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with it. That's how the State gives you the money, and they tell you to go out and do it. And if you don't <br />spend it right, they'll be all over you. That's the kind of straightforwardness and honesty we need to <br />have in this thing and not end up with something that's going to be a bunch of mystical words and <br />balloons floating around with little strings dangling from them. <br />Commissioner Brawn: I would like to see us creating an environment that the two school <br />boards could work together in. It doesn't direct anything specifically to cover, but just how people need <br />to trust and share and develop commonalities instead of differences. It's good thinking, it's a good way <br />to approach this very serious discussion. I'm in favor of it. <br />Chair Jacobs: And we have forwarded a lot of these documents, including the one that <br />Commissioner Brawn just mentioned to Mr. Sachs so that he could familiarize himself. What I'm hearing <br />is that we would like to have staff work with the two school boards to develop a charge, to hire Mr. <br />Sachs, to state a timeline to work on issues of collaboration, which is part of the charge that could be <br />identified. Is that a fair summary? And that we'd like to have that come back to us in January. <br />The Board agreed with this. <br />John Link: We'll be glad to certainly pursue that. My recommendation is that the Board <br />confirms that we pursue tangible and quantifiable areas of collaboration. For instance, can the two <br />school systems and the County collaborate, or having them agree on addressing issues such as how <br />we pursue budgeting here in Orange County between the two school systems or among the two school <br />systems? Can we talk about what programming is now on par between the two school systems? With <br />all due respect to our memorandum of understanding that we've been focusing on in the past, there are <br />a lot of issues that have to be addressed, but I'm looking to Andy Sachs to address conflicting values <br />and conflicting beliefs, and talking about commitment. I mean, if you don't' come to the table, you're not <br />committed. I would rather us have some tangible areas that we can say we're going to collaborate on, <br />whatever the term is you're going to use. And they're real items -it's the budget, it's programming, it's <br />how you work together on co-location of certain functions. Is that the areas that the Board wants us to <br />pursue? Because I'm trying to be as definitive as possible. <br />Chair Jacobs: Yes. We've given some examples, but you've just given some other kinds of <br />examples. Perhaps we can finally resolve the issue of what is a mandate. <br />Jahn Link: That's why I brought up the subject of budgeting. I would like to refer to the red <br />sheet, which is the item that was described by the County Attorney. We as County Managers, <br />Superintendents, and County Commissioners are instructed in this process when we go to the Institute <br />of Government. So we all know what we could da in terms of pursuing funding by projector by program. <br />There has been no county in this State that has been successful in pursuing that in terms of having a <br />positive outcome between the school boards and the County Commissioners. It usually results in <br />acrimonious outcomes, and it's not productive. However, when school boards andtor we are shouting <br />over the bow, saying, "This will happen or that might happen", that's not productive either. So when we <br />talk about the budget process, can we finally agree and collaborate on what we mean by mandates? <br />Can we finally agree and collaborate on what we mean by expansion items in the budget? And can we <br />finally agree on the fact that the County Commissioners don't fund Spanish teachers? However, when <br />everyone comes to a County Commission public hearing, and they say, "You haven't funded Spanish <br />teachers, Commissioners." I can speak only as the Manager, and it makes me want to fund Spanish <br />teachers by line item. We're in that paradigm where that's the process in which we work with the budget <br />proposals and presentations. Can Orange County do a better jab than we're doing in that kind of <br />process? So those are the kind of things I'd like to bring to the school superintendents, and hopefully <br />we can come back with something tangible that we can all agree as a body of work to collaborate on. <br />Chair Jacobs: And we would ask you to invite Mr. Sachs to some of those meetings, even if we <br />have not officially hired him. <br />Commissioner Carey: Are we finished with the discussion on collaboration? <br />Chair Jacobs: Yes. <br />Commissioner Carey: Like I said earlier, the amendment that I would like to make to my <br />proposal is not necessarily inconsistent with collaboration, because I've been a supporter of <br />collaboration for many years. It just has not worked to the extent that I'd like to see it work and think it <br />should work. And if the process that we have just charted a course for works, that's fine, and it may be <br />needed. One of the scenarios that I plan to ask the Board to consider tonight, and I haven't given up, <br />