Minutes 05-27-2010 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Bob Marotto said that the department will now be doing sterilization in-house. • Child Support Enforcement— Section 8 Paul Laughton reviewed the changes in services. There is an increase of about $38,000 in this department. This department is being budgeted at 100% salaries. That, combined with the retirement rate going up from 4.89% to 6.43%, has an impact on the budget. There were some reductions in non-permanent personnel and several operational line items. There is also an increase in revenue because of a revised indirect cost allocation plan. Frank Clifton said that this department is now in rental space and staff is looking at a place in an office building as an option to relocate. The lease runs out in December. Getting rid of the lease would reduce expenses about $55,000. • Cooperative Extension — Section 9 Interim Cooperative Extension Director Joey Knight said that this budget has a decrease of about $63,000. This budget proposes elimination of the breastfeeding program, which includes the Community Health Aide position, which will be reassigned to a similarly skilled vacant position within the County. The impact on salary and benefits is a reduction of about $42,000. Also, as of January 1, 2011, all positions within Cooperative Extension will become State employees and will be budgeted as a contract personnel line item. Joey Knight said that the breastfeeding program definitely needs to be taken over by the Health Department or another agency because the employee that is there now has trained about 250 Hispanic mothers per year in breastfeeding. Discussion ensued about the arrangement of County/State employment. Commissioner Jacobs said that the County Commissioners received an email from someone at Piedmont Health Services explaining why the breastfeeding program is irreplaceable. There was also an email from Alice Pettit, who used to be in Cooperative Extension, saying the same thing. Before he is ready to eliminate this, he would like to let the Health Director see those emails and have her address whether this service is going to be replaced. Commissioner Jacobs said that he would like to see the actual dollar amounts that are cut for a service throughout the budget, specifically. • Economic Development (Section 14-1), Visitors Bureau, and the Arts Commission (Section 36) Michael Talbert said that the Economic Development arm is seeing a reduction in the budget of $131,000. This is coming from reduction of general operating expenses, reduction in membership dues and subscriptions, reduction in advertising efforts, and reductions in communications to corporations. The largest part of the reduction is the transfer of the Arts Commission from Economic Development to the Visitor's Bureau. In the Visitor's Bureau, there are some significant changes with delivery of service. The budget is being reduced with decreases in mailings and an increased use of electronic communications, general operating reductions such as reduced subscriptions, and a reduction in a local art grant contribution. The Arts Commission is seeing reductions of about $149,000 from reduced mailings, reductions in advertising and promotions, and reduction in convention and trade shows. There will be one new position for the Arts Commission for about $80,286. The operating capital is not funded and the occupancy tax is expected to bring in about $840,000. The budgeted allocation from the Town of Chapel Hill is $150,000.