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1~9 School system far educating handicapped children. Conditions upon re- ceiving these funds are those children which are excluded from public schools must be included, and those children who are mast severely handi- capped must be serviced befdre other handicapped children are served. A task force in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School System is presently working on a plan for use of these funds, and some of the monies have been proposed for purchasing services from other public agencies .and the Developmental Day Care Center has been recommended as one of those agencies. Mr. Turnbull stated that one important matter would be to have the area Mental Health Board and the County Commissioners work with the Task Farce is using their imagination in long range planning for the County's Mental Health Programs. This would be one way of studing federal grant opportunities. Discussion ensued. Commissioner Willhoit proposed to earmark $70,000 for April and May and in another month, the Mental Health Board would have a better idea of what funds might be forthcoming from the Federal Govern- ment or from the State.' Commissioner Pinney stated that the problem with this method is that if monies were not available at that time, more personnel would have to be cut at that time, then will have to be cut now. The Board asked the Finance Director to review the February Financial Report. Mr. Evans stated that the financial status was very similar to that of last year. There appears to be about $250,000 excess in the area of taxes. The County may end up with an excess of $50,000 in revenues. He stated that it appeared that the County may end up with a total of $350,000 in excess revenues at the end of the fiscal year. There appears to be a fund balance of $250,000. Mr. Evans skated that expenditures were quite tight, but he anticipated about $150,000 overall of unexpendi- tures funds at the end of the fiscal year. The present Contingency Fund has $118,000 which gives a grant total of $920,000. He added that it appears that the County would have about $70,000 more this year than it had at this time last year. Further discussion ensued. Commissioner Walker asked of the effect to Orange County if the other counties did not put in their share of the projected deficit. Chairman Whitted stated that the Mental Health Finance Officer had attempted to identify by programs and by counties, the sources of revenue to project the deficit far each county based on that breakdown. This breakdown gave Chatham County a $14,000 deficit. Person County $35,000 and Orange County a $104,000 deficit. The County which does not put in their share of the deficit, services will be cut in that County accord- ingly. Commissioner Walker stated that he had been advised that the County could not legally fund this program without seriously making the Board personally liable. He added that Person and Chatham Counties had made requests to the Local Government Commission to investigate the misuse of these funds. He stated that he would like to fund these two programs if fundings could be done in the legal framework of the law. Commissioner Gustaveson requested that Mr. Walker's legal counsel contact the County Attorney in order that he might be aware of the legal problems Mr. Walker had mentioned. Chairman Whitted asked the County Attorney if here was anything .... legally wrong with this Board making a supplemental appropriation to the Orange-Person-Chatham Mental Health Program. - The County Attorney stated that based on the research he had done, and after discussions with the Attorney General's Office and the State Treasurer's Office, it is his opinion that there would be no legal problem for Orange County to appropriate additional funds to pay it share of the cost of maintaining and administering services offered by the area Mental Health. He added that it had been suggested that it would be prudent for the County Commissioners to inquire into the legality of mental health spending.