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7. Special Presentations <br />a. Proposal to Establish the Orange County Child Care Task Force and Suggest <br />Individuals to Serve <br />The Board considered a proposal to establish the Orange County Child Care Task Force <br />and to suggest community representatives to serve, and provide feedback or take action <br />accordingly. <br />Social Services Director Nancy Coston said that this is a follow up to the retreat. The <br />recommendation of the group that met for the breakfast in November, and with the feedback <br />from the County Commissioners at the retreat, they were asked to came back with a plan for <br />who would be on the task force and the charge. They have had input from Child Care Services <br />Association, the Orange County Partnership far Young Children, the Manager's Office, and <br />Commissioner Foushee. They are recommending 20 appointments to the task force and the <br />charge is "to create community awareness of and support far the benefits of early childhood <br />education, to increase private, business, and public financial contributions far child care <br />subsidies or scholarships, and to improve workplace support for children and families." <br />Commissioner Foushee said that her hope would be that once this task force meets their <br />charge, they will have strategies to meet the child care needs in the County. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis said that 20 years ago childcare advocates came out 300 strong <br />and the challenges are still there today. He said that he hoped Commissioner Foushee would <br />chair this task force. <br />Commissioner Gordon said that this is an excellent idea and she used to do research on <br />child language development at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute. They studied <br />the importance of early childhood education. She said that at the forum sponsored by the <br />Walkable Communities group in Hillsborough, one of the groups said that it was important to <br />ask employers to have childcare at their facilities so that people could use public transportation <br />to get to work. <br />Commissioner Carey agreed with all. <br />Chair Jacobs said that this year the County appropriated an additional $50,000 this year <br />out of the social safety net for childcare. Chair Jacobs said that on page 3, attachment A, there <br />is a typo. It should be Economic Development Director and not Economic Services Director. <br />His only concern is that there are na users of childcare involved. He thinks that this perspective <br />would be very helpful. <br />Chair Jacobs said that he is going to bring this issue up at the Carolina North <br />Committee. He said that they need to talk about human equity and issues of child care for staff, <br />faculty, and students. <br />PUBLIC COMMENT: <br />Michele Rivest, Executive Director of Orange County Partnership for Young Children, <br />said that she is thankful to the Board of County Commissioners for their support and <br />consideration of this task force. She thanked the County Commissioners for putting in $50,000 <br />for childcare. <br />A motion was made by Commissioner Carey, seconded by Commissioner Gordon to <br />approve a proposal to establish the Orange County Child Care Task Force and to suggest <br />community representatives to serve, adding four childcare users to the list. <br />VOTE: UNANIMOUS <br />b. Report on Field-grade Mobile Computers and Printers for the Building <br />Inspections Division <br />