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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 20080612 APPROVED 9/16/2008 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS BUDGET WORK SESSION June 12, 2008 7:30 p.m. The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a Budget Work Session on Thursday, June 12, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. at the Southern Human Services Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Barry Jacobs and Commissioners Moses Carey, Jr., Alice Gordon, and Mike Nelson COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Commissioner Valerie P. Foushee COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager Laura Blackmon and Assistant County Managers Willie Best and Gwen Harvey, and Deputy Clerk to the Board David Hunt. All other staff members will be identified appropriately below). Chair Jacobs called the meeting to order at 7:31 pm. He went through the items at the Commissioners' places. There was a letter from Superintendent Pedersen (pink), a letter from the Land Trust (lime), and a letter from the Orange County Parks Commission. 1. Durham Technical Community College Budget Presentation and Discussion For more information see Appendix B-3 of the 2008-09 Recommended Budget (www.co.orange.nc.us/budget/documents/0809/Recommended/Appendix/B- 3.DTCCRequest.pdf) Durham Technical Community College President Bill Ingram made this presentation. He thanked the County Commissioners for their support thus far. He assured the Board that he would continue to provide conservative and realistic budget requests. He made reference to the letter sent to the Manager on May 20th that reflected the budget proposal approved by the Board of Trustees in May for a total of$581,694 for the 2008-2009 budget year. Behind the letter is some detail showing a total current expense request of$545,151 and a capital outlay of $36,450, for a total of$581,601. The detail also shows an annualized appropriation because the County has been providing support since the campus was opened in February 2008. The appropriated amount is what has been received from the County this year. It was annualized so that the Board could compare this year's expenditures over the next year. The next sheet provides additional detail on operations, salary and benefits, etc. The salaries include full-time security at the campus 24/7, salary for a full-time receptionist, prorated amounts for salaries for personnel who will be spending the bulk of their time on the main campus in Durham, but will be providing support and doing work in Orange County. The prorated amounts were between 3-10%. He went through each line item. The capital request includes some tools needed to maintain the facility and a small contingency fund, $20,000, in the event that there is a major breakdown that is not covered by insurance or a warranty. Commissioner Gordon asked about FT salaries and Bill Ingram explained that DTCC is asking for a portion of the salaries of some full-time employees that spend part of their time working for the Orange County campus. Commissioner Gordon asked for a clearer picture of who is there full-time and who is there part-time. Bill Ingram said that those that are there full-time will be paid for with State and County funds. These employees include the Director of Orange County Operations, an Administrative Supervisor of the facility, a Program Assistant for Continuing Education and Curriculum Programs, and a Library Technician. These employees will be paid with State funds. The full-time employees that are paid with County funds include three security officers and a receptionist. Commissioner Carey asked about the prorated amounts and if those were based on - estimation or on some other standard like percentage of students or square footage, etc. Bill Ingram said that this year was based on estimation because there was no history to go on. The Durham County Commissioners had similar questions and are pleased that there is a request for funds from Orange County to support the operation. The Durham County Commissioners want to be sure that the split of those salaries is done fairly, equitably, and accurately. The staff will be keeping close track this year about how much time is being spent by these individuals. Next year's request will be based upon a year's worth of data. 2. Discussion of FY 2008-09 Manager's Recommended Local Education Budgets For more information see Appendix B-1 (Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools Budget) and Appendix B-2 (Orange County Schools Budget) of the 2008-09 Recommended Budget • Chapel Hill Carrboro City Schools Budget www.co.orange.nc.us/budget/documents/0809/Recommended/Appendix/B- 1.CHCCSRequest.pdf Laura Blackmon said that the school boards have already made presentations, so this is an opportunity for the Board to ask additional questions. Chair Jacobs made reference to Superintendent Pedersen's letter. CHCCS Board Chair Pam Hemminger said that if CHCCS gets less than it requested, it will have to make cuts in the educational opportunities. Donna Coffey said that the Board had asked for the difference in what was in the school board's request versus what was in the House budget. Commissioner Carey asked about the salary increases for Durham Technical Community College. He forgot to ask Bill Ingram when he was here. Donna Coffey will find out this information. Commissioner Gordon asked about the calculations and what is going to happen with the House budget. Superintendent Pedersen said that the CHCCS used the projection of 5% increases for certified staff and 4% for others. The Governor has proposed a 7% increase for teachers in order to fulfill his commitment for teachers to be paid at the national average. That is one proposal on the table. Historically, the House has been more conservative in terms of proposed pay increases, and it has proposed 3% for certified and 2.75%for classified. From what he has read and received from the associations, it is expected that the Senate will come out with a proposal that is between the Governor's and the House. He urged the County Commissioners to not assume that it will be 3% and that it will probably be 5%. If it is more than 5%, then the school board will not come back and ask for more money. Pam Hemminger said that the earlier budget process this year has been much better. Chair Jacobs agreed and said that, regardless of what is done with the budget, he hopes that the school boards will not think that they were cheated by having participated in a process to try and do this earlier and more collaboratively. The Board will try and do the best that it can, as always. Superintendent Pedersen said that if the Manager's Recommended Budget is approved, then the school system could probably cope with it, but it will not be easy. CHCCS received an immigrant grant that was more than expected, and this will save $530,000 for funding ESL teachers. This grant will probably not be repeated. The custodial services have been redone and the savings achieved is in excess of$100,000. Some State funds are being used for middle school after school. He said that he has heard that the health insurance rates may stay the same. All of the savings total approximately $1.4 million, if all of the assumptions come true. Commissioner Carey asked about the $81,000 reimbursement to the OCS. Superintendent Pedersen suggested asking OCS about this because it receives all of the State transportation funds and is responsible for the fuels costs. In this case, CHCCS received a request from OCS based on 45%. • Orange County Schools Budget www.co.orange.nc.us/budpet/documents/0809/Recommended/Appendix/B- 2.00SRequest.pdf Chair Jacobs welcomed the OCS Board. Superintendent Rhodes said that the OCS Board appreciates the support from the Board of County Commissioners and he hopes that the County Commissioners will be able to fund the Manager's Recommended Budget. He continues to look for operational efficiencies, including avoiding hiring for now and consolidating positions where available. In terms of the fuel costs, OCS paid $143,000 more for fuel this year than previous years. When there are fuel cost overages, OCS does bill CHCCS. The Governor does make a fuel adjustment, and he expects to see one this year, but it does not address the entire amount. Ted Triebel said that OCS continues to assess its budget in light of the Orange County budgetary environment. OCS has approximately 100 locally funded positions. He said that if they do not properly fund the needs of the youth in this country, then there is a problem. The school board has done some soul-searching in this budget. Commissioner Gordon asked about the salary increases. Superintendent Rhodes said that typically, in salary negotiations, the Governor's recommendations come in higher than the House. He believes that it will end up being 5% unless something changes. Commissioner Carey asked about the projected fund balance and Ted Triebel said that it is lower than ever. He said that it is inappropriate for OCS to have a fund balance as low as it is going right now. Commissioner Carey asked about the percentage of the fund balance. Superintendent Rhodes said that they are just now in the process of closing out and reconciling all of the books and he does not have a number. Ted Triebel said that it would be something less than 3%, or less than $1 million. Discussion ensued on the target fund balance. Laura Blackmon said that the target is 3%. Donna Coffey said that the draft policy that the Board saw in April had 3% for OCS and 5.5% for CHCCS. This has not been approved by the Board yet. It will be coming back to the Board in the fall. Chair Jacobs asked about OCS contemplating developing its own printing capability. Superintendent Rhodes said that OCS had a very robust printing operation in the past, and he would like to bring it back. It is on hold because of equipment costs, etc. Chair Jacobs said that he asked because Orange County has $187,000 budgeted for printing. Superintendent Rhodes said that he had a conversation about this with the Manager last week, and he shared full information about this. This would be a great way to save money for everyone. Chair Jacobs asked about fully funding the nursing initiative. He asked how many places in the school system are lacking a nurse. Superintendent Rhodes said that there is one in every school except the alternative school. Chair Jacobs asked CHCCS about fund balance and nursing. Superintendent Pedersen said that CHCCS has a nurse in every school. Pam Hemminger said that nursing students are also volunteering time in the high schools. In terms of fund balance, the target is 5.5%. Some of fund balance was spent on one- time expenses this year. The fund balance is expected to be right at 5.5%. 3. FY 2008-09 Fire Districts Funding Recommendations For more information see www.co.orange.nc.us/budget/documents/0809/Recommended/FireDistricts.pdf and http://www.co.orange.nc.us/budget/documents/0809/Recommended/Appendix/F- 6.FireDistrictsRecommendations.pdf Laura Blackmon made reference to Section 6 in the budget book, which has information on fire districts. Commissioner Gordon asked if all of the districts were set at six miles. Fire Marshall Mike Tapp said that a final round of revisions on the maps based on Department of Insurance recommendations has been completed this week. This will be brought back to the County Commissioners for approval of the six-mile districts. Commissioner Gordon asked about the Damascus and Southern Triangle Fire Districts. She asked how the North Chatham Fire Department works with these two departments and whether it is considering that there is a fire station very close to Southern Village. Mark Riggsbee said that station is a Chapel Hill Station 5 and Chapel Hill only covers the city limits of Chapel Hill. This fire department does have a very close working relationship with the Chapel Hill Fire Department and runs with them on a weekly basis. Chair Jacobs asked the chiefs if they like this way of doing the budget. When the Board talked a few years ago about hiring a consultant to help with fire and rescue analysis, one of the impetuses was that when this part of the budget is brought up, there are no questions, and the Board has no insight into what is being presented. It does not seem like a very interactive or satisfactory process. EMS Director Frank Montes de Oca said that there is more interactive dialog that Emergency Services and Orange County would like to take with the fire districts. He said that each district does a good job of looking out for their needs. He said that there could be some economies of scale achieved by more interactive dialog. Orange Rural Fire Chief Jeff Cabe said that there used to be a Commissioner assigned to the Orange County Chief's Council. Chair Jacobs said that he is still the assigned Commissioner. He said that no one has anything to hide and most of the fire chiefs are not professional budget people, but they do the best that they can. He said that they welcome any questions. He said that they do not particularly care for the budget process because they are not accountants. Chair Jacobs asked Efland Fire Chief Kevin Brooks about the substation. Kevin Brooks said that it is open and has been open since the middle of April. Chair Jacobs said that there is a proposal for Buckhorn Village, which has a three-acre parcel designated for public use. He asked if there would be adequate fire coverage if there were a 1.3-million square foot retail development on this site. Kevin Brooks said that the new substation is 1/4 mile from Buckhorn Village, so there would be adequate coverage. 4. FY 2008-09 Outside Agency Funding Recommendations For more information see www.co.orange.nc.us/budget/documents/0809/Recommended/Appendix/D- 2.NondeptlSummary.pdf Donna Coffey said that Appendix D-2 has all of the funded agencies on the first page and then it lists the non-departmental on another page. Commissioner Carey asked about the agencies at the bottom of the second page and if those were funded as pass-through funds and Donna Coffey said yes. Commissioner Carey asked about the Dispute Settlement Center and where the pass- through money comes from. Assistant County Manager Gwen Harvey said that this endeavor is located within Social Services. Social Services Director Nancy Coston said that a portion of this is part of the Justice Partnership funds. The County also has a contract with the Dispute Settlement Center that shows up in the County budget. There is some mediation with Work First and other programs where contracts are used. Chair Jacobs made reference to Appendix D-1 and Planning Initiatives. He said that in the document, it says that the Eno Economic Development District Water and Sewer Study may take place in this current fiscal year, but it is not definite. He asked why it is shown if there has been no agreement with Durham. Craig Benedict said that last year there was $20,000 in the budget to put out an RFQ to find out about doing this study. A sample of water showed that $20,000 would not cover a water and sewer feasibility study. The estimate was $50-100,000. Since the small area plan is coming to a conclusion, staff thought that the discussions with Durham would continue over the next few months and during the next fiscal year, there could be some more research and the study could be finished. There would be a shared financial responsibility. There would be $20,000 from this year carried forward to next year, $30,000 extra next year, and the total amount would probably be $100,000 to be shared with the City of Durham. Chair Jacobs said that this is not clear in this document. With respect to the park payment-in lieu study, Commissioner Gordon said that there is a coordinated parks plan that shows all of the parks in the County, so there is information for that study. Laura Blackmon said that in order to do things like an impact fee or payment-in-lieu, there must be a strategic plan or levels of service established. There is an incomplete plan to do that now. Chair Jacobs said that Mr. Tischler is doing another study for the County and he asked about the status. Craig Benedict said that the School Impact Fee Impact Analysis will be coming forward to a public hearing after the break. School costs have gone up appreciably and that will be reflected in impact fees. Chair Jacobs moved on to outside agencies. Commissioner Carey said that there were two agencies that the Manager recommended less money for next year than this year, and one of them was KidsCope. He asked about what happened with the budget and the actual amount. Gwen Harvey said that the Human Services Advisory Commission reviewed the formal application for the upcoming fiscal year, and this application was submitted in early 2008. This was why the HSAC recommended the funding that it did, which was full funding. If the request was amended, the HSAC did not know about it. Commissioner Carey said that he is puzzled by how the amount went from $89,000 to $139,000. Donna Coffey said that the Board approved a budget amendment earlier this year and awarded additional funds to KidsCope. Commissioner Carey asked for a history on this. Generally, a budget amendment is for a one-time expense. Chair Jacobs said that he recalls warning them that it was a one-time expense. Chair Jacobs made reference to page 8.1, Non-Departmental, and the drug testing costs that have doubled. He asked if drug testing was being expanded to more employees. Human Resources Michael McGinnis said that it does cost a little bit more and there are more employees, but the budget is requesting that all new employees be tested. Currently, the County only tests employees that are required to be tested by the State. Chair Jacobs asked if there were tests for alcohol and it was answered no. Chair Jacobs said that he has a problem with that because it is intrusive and discriminatory. Chair Jacobs made reference to the School Collaboration Consultant and asked if this was the full cost. Donna Coffey said that she would have to go back and see. The County has billed each school system for one-third of the total each. Commissioner Carey made reference to Appendix D-2 under Non-Departmental Funding, and the Partnership to End Homelessness. He thought that there was a three-year commitment for this, and there is $0 budgeted for this year. Donna Coffey said that this is budgeted in Housing and Community Development. Chair Jacobs asked why Club Nova funding is shown as $0 for previous years and then $7,000 requested, $7,000 recommended, and then this is for$70,000. He asked how this is a reflection of what has happened. Gwen Harvey said that last year Club Nova came to the Board and the Board provided a grant in the amount of$75,000. This year Club Nova submitted two applications— one within the outside agency process for$7,000 for software and then one for$75,000 for service subsidy. This was submitted outside the process. Laura Blackmon said that the separate requests are listed on the back page. The request did not come in when the other requests were coming in. It came in outside of the process, so she did not recommend it. Chair Jacobs asked how many requests are received outside the process. Gwen Harvey said that this is the only one. Chair Jacobs made reference to the Orange County Partnership for Young Children and asked if this was a new request since it is all $0 on 8-7. Gwen Harvey said that it is not a brand new agency making a request. It might be a special initiative outside of State funding. Laura Blackmon said that if it is on this list, it came through the application process. Chair Jacobs said that it shows all zeroes in the past. He is puzzled about why it is listed in this manner. Chair Jacobs asked about the school nurse program and the increase of$160,000 from last year. He just heard from the two school systems that they are caught up. Health Director Rosie Summers said that this is for salary increase for the nine positions. Chair Jacobs and Commissioner Carey asked that someone check on this because $160,000 is a lot for 5% for only nine positions. Commissioner Gordon made reference to Piedmont Wildlife Center and HYAA. She remembers having a conversation about that, and asked for more information. Chair Jacobs said that these two were put on probation for now. For Piedmont Wildlife Center, it was a disproportionate amount of money going to them for the services rendered to Orange County, and HYAA had some diversity issues and it has offered to meet with the Human Rights and Relations Commission. The Board did not agree to any amounts going up. The Board asked staff to research this increase, because it did not recommend an increase for Piedmont Wildlife. Chair Jacobs said that he does not want to give more money to Research Triangle Regional Partnership. Chair Jacobs made reference to page 3 of Appendix D-2, and asked about the incentive program. Michael McGinnis said that the County funded this several years ago to encourage employees to conserve energy and resources. The $2,500 was budgeted for providing incentives for employees to come up with programs that would save money or provide better services. This has not been funded in the last several years. Chair Jacobs made reference to Lake Orange and said that he thought that Hillsborough paid $20,000 for half of modernizing the system. He asked about the $1,500 budgeted. Donna Coffey said that this is for upkeep of the property. She will make sure this is the case. Commissioner Nelson asked when the County Commissioners voted to drug test all employees and Laura Blackmon said that the Board did not vote to do this. Particular categories of employees are drug-tested. Commissioner Carey asked that something be brought in writing about positions that require drug testing and what the current policy is. Chair Jacobs made reference to the global question of outside agency funding. There were three agencies that have never been funded before, including one for$60,000. Commissioner Carey pointed out that there are 26 projected increases. He thought that the Board agreed to hold all outside agencies at last year's level. Chair Jacobs said that Club Nova is his only concern because he does not want to hold Club Nova at $7,000. He wants to sort this out with Club Nova. A motion was made by Commissioner Carey, seconded by Commissioner Nelson to keep all outside agencies at last year's funding level, except for Club Nova, until it can come to the Board and make some explanations regarding the requests. Chair Jacobs made reference to KidsCope and said that it might be an issue because it will be held at the current level and Club Nova might be getting a second chance. Commissioner Carey said that KidsCope is a different situation. Chair Jacobs asked staff to check on information from KidsCope anyway. VOTE: UNANIMOUS 5. FY 2008-09 Employee Pay and Compensation Plan • Including Recommended Funding Levels for Temporary Personnel and Overtime Laura Blackmon said that the recommendation for COLA is 2.5%. The recommendation for the in-range increases is at 1% for proficient and 3%for exceptional. The other increase is the health insurance increase that has been budgeted at 8%. Commissioner Gordon asked about the health insurance increase. Michael McGinnis said that he is getting regular input from the vendor and it is looking better than the first estimate of 11%. Laura Blackmon said that there will be time in the fall to make more adjustments to keep the costs in line. Laura Blackmon made reference to the modified sheet that was given to the County Commissioners last week regarding cost-cutting, on that list was reducing the COLA from 2.5% to 2.0%. This is shown on the chart on D-6. She thought that it would be good to look at the whole range and how much it would cost. Chair Jacobs asked about grant-funded positions. Commissioner Gordon verified that these grant-funded positions are in the current budget. Laura Blackmon said that the new information is a chart that shows whether the positions are full-time, whether it is supported by a grant, where the grant comes from, etc. 6. Further Discussions Regarding the 2008-09 Recommended Budget • Including Supplemental Information (by exception)provided in the Recommended Budget Document Appendices. For more information see FY08-09MgrRecAppendicies Laura Blackmon said that staff provided some additional information by request of the Board. This includes historical overtime expenditures and recommendations (blue sheet, Appendix E-4). There is also a list of temporary positions recommended for transition into full- time permanent. There are still some temporary positions, represented on the green sheet. Commissioner Gordon made reference to the historical overtime expenditures. She asked that staff address the ones that are $50,000 or more (green sheet). She asked for some indication on the reasoning. Nancy Coston said that the social workers used to be exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act and there was an interpretation that changed that a few years ago. The line of work causes a lot of overtime, and there is a fairly high vacancy rate. She thinks this is what is happening regarding the overtime. Laura Blackmon made reference to Emergency Services and the Sheriff's Department and said that historically there is overtime. Emergency Services Director Frank Montes de Oca said that there are three units that he staffs full-time, 24 hours a day, and there is a fourth one that is staffed from 9-9. There are also five units that are initial or immediate response vehicles that are staffed 24 hours a day. He is looking at some different staffing matrices to see if there can be some cuts. Laura Blackmon said that the Sheriff's Department is very similar in trying to have enough coverage. Commissioner Nelson said that he has a hard time with why some of these other departments would have to have overtime as opposed to somebody taking comp time. For example, Human Rights and Relations could take comp time if they have to work weekends instead of overtime. Laura Blackmon said that for the most part, departments are trying to do as much comp time as possible. With a small department that is trying to handle the public coming in, they are not able to do as much comp time to cover everything. Human Rights and Relations Director Shoshannah Smith said that her department uses comp time entirely for bi-lingual employees. She only has two and one is exempt. The non- exempt employee works nights and weekends and she is also needed during the 40-hour work week. Chair Jacobs said that there is still money in the budget for vacant positions. He said that the County is setting aside money in the budget for positions that it has not filled, but it is also paying overtime and temporary time. It seems like this could all be streamlined, and if there are positions that are not going to be filled anytime soon, and temps are being used for overtime, there should not be money set aside for the position for the entire fiscal year. Frank Montes de Oca said that some of the positions were frozen last year because of financial issues. Chair Jacobs gave an example of telecommunicators, which are chronically not filled. The department is using temporary and overtime, but there are two vacant positions at$45,000 and $49,000. It seems that this should roll into temporary and overtime. Laura Blackmon said that the policy does not allow using line items for other expenditures. The County budgets salaries at 96% so that the excess is absorbed. Commissioner Gordon made reference to OPT, which has one full-time and one half- time position for drivers. OPT has been using retirees to drive, so it is more flexible and benefits are not needed. OPT had 1.5 FTE vacancies and recommended that it be eliminated and reinstated for a flexible temporary pool. Now that the ridership is increasing, this arrangement might affect service in an adverse way. She wants to consider this. Donna Coffey said that there is funding for the 1.5 positions, and what got reduced was the temporary money. Commissioner Gordon asked what should be done about this— let OPT hire the 1.5 positions, or allow them to fill it with temporary staff. Laura Blackmon suggested deleting the positions and increasing temporary to allow more flexibility. The Sheriff has done this before and this could also be done for OPT—delete the 1.5 positions and move the money to temporary. Commissioner Gordon said that she thinks this is what OPT wants. There is no budgetary impact. Commissioner Carey suggested flagging those two categories so that the Board knows that it did that for a specific reason. Commissioner Carey made reference to two positions at the top of the Vacant Positions list that have been vacant since 2006. He asked if those funds were in the budget. Donna Coffey said that these are the 1.5 positions for OPT. Laura Blackmon said that the County is making some changes in the way it is staffing. It is very difficult to do an across the board change. Some departments would like to use some temporary and have some flexibility. Commissioner Gordon said that if temporary positions are used to create permanent positions, then the temporary positions should also be scrutinized because they are usually not positions that the County Commissioners have approved. On the other hand, it is not right to keep a person on year after year with no benefits. Laura Blackmon agreed and said that some of these positions have been going on for years and have become an integral part of how the department functions. She said that she has not been comfortable with temporary positions since her arrival. The list of temporary positions is on Appendix C-2. Commissioner Gordon asked if there were temporary positions that the Manager was recommending to eliminate. Chair Jacobs asked for the Manager's recommendation. Laura Blackmon said that she is looking at needing an end point and a beginning point. She would recommend getting rid of all of the temporary positions on Appendix C-2. Commissioner Gordon said that she did not want anyone to be alarmed, but that she was just trying to find out information. Laura Blackmon made reference to Purchasing and Central Services and the conversion from a contracted position to Value Engineering. The other one is the Sustainability Coordinator, who would handle the energy initiatives. These are two positions that are not temporary as such right now. Chair Jacobs made reference to Appendix A-2 (blue). Under Temporary Personnel, there is $445,000 and then four lines down there is Reserve, Other Temporary for $111,000. He asked what is different and why it is not aggregated. Laura Blackmon said that last week there was discussion about reducing the temporary for departments but putting money in the Human Resources department so that the departments would have to go through a process requesting temporary staffing. This would reduce the flexibility of the department to fill permanent-type positions so that the County Commissioners are not approving them. This is the $110,750. Donna Coffey made reference to Appendix E-5 and said that this categorizes by department what is in each line item. Chair Jacobs made reference to page 2 and asked why he would not want to cut travel and personal mileage of$273,000. Laura Blackmon said that County vehicles are not provided and employees use their own vehicles to do County business. Mileage is submitted and the County pays for the mileage and use of the car at the IRS rate, which is lower than the cost. Chair Jacobs said that the County is way overdue in talking about cutting gas consumption, mileage driven, etc. It seems like there is no plan and these are increases that he will probably not vote for. He will suggest making an arbitrary cut. Commissioner Gordon said that if people have to use their own cars and they have to do something for their job, then that is reimbursement that should be paid. Commissioner Carey said that there needs to be a plan. He said that if an employee is asked to use their own car without being reimbursed, then it is basically asking the employee to subsidize the County. Chair Jacobs said that he is not suggesting that employees not be reimbursed, only that less be budgeted and that the County be more rigorous in what it assigns people to do. For example, more people should ride together when going to meetings at the same place. Discussion ensued about the budget for travel. Commissioner Gordon asked about travel expenses for Social Workers. Social Services Director Nancy Coston said that most of the travel expenses are for field staff. She said that the employees generally do not want to drive their cars to do this because there is a lot of liability. Chair Jacobs asked why this is done. Nancy Coston said that the department has been adding two cars each year. There are five cars for all of the Social Workers. Chair Jacobs said that part of the plan can be to plan to eliminate the need for people to use their private vehicles to do County business. Chair Jacobs made reference to $98,000 on page 4 for spay/neuter and asked how that relates to the money being set aside for spay/neuter. Animal Services Director Bob Marotto said that it does not relate directly to the Community Spay/Neuter fund. The line item is used almost exclusively for the sterilization of animals adopted from the animal shelter. Chair Jacobs asked if the cost of the spay/neuter was recovered when the animal was adopted, and Bob Marotto said that a portion of the cost is recovered. Chair Jacobs asked how much was recovered. Bob Marotto said that he could only give rough esi:imates. The most would be one-third to one-half. Laura Blackmon said that the hope is that doing spay/neuter in-house in the new facility will be cheaper. Chair Jacobs asked about a minor line of$2.9 million called Contract Services. He asked if this was broken out anywhere. Donna Coffey said that she could get this information. Chair Jacobs asked about the annual operating costs for opening new facilities and said that the Justice Facility was opening in the fall of 2009, but it is listed as 2008. He asked staff to check the dates on all of the construction projects. If some of the projects are going to be pushed back, then there may be some savings in operating costs. A motion was made by Commissioner Gordon, seconded by Commissioner Carey to adjourn the meeting at 10:16 pm. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Barry Jacobs, Chair Donna S. Baker, CMC Clerk to the Board •