Orange County NC Website
APPROVED 06/0212004 <br />MINUTES <br />ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />WORK SESSION <br />April 1, 2004 <br />7:30 p.m. <br />The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a Work Session on Thursday, April 1, <br />20Q4 at 7:30 pm at the Government Services Center in Hillsborough, North Carolina. <br />COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Barry Jacobs, Margaret Brown, Moses <br />Carey, Jr., Alice M. Gordon, and Stephen Halkiotis <br />COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT: Geoffrey Gledhill and S. Sean Borhanian <br />COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John M. Link, Jr., Assistant County <br />Managers Rod Visser and Gwen Harvey and Clerk to the Board Donna S. Baker (All other staff <br />members will be identified appropriately below). <br />Chair Jacobs asked if the regularly scheduled meeting on May 6t" could be moved to May Stn <br />He asked the County Commissioners to let the Clerk know if this will be okay to change. <br />1. Interim Report and Recommendations from the Animal Shelter Operations Task Force <br />on GovernancelManagement of the Orange County Animal Shelter <br />Commissioner Carey served as the convener of this task force. <br />Commissioner Carey thanked the County Commissioners for letting him serve. He said that he <br />would introduce this item and then he would turn this over to Linda Schmoldt, a task force <br />member. He acknowledged the others that served on this task force. <br />Commissioner Carey said that they were asked to come back with a recommendation on the <br />governance and structure of the animal shelter to the Board of County Commissioners for the <br />Board to make a decision. The task force met this charge. The Board also asked the task farce <br />to make some recommendations on the future of the physical facility. They will have to <br />reconvene and continue to work on this. <br />Commissioner Carey said that during the deliberations of the task force, there were some <br />questions asked about a no-kill shelter and the cost of the governance and structure <br />recommended. He tried to steer them away from costs during this stage because he did not <br />want the task force to feel constrained in the recommendations because of the costs. He said <br />that he assured the task force that the County was going to run a quality shelter no matter who <br />runs it and how much it costs. The cost issue is for the County Commissioners to consider and <br />the task force just makes the recommendations. <br />Linda Schmoldt explained the different options in the recommendations. <br />Option A is to continue as is, contracting with the APS. <br />Option B was the mast popular. This option had a factor of an animal bureau. This would allow <br />for more organizational latitude, it would more likely appeal to volunteers, it would have better <br />financial management through an identifiable budget, and it would have a softer edge than a <br />County department. There would be direct accountability to the County Manager and the Board <br />