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asked for $29 million more than last year and are only getting $16 million. The school system is <br />now going to have to cut positions. He is troubled this year with the budget. He remembers <br />getting budget proposals with everything broken down and over the years everything has gotten <br />refined. He wants to know why there are recommendations to fund six items in non- <br />departmental human services and why it is more money than last year. He would like to know <br />what some of these agencies are doing. He said that this year the State would be passing the <br />buck down to counties in many ways. He would like to see the two sheets that show the non- <br />departmental summaries. If he has those, then he can make an educated guess about how <br />many of those actually provide services to both school systems. He would also like to see the <br />commitment to conservatism with respect to utility costs. The departments had asked for an <br />increase of $509,000 for fuel and utilities and the recommended budget of $300,000 reflects a <br />reduction of $100,000 from the original $400,000. He said that you have to change the entire <br />culture to change the mentality of saving energy. This is not achievable by using someone <br />inside the system; someone must be brought in from the outside. He is concerned that there is <br />not a strategic plan for lowering energy costs. He would like to see the County's utility costs for <br />one year for all County buildings, along with the square footage of each building. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis asked if the staff has looked at a differentiated salary <br />enhancement plan to build up the salaries for those paid the least. He made reference to page <br />two of the PowerPoint, and the statement, "To that end, analysts predict that the majority of <br />State and local governments will face a budget gap as they begin planning for fiscal year 2005- <br />06." He is afraid that the County will be facing budget gaps for the next 10-20 years. <br />Chair Carey asked Personnel Director Elaine Holmes about the minimum livable wage <br />that is increasing, and asked if this is reflected in the budget somewhere. Elaine Holmes said <br />that in calculating the living wage, she used the formula that was used in the past that would <br />result in an increase from $9.11lhour to $9.34/hour. This impacts about 60 temporary <br />employees and the estimated cost of this is about $15,000. This is included in existing budgets. <br />There is no additional appropriation for this because it would be covered through existing <br />temporary wage budgets. Her recommendation is that the change be made effective July 1St <br />Cammissioner Gordon said that Commissioner Halkiatis asked for information and she <br />would also be interested in this information. She asked the staff to provide the line item detail <br />and Donna Dean said that they had planned to provide the line item detail at the first budget <br />work session. <br />Commissioner Gordon made reference to the major elements driving the budget <br />regarding capital. She asked if the $4.9 million was included in option 2 and John Link said yes. <br />At this time, there was a break before the work session, <br />1. Board of Elections Space Needs <br />Chair Carey said that this item resulted from a request of the Board of Elections to share <br />with the County Commissioners their space needs. <br />Mr. Melvin Beasley, Chair of the Board of Elections, said that they have four full-time <br />emplayees, a Director and three Deputy Directors. They are running out of space. On a normal <br />day, the office space is pretty good, but during elections, it is very congested. The ballots are <br />stored there and one-stop voting goes on at the office and there is not enough space to take <br />care of all of it. He said that if there were nothing stored in the office, it would be acceptable. <br />Billie Cox, a member of the Board of Elections, said that most of the things she will be <br />referring to are things that occurred in the 2004 election. She listed the requirements of the <br />storage of specific documents. She said that on Election Day and night, BOE staff and board <br />members are responsible to oversee operations and vote count, and there is also supposed to <br />be room for observers. None of these activities could take place at the official BOE site <br />because of inadequate space. They had to use some space at the Purchasing office across the <br />