Minutes - 20050301 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

Commissioner Gordon asked for an explanation on the per pupil funding item. Geof Gledhill said that the way it works now is that counties have to make their per pupil funding decisions based on estimates of what the number of students are going to be. This item is proposing that the per pupil funding would be based on the actual number of students as of a specific date. Commissioner Gordon made reference to pages 8 and 9 and suggested some rewordings. Chair Carey asked Commissioner Gordon to write this up and give it to the staff, and Commissioner Gordon did this. Commissioner Gordon made reference to #30, "Support a public referendum on the question of a lottery to provide funding for education," and said that the point is that the County Commissioners want a public referendum on the question of lottery, and not that the County Commissioners necessarily support the lottery or not. She suggested some alternate wording as follows: "Support the following position: If the legislature decides that a lottery is appropriate, it should conduct a public referendum on the question of the lottery to provide funding for education." Commissioner Halkiotis said that he likes it the way it is because he supports a public referendum period. He supports a lottery for the purpose of providing funding for education. Commissioner Jacobs agrees with Commissioner Halkiotis about supporting the public referendum. He would rather support horse racing than a lottery because he thinks it would help grow North Carolina industry. He thinks it should go to the voters. Chair Carey said to keep #30 as it is written. Commissioner Gordon stated that she has concerns about a lottery. Geof Gledhill asked Commissioner Jacobs to speak to the new initiatives about elections. Items 31-37 are new and relate to elections. Commissioner Jacobs said that the committee tried to address the problems that arose in the last few elections and insisted that it was important to have a paper trail. There are some other things to open up the opportunity for state employees and to encourage local government employees to be able to serve as poll workers. There was an attempt to make sure that any initiative by the State to mandate a certain level of service would be accompanied by a State fund. Geof Gledhill said that other new initiatives relate to supporting State funding for public libraries, supporting a ban on video poker or an alternative to provide the money, legislation in increasing flexibility for use of 911 fees, and supporting the Association of County Commissioners' goals for Medicaid relief. There are also things the County is looking for help for from the State -the arts studio at Northern Human Services Center and the Homestead Road/Rogers Road sidewalks. There are also funding requests for help with the kitchen at the senior center at the Southern Human Services Center, and a request to Representative Price concerning funding the Orange County Heritage Center. The light pink sheet is regarding a request from the Historic Preservation Commission. Tina Moon from the Planning Department introduced this issue. A North Carolina Rehabilitation Pilot Code was adopted as a trial period and is scheduled to sunset in January 2006. The purpose of the code is to help bring old buildings up to building code standards. The new code is designed to break down the code based on what the owner is trying to do. This becomes an issue in commercial districts when safety is an issue with older buildings. This code has forced the preservation community to have a better dialogue with inspectors. The message is that this code can benefit historic preservation and they would like to explore the concept of adopting the code. 14