Minutes 05-25-2010 - Laserfiche WebLink

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increases and unavoidable expenses such as increase in debt for new facilities, increased assessment for retirement of existing employees, etc. The balance of the budget required significant staff reductions. There are 37.5 less full-time positions in this year's budget, a six- month delay in filling vacancies, reorganizations within County government, consolidating services, and 13 new retirees that took advantage of early retirement incentives. He said that in prior years, the County has been funding payroll and employee benefits at 96% of true value, assuming that there would be a 4% turnover in employees throughout the year. This year, the County will be funding the payroll for employees at 100%. There has also been a deferral of capital projects, deferral of technology improvements, deferral of any new needed staffing with the exception of four additional paramedics in EMS, reduced operation hours and services, phased-out programs, stricter and tighter priorities on existing staffing actions and opportunities, and a reduction of governmental services in Orange County as a whole. 3. Public Comment Hollie Taylor Novak distributed a handout. She teaches at Chapel Hill High School and serves as Chair of the Orange County Artists Guild. She said that they would like to thank Orange County government for 25 years of unwavering support of the arts. She said that they have difficulty understanding that after 25 years of solid support of the arts in Orange County, this commitment is waning. She read her handout: "The Orange County Artists Guild opposes the move of the Orange County Arts Commission to the Visitor's Bureau for the following reasons: - it eliminates arts funding from the County's General Fund. Our perception is that this move is the first step toward completely eliminating support of the arts from county government. - There are no commonalities in the stated missions of the Visitor's Bureau and the Arts Commission. The mere fact that the Visitor's Bureau uses the existence of a lively arts community to promote tourism is insufficient justification to make this move. The Visitor's Bureau already does an outstanding job in promoting the arts to tourists and does not need to absorb the Arts Commission to continue to do so. - The arts function of county government is more than tourism. It is a tool for economic development, a tool that has been underutilized in Orange County. Helping artists to find retail space in which to market their work would help the County increase sales tax revenues. This is less likely to happen if the arts function is embedded in tourism. We ask that you consider the following issues as you make your decision whether or not to move the Arts Commission to the Visitor's Bureau: - How and by whom will decisions be made on how the 2010-11 OCAC funds will be spent? How much will go to locally supported grants? How much to overhead? - What percentage of the NC Grassroots Grants funds will actually go to artists and arts organizations? In the past, 85-90% of these funds were distributed as grants. Will that percentage continue or will a greater percentage be withheld for administrative expenses? Will this withheld amount remain with OCAC, with the VB, or will it be placed in the General Fund of Orange County and used without restrictions?