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A motion was made by Commissioner Carey, seconded by Commissioner Jacobs to approve a <br />performance agreement between The Peoples Channel and the County to be reviewed by the Board for tape <br />delay of regular Commissioners meetings beginning in February 2000. There will be another trial run by The <br />Peoples Channel on January 18, 2000. <br />VOTE: UNANIMOUS <br />Chick Krautler, Director of Triangle J Council of Governments said that the franchise <br />renegotiations continue to be a long, drawn out, and frustrating process. The one area of agreement from <br />Time Warner is that they do recognize their responsibility to broadcast all town and county board meetings <br />live throughout the region, and have agreed that they will provide the capability to do that if and when new <br />franchises are resolved. He said that TJCOG has not made very much progress on what they consider the <br />major issues. TJCOG has notified Time Warner Cable that they do not intend to spend any more time <br />negotiating with them until they begin to respond in a more positive fashion. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis thanked Chick Krautler for his frankness. <br />Chair Gordon mentioned the satellite companies allowing local programming and asked about <br />how many satellite subscribers there are in Orange County versus cable subscribers. <br />Chick Krautler said that satellite subscribers have picked up over the past couple of years and he <br />thinks it is directly related to the cost of cable. He thinks that a lot of cable customers will switch to satellites <br />once local programming is allowed. <br />10. REPORTS <br />a. 1998-99 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report <br />The Board received the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) and Single Audit Report <br />for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1999. <br />John Link commended Ken Chavious and his staff for an excellent financial report. <br />Finance Director Ken Chavious made a powerpoint presentation. He said that this report is an <br />end result of an audit that has taken place over the past several months performed by DeLoitte and Touche. <br />1. The undesignated fund balance at year end was 15% of operating expenses. As a result of the sound <br />financial policies in Orange County there were no audit findings for this year. <br />2. There were no questions caused by any of the County's grants. <br />3. The assessed value of Orange County was 6.7 billion dollars, which is a 5% increase over the previous <br />year. <br />4. For the third year in a row tax collections have exceeded what was in the budget. <br />5. The top three expenditures for the County were education, human services, and public safety. <br />6. There were cash and investments of nearly 20 million dollars at year end, which is an increase of almost <br />4 million dollars over last year. <br />7. The fund balance was almost 14.4. million dollars at year end, which is an increase of almost 3 million <br />dollars. <br />8. Last year during the budget process 2.2 million dollars was appropriated, and this is equivalent to a 3.2 <br />cents tax rate. <br />Ken Chavious then summarized the County's debt position. <br />1. The outstanding debt at year end was 83 million dollars. Of that 83 million dollars, obligation bonds were <br />almost 60 million, private placements were almost 24 million dollars, and unissued bonds were 56 million <br />dollars. <br />2. Refinancing the private placement on McDougal Elementary School realized $72,000 in savings this year, <br />and $720,000 over the remaining term. <br />3. All of the County's debt is below 5%. One of the County's financial policies is that the debt would not <br />exceed 3% of the assessed value. The actual debt at year end was 1.25% of the assessed value. <br />4. Another policy is that the debt service payments would not exceed 15% of operating expenditures. Actual <br />debt payments were 11.5% of operating expenditures. <br />10