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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - 20081014 APPROVED 11/18/2008 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS WORK SESSION October 14, 2008 5:30 p.m. The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a Work Session on Wednesday, October 14, 2008 at 5:30 p.m. at the Link Government Services Center in Hillsborough, North Carolina. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Barry Jacobs and Commissioners Moses Carey, Jr., Valerie P. Foushee, and Mike Nelson COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: Alice M. Gordon COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: Geof Gledhill COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager Laura Blackmon, Assistant County Manager Gwen Harvey and Willie Best, 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. Commissioner Foushee called the meeting to order and said that Chair Jacobs would join the meeting within the hour and Commissioner Gordon would join the Board at the 7:30 p.m. meeting. 1. 2009 Benefits Recommendation Laura Blackmon said that this item is to approve the benefits for the calendar year 2009. Human Resources Director Michael McGinnis apologized to the Board for the inaccurate information that was provided at the last meeting. There was additional information at the County Commissioners' places and he made reference to attachment 5B, which lists costs for the health care plan. Laura Blackmon said that last week there was information about the dental plan, and these numbers have been corrected based on information from Delta Dental. The staff is looking to keep the dental plan the same. Michael McGinnis said that with the dental plan, they were originally reimbursing on a table of allowances that had not been updated in years. He said that, regardless of how it is set up, there will be an amount that will be left over for the employee to pay. The flex spending account will be promoted this year, which is pre-tax money. Regarding the Employee Assistance Program, there is a suggested change of three visits to five visits. This would be an increase in cost of 7 cents per month per employee, which would bring the overall cost to $1.61 per employee per month. Commissioner Nelson asked about the healthcare plan and said that Michael McGinnis had mentioned other options and now the recommendation is to stick with the same plan. He asked about the reasoning behind this. Michael McGinnis said that the changes that occurred in the last several years are minimal and employees are only comfortable with a limited number of changes. He said that he would use this year to get the employees more involved in how the claims affect the premiums and then come back next year with more changes. Chair Jacobs asked when the Board would be talking about a wellness program. Laura Blackmon said that the staff is working on enhancing some wellness activities, and they are working with NCACC on this issue. Michael McGinnis said that he has applied for a grant of$16,000 to help fund the wellness plan and the Health Department will have a half-time physician that will work as a Wellness Coordinator. He said that NCACC has designated a person to help the staff work on the Wellness Committee. Benefits Manager Diane Shepherd pointed out the current wellness activities on the Passport to Wellness. The NCACC started this program. Employees can get points for participating in certain wellness activities. A motion was made by Commissioner Carey, seconded by Chair Jacobs to approve the enhancements to the dental insurance, flexible compensation plan, and employee assistance plans effective January 1, 2009. This includes the approval of the renewal of the current plan for health insurance with no changes in plan design for the plan year beginning January 1, 2009. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Commissioner Foushee said that there are some updates at the County Commissioners' places — blue item for Buckhorn Village and a resolution that was passed by the Town of Hillsborough last night. 2. Buckhorn Village PD/SUP (Rezoning/Special Use Permit) Confirmation of Revisions from October 7, 2008 BOCC Meeting Planning Director Craig Benedict said that on October 7th the Board of County Commissioners had a few comments and typographical errors that the staff has corrected. One of the changes had to do with amendments for smoking, which is on page 16. Smoking is now prohibited in all buildings, except for the resident buildings. There was an amendment to the drive-thru language that was amended by the County Attorney. He made reference to the blue sheet and the Affordable Housing provisions. The Attorney's Office worked on this with the applicant to come up with the language. The new language explains that the amount of payment-in-lieu will be determined based on what the market rate is at the time the units are being sold. The language has been agreed to by the applicant. The last page in the document is a letter from the applicant that they agree with all of the conditions in the Conditions of Approval, item 3c. A motion was made Commissioner Carey, seconded by Commissioner Foushee to approve the recommended and revised Conditions of Approval noted in Attachment 3(c) with developer's agreement concerning above as noted in Attachment 3(d); approve Attachments 2, 3(a), and 3(b) to the October 7, 2008 Board of County Commissioners' Buckhorn Village Agenda Item Abstract; and approve the Special Use Permit subject to final review and approval by the County Attorney prior to the permit being recorded. VOTE: UNANIMOUS 3. Establish Educational Facilities Impact Fee Public Hearing Craig Benedict said that this was on a previous agenda and was deferred. He said that the staff wants to set a public hearing on November 61h, and the draft notice of the public hearing is included in the abstract. There was some language included about the maximum permissible impact fees. Commissioner Nelson asked if the recommendation is to take this to public hearing with a recommended increase to $19,039 in CHCCS. Craig Benedict said that it is not a recommendation to impose that fee, but a report that includes fees up to that amount. There is no recommended amount at this time. Laura Blackmon clarified that the idea of the public hearing is to allow the public to comment on the report so that the public hearing can be closed. Commissioner Nelson asked what the public will be commenting on. Laura Blackmon said that the public could comment on the fee, the numbers included in the report, where the numbers were retrieved, etc. Commissioner Nelson said that when this is tossed out open-ended, there will be an expectation that the County is raising the impact fee to $19,039. This will not be helpful in moving ahead. He said that this is why when there was a work session with the school boards a couple of weeks ago he strongly suggested that staff bring a report with a recommendation of what the impact fee should be based on - data, analysis, pros and cons of options, etc. Laura Blackmon asked if Commissioner Nelson would like the consultant to come and provide information and then hold a public hearing and Commissioner Nelson said yes. Commissioner Carey said that the Board has always put the maximum permissible fee out and the public has commented on it, but it could be done differently this time. He said that if the Board discusses this before the public hearing and where it wants to set the fee, this will give the public something to think about. Commissioner Foushee said that last time the Board put out the maximum supportable fee and made it clear that this was not necessarily where it would be set. The school boards were also given a chance to provide input. She would hope that people would understand that there is a formula used to reach these numbers. Chair Jacobs said that if the Board does not have the public hearing on November 6th then this will evolve to the new Board to make the decision. Commissioner Nelson said that he wants a recommendation from staff based on an analysis, fiscal status, and facts and figures. He is not interested in making a decision that is not based on facts. He does not want to take this to a public hearing without a recommendation. Chair Jacobs said that he would not want to take a staff recommendation to public hearing before the Board of County Commissioners discussed it. He would like to have a Board conversation that helped form the staff recommendation before going to public hearing. Also, Commissioner Gordon's direction at the last meeting was to talk about student generation rates, so the Board has to have this discussion. If the Board is comfortable, then there are three steps — have a discussion on November 6th, have a staff recommendation informed by that discussion, and a public hearing at the last meeting in November. The decision item would come to the Board at one of the two December meetings. The Board agreed. Geof Gledhill said that if the Board decides on November 6th what it is taking to public hearing, it may not meet public hearing notice requirements. The public hearing may have to be on December 1St The Board agreed to this by consensus. Chair Jacobs made reference to page 7, under number 1, and read, "Effective July 1, 1993, the Board of County Commissioners established a system of impact fees to help fund..." He said that it is not to help fund it, but it is to help recover a portion of the school capital needs created by the growth in the County. This is for cost recovery. Instead of"to help fund a portion," it should say, "to help recover a portion." 4. Public Participation in Future Phases of Transfer Station Siting Process Laura Blackmon said that at the last work session, the Board directed Olver to take the top ten sites that were identified through the technical criteria and to apply the community- specific criteria. Olver has done this and the recommendation will come back to the Board on October 21st. On November 18th, the Board should make a final decision on the Waste Transfer Station Site. Staff feels that there are probably some alternative processes for public participation, and these are outlined on page 5. She reviewed these proposals, which are incorporated by reference. Commissioner Carey said that he had planned a trip on the 21st and will not be back in time for the 5:30 p.m. meeting next week. He said that the Board needs for the public to comment, but he would tend to prefer to select a smaller number of sites instead of a larger number of sites. Commissioner Nelson said that his mother is having knee surgery on the 21st and so he should be back by 5:30 p.m. on the 21st, but he cannot promise he will be back in time. Commissioner Nelson agreed with Commissioner Carey about the smaller number of sites and that five sites seem too many. He said that closer to three sites seems better. He said that he will need more information on the ten sites than they had the last time. He wants to know what is currently located on each site. He would like to know if all of the owners are willing sellers or if condemnation would be involved. Commissioner Nelson said that he read Hillsborough's resolution and he respects almost all of the concerns. He said that a couple of the things about the process are factually incorrect. He suggested that the Chair write a letter to correct some of these things. One of the things that he noticed was, "limited transparency in the selection criteria." He said that those criteria were developed with many members of the public. Commissioner Foushee supported limiting the sites to no more than three sites. Commissioner Carey agreed. Chair Jacobs said that if the County Commissioners that cannot attend have any specific preferences, then he would be happy to share them with the public. Chair Jacobs pointed out that the Clerk's staff has made a listing of links to all newspaper articles over the last year on the transparency of this process. Chair Jacobs said that the Board needs some cost estimates on a transfer station (acreage for some of the proposed sites, etc.). The other question that he would like to have answered is what is in the Solid Waste Enterprise Fund to pay for this. Chair Jacobs said that he personally does not want Olver going out into the community holding meetings. He thinks that people should talk directly to the County Commissioners at this point. He said that it would be nice to have the process finished before the Board composition is changed, but he thinks that it is more important to get it right and to have people feel like they were heard. He does not think that one public hearing will cut it because there will be more people than can be accommodated in a 1.5 to 2-hour meeting. He said to cram it into November 5th and November 13th is a dubious proposition. He agreed with narrowing down the sites to three. Once the three sites are chosen, the meetings should be held closer to those sites. Commissioner Carey said that he agreed with Chair Jacobs about the listening sessions being with the Board of County Commissioners and not with Olver, and in both ends of the County. Chair Jacobs said that part of this process will be, when the County Commissioners pick a site, it will be as if it were a development proposal, and at that point, all of the mechanisms of review will come into play. He thinks that this needs to be explained on the 21st and at these meetings. Laura Blackmon said that the Board will receive a packet tonight for the next transfer station siting meeting with this information in it. She said that the financial information is being developed at this time and the Board should receive this by Friday. 5. Closed Session A motion was made by Commissioner Carey, seconded by Commissioner Foushee to approve going into closed session at 6:31 p.m. pursuant to G.S. § 143-318.11(a)(3) to consult with an attorney retained by the Board in order to preserve the attorney-client privilege between the attorney and the Board. VOTE: UNANIMOUS RECONVENE INTO REGULAR SESSION: A motion was made by Commissioner Foushee, seconded by Commissioner Nelson to reconvene into regular session at 7:00 p.m. VOTE: UNANIMOUS ADJOURN THE MEETING A motion was made by Commissioner Foushee seconded by Commissioner Carey to adjourn the meeting at 7:00 p.m. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Barry Jacobs, Chair Donna S. Baker, CMC Clerk to the Board