Minutes 05-26-2011 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

Frank Montes de Oca said that last year they spent $60,000 in hooking up NCDOT traffic cameras. With regard to weather radar, he would like to have a backup system to The Weather Channel. Regarding training for the elected officials, there is training available off-site. Commissioner Yuhasz said that he is concerned about not including the funding for the ADA program, which was requested fairly recently. He wonders what needs to be done to get this money back into the budget. Commissioner Jacobs agreed with Commissioner Yuhasz and said that this was an important advance. Commissioner Jacobs also said that he does not know how well they are educating the public on emergencies and how to respond or where to go. He wants to know what the Board of County Commissioners' role is. He would like to see the emergency plan before the summer break. Frank Montes de Oca said that the County does manage some of the notification systems. An example is the Silver Alert, and they can send emails and text messages. They are also using social media. He said that the not so good answer is that the County has not had the staff to address these shortcomings. Commissioner Jacobs said that the fire chiefs had expressed a concern that there is not a Fire Marshall. Frank Montes de Oca said that he has taken on the responsibilities of the Fire Marshall and he needs to get some information out to make sure that the fire departments know what this means. It does not change the way the inspections and investigations are done. This also saves $80,000 a year. Commissioner Jacobs said that one of the fire departments that was mentioned for stationing a vehicle is one of the ones that asked for a tax increase and it was not recommended. He said that being more positive in how the County approaches fire departments would be a good idea. Commissioner Jacobs made reference to the data and said that he wants to get away from average response times. He is pleased about moving forward, but the data now is still murky. He would like to see "mean" times and times by the area of the County. He also asked for Frank Montes de Oca's response to the recent EMS study/report. Commissioner Gordon underscored the emphasis about getting the information out to the County Commissioners and the public about what they need to do in case of an emergency before the summer break. She said that there are other issues besides weather events such as a nuclear event. Health (includinq Fee Schedule chanqe requests) This is on page 21-1. Paul Laughton made reference to page 68 and Appendix B. Total expenditures for the department are $7.1 million, which is an increase of $100,000. This number is a little misleading because there are 90 FTEs and just the health insurance increase and retirement and 401 k increase makes up the entire increase. There is a decrease in operations (page 21-1) for the department. Most of this is due to the savings of building rent at the Carr Mill Mall for the relocation of the dental clinic to the Whitted Building. The department also requested $63,000 in capital outlay funds for completion of the permits and to meet the needs of the Environmental Health Division ($40,000); purchase of field tablets, printers, and barcode scanners; and purchase of five laptops for social workers. These are items will be funded by the General Fund, but through the IT Capital Project. Dr. Rosemary Summers introduced Dr. Dorothy Solenti, who will be the Interim Health Director starting June 1St. Dr. Solenti has been a health director with both Chatham and