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Commissioner Brown stated her support for looking at the businesses with which Orange County does <br />business. <br />Commissioner Brown passed out a memorandum and asked the Manager that as he develops the <br />county budget this year, to include scenarios with zero tax increase, 1-cent tax increase, 2-cent tax <br />increase, and 3-cent tax increase. This would occur at the same time the Manager made his <br />recommendation for the budget. Commissioner Jacobs spoke in support of this idea. <br />Commissioner Brown passed out a memorandum and brought up another item dealing with having the <br />County Manager form strategies to work with the schools and the County budget. She believes it is an <br />important issue to work toward a completion around September 1999. <br />John Link stated that the requested budget scenarios will be provided to the Board, and that as to <br />school capital, he will present the issues that need to be addressed prior to implementation. <br />MATTER NOT ON THE PRINTED AGENDA <br />Claudia Haskins of 123 Weather Hill Pointe, Carrboro is a Chapel Hill/Carrboro City Schools employee <br />teaching English as a Second Language (ESL). She noted that North Carolina is experiencing a large <br />number of students whose native language is not English. The burden has become so great that the <br />Chapel Hill/Carrboro City Schools and the Orange County ESL teachers have been collaborating to find <br />solutions for dealing with the increase of English-deficient students. They have formed a varied group from <br />the community of business leaders, teachers, UNC-CH professors, and other concerned citizens. After four <br />(4) months of work, the top recommendation was to decrease the ESL student-to-teacher ratio to the <br />Federal guideline of 20 to 1. Ms. Haskins said that the schools need additional funding to hire more <br />teachers. She also indicated that the County Commissioners are going to be hearing from many other <br />Orange County citizens between now and budget time in an effort to gain additional funding needed for this <br />program. <br />4. COUNTY MANAGER'S REPORT <br />In answer to Commissioner Halkiotis' question regarding the ABC Board John Link stated that the <br />ABC Board has grandfathered in the seven (7) employees who previously qualified for health insurance <br />upon retirement. While the ABC Board did not take any action to extend this policy to their present <br />employees, they did indicate that they were willing to work with Elaine Holmes to work out the details. <br />Manager Link stated he and Commissioner Halkiotis will attend the meeting in which this concern will be <br />again addressed. <br />John Link said that Tara Fikes is serving her second term as Chair of the Board of Directors of the <br />North Carolina Low Income Housing Coalition. This coalition is a private, non-profit organization, which <br />provides decent, safe, and affordable housing to low-income North Carolinians. It includes a diverse <br />membership of housing providers, civic leaders, elected officials, business leaders, etc. Manager Link and <br />the Board commended Ms. Fikes' contributions to this statewide organization. <br />5. RESOLUTIONS/PROCLAMATIONS <br />a. Resolution on State Reorganization of Environmental Health Programs <br />The Board considered a resolution of support for keeping environmental health programs <br />together in the Department of Health and Human Services. This resolution has already been adopted by 48 <br />other counties in North Carolina. Health Director Rosemary Summers read the resolution. <br />RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF PLACING ALL PROGRAMS TRADITIONALLY IN THE DIVISION OF <br />ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH UNDER THE ORGANIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND <br />HUMAN SERVICES <br />WHEREAS, Delivery of Environmental Health services to the Citizens of North Carolina is carried out at the <br />county level by local health department employees; and <br />WHEREAS, Delivery of Environmental Health services at the local level is funded by local dollars (97 <br />percent local and 3 percent state); and