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I APPROVED 3/21/2000 <br />3 MINUTES <br />4 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />5 WORK SESSION <br />6 OCTOBER 13, 1999 <br />9 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met in regular session on Wednesday, <br />10 October 13, 1999 at 8:00 p.m. in the meeting room of the Southern Human Services Center in <br />11 Chapel Hill, North Carolina. <br />12 <br />13 COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Alice M. Gordon and Commissioners <br />14 Margaret W. Brown, Moses Carey, Jr., Stephen H. Halkiotis and Barry Jacobs <br />15 COUNTY ATTORNEY PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill <br />16 STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr., Personnel Director Elaine <br />17 Holmes, Planning Director Craig Benedict, and Clerk to the Board Beverly A. Blythe (all other <br />18 staff members will be identified appropriately below). <br />19 <br />20 NOTE: ALL DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN THESE MINUTES ARE IN THE <br />21 PERMANENT AGENDA FILE IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE. ALL RECORDINGS OF <br />22 THE MEETING WILL BE KEPT FOR 5 YEARS. <br />23 <br />24 1. Department Head Pay Equity Study Update <br />25 Elaine Holmes made the presentation. She said that in August she provided a draft plan <br />26 activities and timetable to the Board for any feedback. Since that time she has been proceeding <br />27 to implement the plan. The study involves two areas, salary grade relationships of department <br />28 heads and the work tools that are provided to department heads. She summarized the quotes <br />29 she had received from outside consultants - Municipal Advisors quoted $12,000; Scott Group <br />30 quoted $11,500; and DMG Maximus quoted $9,000. She was asked to look at doing the study <br />31 in-house. She said that there are two issues involved in doing the study in-house, workload and <br />32 objectivity. She does not think that the study could be done in-house in this fiscal year. <br />33 Chair Gordon said that there are funds in the approved budget to bring in an outside <br />34 consultant to do the study. <br />35 Commissioner Halkiotis is opposed to hiring a consultant to do this study. <br />36 Elaine Holmes highlighted two issues that will be taken into consideration when doing <br />37 the study. The job descriptions will be compared internally and a labor market survey will be <br />38 done externally. She said that doing the study in-house would move the completion into next <br />39 year. <br />40 Commissioner Halkiotis asked where the roots are in this pay equity issue. <br />41 Chair Gordon said that it started out as gender equity but was not limited to that. <br />42 She said that she has been interested in this issue for some time. She feels it needs to be <br />43 looked at from a woman's point of view because there is a perception that there are inequities in <br />44 terms of pay, office space, etc. She feels that there are inequities in the way women are treated <br />45 as department heads. It appears there are inequities in terms of space. She is not sure if it is <br />46 just the position the women hold or whether it is actual discrimination. <br />47 Commissioner Halkiotis asked about the number of department heads. <br />48 Elaine Holmes said there are 29 department heads including the two assistant managers <br />49 and the engineer. <br />50 Commissioner Halkiotis said that he has a personal problem with going out and hiring a <br />51 consultant because one or two people feel that there are inequities among the women