Minutes - 06-18-2001 - Laserfiche WebLink

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The two fire departments that asked for an increase and were not recommended are Eno and New Hope. The reason for not approving these increases was because they have large fund balances. Chair Halkiotis asked for a list of all of the fund balances for all the fire districts. He said that the fire departments should da competitive bidding on equipment. Commissioner Jacobs asked for an explanation of the new outside agencies, which were not funded this year. He would like to know the rationale for the decision not to fund. He noted that the increase for the Dispute Settlement Center is the largest. He raised the issue that when the County wanted to use the Dispute Settlement Center, we could not avail ourselves of their services even though we are providing tens of thousands of dollars. They do great work but when we try to avail ourselves of their service, he would like to get some consideration in return for the generosity. John Link said that the only reason an increase is recommended is because of a special program. Commissioner Brown asked about the Institute of Government funding. It was answered that there is a capital contribution of $2800 per year and that annual dues are paid. Commissioner Brawn said that she has called the Institute of Government several times and has never received a response. John Link said that he is very distressed to hear this. He said that Michael Smith would want to know this. Commissioner Brown asked about the Disability Awareness Council. She said that they are residing at the Skills Development Center, which does not charge any fees for their space. She recommends that the new Social Services Director work with the Disability Awareness Council to determine how what they want to do affects services they want to offer. John Link said that his recommendation is that there be stipends for specific training needs that the Disability Awareness Council may have. Commissioner Carey suggested including stipends but putting it in escrow until the DSS Director can meet with the Disability Awareness Council and further define their needs. 6. REVIEW OF 2-1-4 CENT TAX INCREASE SCENARIOS John Link made reference to the memo to the Board dated June 18, 2001, Observations Regarding 2001-02 School Requested Budgets. He said that the overall increase in the recommended school funding is 7.5°~ and not 1.75%. He said that the 1.75% relates to the increase in the per-pupil funding that was recommended. He thinks that it is unrealistic to expect that the total current expense funding can approach what has been in the past at 8-10%. The reason is the high debt service for school projects. He spoke about three options that could be pursued to address, in particular, the Orange County system's needs. Option one is that some amount of the pay-as-you-go funding that has been earmarked for debt service for Cedar Ridge High School could be replaced with some of the additional revenue from increased impact fees. The pay-as-you go funding could potentially be used by the school system for current expense. This requires an agreement of the County Commissioners and the two school boards. Option two is to reduce the Chapel Hill district tax by one penny and increase the countywide tax by one penny. This would create an additional $350,000 for the Orange County system, and a net reduction of $35,000 for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro system. Option three is responding to the request by the Orange County system to mitigate the additional appropriation put into the nursing program. Increasing the contract that would go from the Health Department to the Orange County system for school nurses could do this. Commissioner Gordon asked for information about using impact fee revenue for projects retroactively. She asked if the Board of County Commissioners must fund just as the Schools Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance says. County Attorney Geoffrey Gledhill will provide this information to the Commissioners as soon as possible. Commissioner Jacobs said that, assuming that the schools have these undesignated fund balances, what could be done so the schools will use these fund balances. John Link said that the County Commissioners could make observations far how the schools could best use their fund balance. He said that an observation could be made that part of Orange County's fund balance could be used toward the start-up costs for Pathways. For the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system, an