have been three meetings with the City of Durham and July 1St the RFP will go out for a design consultant. The City of Durham has various engineers preapproved. The design and bidding should be done in a year and construction started in 2013-14. Solid Waste The summary for this is on page 62. Solid Waste Director Gayle Wilson said that the primary components of the CIP will be the improvements to the Solid Waste Convenience Centers. Commissioner Foushee asked that the line items for revenues and funding sources be broken out for the General Fund. Paul Laughton said that there is no general fund on this now, so it can be stricken. It will be the Solid Waste Enterprise Fund for the debt service. Commissioner McKee asked if the projection for Walnut Grove was generally on track. Gayle Wilson said that the numbers are pretty refined at this point. Paul Laughton said that the big change in the recycling is the timing of the curbside carts. There is a three-year phase of purchasing rural curbside carts to get to 13,000 total carts. Year two, 2013-14, will have urban curbside carts added in, at a cost of$948,000. Regarding the landfill MSW, with the decision to close the landfill June 30, 2013, there is $3.1 million moved up two years. Page 67 adds the C&D landfill and this is a new project. Commissioner Hemminger asked about the additional costs after closing the landfill. Gayle Wilson said that there will be operating costs, continued groundwater and gas monitoring, and these will be budgeted in the C&D budget. Most of the post-closure maintenance will be done by existing employees. Commissioner McKee asked about any projection on the revenue from the gas. Gayle Wilson said that it is in the $40-50,000 range until the University completes the pipeline and begins generating electricity. Once the system is functioning, the estimated revenue is $100-110,000 a year. Sportsplex This was on page 68. The HVAC replacement in the lobby is in year one. The pool roof repair of$180,000 is in year one. A new UV system of$100,000 is also in year one. The Board approved $411,000 for use of fund balance to get these things done during this fiscal year. The big projects are in the out years when there is potential growth. At this time, there is no more capacity for additional membership. John Stock said that the Sportsplex has been growing at about 700 members a year. He said that there is about a three-year payback in extra revenue for making these major investments. Commissioner Jacobs requested that the County Commissioners be able to do a tour of the Sportsplex. School Funding Paul Laughton made reference to the information from the Chair and Vice-Chair of OCS about Cedar Ridge projects and Elementary #8. Elementary #8 is not in the recommended CIP for funding. The auditorium for Cedar Ridge is in the CIP and the classroom wing addition is scheduled for year four. Chair Pelissier suggested that this be discussed at the joint meeting with the schools. Paul Laughton said that the appendices have the debt service and debt capacity. Pages 92-93 list the schools' unfunded projects. Active County Projects These projects were as of January 31, 2012. This is on pages 94-95. Page 96 has what was done in this year's CIP. He said that staff would like to receive direction on where to go from here. April 19th is the next work session and there is an hour set aside for this issue. Chair Pelissier said that last time this was discussed, the Board did provide some direction and she does not think any additional direction can be provided until there are budget drivers and the big picture. She does not see how the Board can provide any additional feedback until this information comes forward. Clarence Grier suggested sending questions via email. Commissioner McKee said that he would like to discuss the Emergency Services capital improvements. He will email his specific questions. 3. Orange County Transit Plan Chair Pelissier made reference to the cost-sharing with Durham. She said that several Orange County Commissioners have met informally with Durham County. She made reference to the timeline and said that it is expected that there will be a cost-sharing MOU or agreement by May 1St. In order to go to the public on April 3,d and April 17th, there has to be a financial plan in general to present to the public, along with the actual plan of services that would be received based on the 1/2-cent sales tax. The County Commissioners need to express whether they concur or not by the next meeting. The entities have discussed having a cost-sharing that is fair and simple to explain. Craig Benedict said that there is a big pie and the pie is made up of the revenue from the '/2-cent sales tax, a $7 additional Orange County vehicle registration fee, a $3 registration fee that Triangle Transit can impose, and other revenue. The largest portion will likely be spent on light rail, which is a shared project between Durham and Orange Counties. The County Commissioners have approved the locally preferred alternative, which fixed the end points (UNC and Alston Avenue). This is roughly a 17-mile length. The conceptual corridor was also approved. Attachment 2 shows five different options. The discussion ended last spring when Durham was interested in proceeding with a referendum. Durham County's plan would have included $330 million in total dollars for light rail. This includes 75% funding from state and federal sources. He went through the different options for cost sharing: 1) Assumes Orange County payment of LRT to Leigh Village in Durham County. 2) Assumes Orange County pays for 4 stations in Orange County and Durham County pays for remaining 13 in Durham County ($324 million). 3) Durham County counter proposal. ($316.2 million total and $79.05 million from Orange County) 4) Orange County proposal based on '/2-cent revenue % as collected by Orange County and Durham County. This amount would pay for some capital costs ($70m total, $17.5 local share) in Durham County. 5) Assumes capital costs of a 2.89 mile length in Orange County of a 17.4 mile total length of an averaged per mile cost along entire route (i.e. not actual cost of segments and stations in Orange County). Craig Benedict said that due to the delay in not implementing the '/2-cent sales tax this year, some of the bus hours anticipated in the spring of 2011 have been reduced. Patrick McDonough from Triangle Transit answered clarifying questions from Commissioner Gordon. Commissioner Gordon asked if the light rail project costs increased then would the bus hours decrease. She asked if the commitment would have to stay with the light rail. Chair Pelissier said that in the agreement, there need to be some trigger points for when revenue might go down. There need to be provisions or safety nets to keep the current bus hours in place. Commissioner McKee agreed with Commissioner Gordon. He said that the first decision needs to be whether any projections are reasonable. He said that the amount of money taken up by this light rail is not reasonable and equitable. He said that he has already heard that bus hours are being reduced because of increasing costs of the light rail. The first question for him is whether light rail is the way to go. He is not convinced that this is the right decision. He asked if there was a Plan B if in the year 2020 the project is 50% complete and the funding comes up short. Patrick McDonough said that there could be delayed implementation or shortened lines if this happened. Wib Gulley said that capital projects take time and cost a lot of money. He said that it is difficult to project exactly what it will cost so far into the future. He made reference to the reduction of bus hours and said that it is driven by the reduction of revenue related to sales taxes. Commissioner Yuhasz said that he was not confident that the County will end up with a light rail system. He is also not satisfied with where this is going. He said that the question is what is a fair and equitable distribution between Orange County and Durham County. Commissioner Foushee said that this discussion is preparing the Board to get to the real question. Until some decisions are made, the County Commissioners cannot get to the real question, which is whether or not to put a referendum on the ballot. Commissioner Hemminger said that she has a very hard time committing a Board 15 years from now to moving monies out the General Fund because of a decision that this Board made. She asked if the revenue stream would work. Patrick McDonough said that the revenue stream is based on things that the County staff thinks will happen. He then went through Attachment 4, which showed what would happen if there was no federal or state funds for capital projects. He said that if there is no federal money for capital projects, the MLK bus lanes can still be built and the Hillsborough Train Station could still be built. Commissioner Gordon asked about the rationale for Orange County paying all of the costs in the Chapel Hill part of Durham County and how much the County was bound by that. Chair Pelissier said that the conversation is starting fresh this year. She thinks that what Durham County has offered is a reasonable scenario, which was Orange County paying for four stations. During the first five years, Orange County would get more bus hours and Durham would actually lose some. She said that neither party wants to lose too many bus hours, because a lot of the bus hours are regional and the costs are shared. This is a regional transit plan. Commissioner Yuhasz said that it is unfortunate the way the Durham County referendum vote transpired and the Durham County Commissioners committed to something that was probably a little more than they should have. He thinks that Durham County does not have a lot of flexibility now. Commissioner McKee said that the Hillsborough train station could be expanded for commuter rail. He would like to revisit and reconsider the vote that light rail be the preferred alternative. Commissioner Jacobs said that he thinks that Durham exercised as much flexibility as it thought it could based on what it had made as a commitment. He said that in the discussions that he participated, it was made clear that Orange County did not consider Durham County's commitment Orange County's commitment. He said that all of the agonizing over the projections is a little excessive to him because there is no way that anyone can know what will happen 15 years down the road. Chair Pelissier said that it is clear to her that the majority of the Board agrees that this is a fair and reasonable way to do cost-sharing at this point in time. She also hears that the Board does not want to commit any General Fund monies and if there were situations where the revenues were lower, that the plan would have to be revisited with Durham. She suggested putting these three basic principles on the agenda next week, along with not reducing bus hours. Commissioner Hemminger said that she would like to continue strongly advocating for the Hillsborough train station as part of this. Chair Pelissier said that this is another part of the conversation, but this is important. Commissioner Gordon said it that she would like to have a Hillsborough train station. She asked how much was being put aside for this. Patrick McDonough said that a bare bones station would be about $4 million. The $4 million station is basically a platform, a roof, a ticket machine, and a parking lot. The local match is 10% of that. Commissioner McKee asked for some specific information to be brought forward on the $3 million for the park and ride lots. Commissioner Gordon said it appears that there will have to be some reprioritization of bus hours. Chair Pelissier said that staff will get together tomorrow morning and will come up with a revised bus plan that provides additional services to rural and urban areas as well as regional. This will come forward next Thursday. Chair Pelissier said that this is a draft plan and this is open to suggestions from the public. The whole idea for a Hillsborough train station came from public input. She said that TTA has agreed that there can be an agreement between Orange County and TTA that if this is put on the ballot in November and it passes, TTA would not levy the tax until Orange County Board of Commissioners says in a resolution that it wants TTA to levy the tax. This allows time to get the agreements worked out with the partners. Craig Benedict made reference to Attachment 6, which is a draft agreement. Chair Pelissier urged the County Commissioners to email any questions to staff before the meeting on Thursday. With no further items to discuss, a motion was made by Commissioner Jacobs, seconded by Commissioner Yuhasz to adjourn the meeting at 10:12 PM. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Bernadette Pelissier, Chair Donna S. Baker, CMC