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1 <br />APPROVED 2/12/96 <br />SPECIAL MEETING <br />ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1995 <br />5:30 P.M. <br />The Orange County Board of Commissioners met in special session on Monday, December 4, <br />1995 at 5:30 p.m. for the purpose of receiving information on Welfare Reform and its impact on <br />families and children in Orange County. <br />COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Moses Carey, Jr., and Commissioners William L. <br />Crowther, Stephen H. Halkiotis and Don Willhoit. <br />COUNTY COMMISSIONER ABSENT: Commissioner Alice M. Gordon <br />COUNTY ATTORNEY PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill <br />STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr., Assistant County Manager Albert Kittrell and <br />Clerk to the Board Beverly A. Blythe (All other staff members will be recognized appropriately below) <br />NOTE: All documents referred to in these minutes are in the permanent agenda file in the <br />Clerk's Office <br />INTRODUCTORY REMARKS <br />Social Services Director Marti Pryor-Cook said that she is not sure about the timeline for the <br />welfare Work First program. She is preparing her staff for what they feel is going to be the impact of <br />this plan. <br />Jan Schopler, Chair of the Social Services Board, thanked the County Commissioners for this <br />opportunity to present information on what they see as the impact of funding cuts on young children <br />and their families. She said that while they don't know the specifics of welfare reform, they do know <br />the direction it is going and feel the community needs to be involved in working out the specifics for <br />welfare reform. She introduced the other members of the Social Services Board. They are Rutha <br />Brooks, Phil Cook, and Bill Crowther. <br />PROFILE OF RECIPIENT POPULATION <br />Gwen Price summarized and compared the profile of recipient population in Orange County <br />to that of North Carolina. This included AFDC, Medicaid, S/CSA and Food Stamps. She noted that <br />there will be a large impact upon the AFDC population with the implementation of the Governor's <br />new Work First program. With regard to Aid to Families with Dependent Children in Orange <br />County, the average household size is 2.32 and the average payment is $223.36. The average <br />monthly number of recipients is 1,990 and the average monthly number of cases is 858. The <br />average duration of payments is 16 months. In Orange County 83.6% of the recipients are high <br />school graduates which is higher than the state 70%. She continued with the age and race <br />breakdown of the AFDC recipients. With regard to the JOBS program, Orange County has 267 <br />active participants. It is projected that the Work First participants will increase this number to more <br />than 600 in 1996 and 1100 in 1997. Gwen Price continued with some AFDC recipient profiles. <br />OVERVIEW OF MAJOR CHANGES <br />Marti Pryor-Cook stated that the NC Association of County Directors of Social Services <br />supports a welfare reform program that will help people move from welfare to work, strengthen <br />