Minutes - 20060120 - Laserfiche WebLink

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budget by a certain date. She suggested moving everything back a couple of weeks. She wants to eliminate the last minute crunch. Commissioner Foushee said that she is in support of a committee at an earlier point in the process. Her thinking is that it does not matter what the composition is. She said that if the Board does not establish priorities early in the process, then it makes it difficult for everyone to know what the goals are. She had problems last year with not knowing what the priorities were. The Board needs to make clear statements as to where Orange County is going. She said that she does not agree with the whole Board being the budget committee. Chair Jacobs said that he suggested putting this on the agenda because several Commissioners had complained about this last year. He suggested having a few options to consider about the budget process. He would like to see how other entities approach the budget -Chapel Hill Town Council or OWASA -and if they have a smaller group to look at the budget. He said that a smaller committee would be able to hash out the smaller stuff and not have to have more County Commissioners' meetings. The Board agreed to have staff bring back options on the budget committee. General ObservationslComments: Commissioner Gordon said that she is willing to go to any budget meeting that is scheduled, be it for the budget committee or just the County Commissioners. Commissioner Carey made reference to the possible 2007 band referendum and asked what the Board thought about this. He said that they made a conscious decision last year not to da a band this year, sa if they want to do a 2007 bond they need to put it on the radar screen starting this year. Chair Jacobs said that it seems that past 2007-2008, there are some opportunities to increase the debt capacity. He made reference to page three of fiscal outlooks, which includes some projects that could be considered. It was suggested that at the joint meeting of the Town of Hillsborough and Orange County in February that they discuss including Fairview Park in a possible bond. He wants to look at half-finished projects and commitments that have been made in good faith {i.e., CHCCS Elementary School #10). John Link agreed and said that the staff would need to get started in late spring. Commissioner Carey said that the process has not been good in the past and they need to be making decisions earlier. At this point, the Board took a break from 10:46:16 4~i--10:56:11 AM CHANGING HUMAN SERVICES LANDSCAPE Social Safety Net: Jahn Link made reference to attachment 2a, which gives an indication of what has been done. There have been substantial appropriations to help cover the changes and shortfalls created by the state and federal governments. The shortfalls total $700,000 in three and a half fiscal years. Chair Jacobs suggested sending copies to the legislators and U. S. Representatives about the shortfall of $700,000 and how counties are picking up the slack. He said that this does not even include the Urgent Home Repair Program, which used to be funded by the State. This is between $50-75,000 a year. He wants to make citizens aware of this. Commissioner Halkiotis thanked County Manager Gwen Harvey for the aggressive language in this narrative. Commissioner Carey asked if all of the $700,000 was recurring costs. Chair Jacobs said that he thinks some are recurring and some are one-time costs.