Orange County NC Website
This information was included in Appendix E. The Board was up to Aging - <br />Facility Operators and Office Assistants on page 6 of 7. John Link said that these are <br />positions that are needed as the two new senior centers are opened. <br />Aaina <br />Commissioner Halkiotis said that they need to take a serious look at staffing <br />requirements for both senior centers. He said that the seniors have been volunteering to <br />do the reception desk and this has worked out well. <br />Department on Aging Director Jerry Passmore said that seniors can do same <br />things but they cannot handle money since they are not staff. The proposed staff <br />assistant would be using the computerized management system. They still want to use <br />volunteers to greet people, give tours, and provide information. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis said that the seniors have paid their dues and they need <br />the right position infrastructure in place at both senior centers. He said that there are <br />now more senior citizens in Orange County than there are school-aged children. He <br />said that the senior citizens are just as important, if not more important than the very <br />young. <br />ERCD and Health <br />John Link said that he would be willing to work with the Board, the Commission <br />for the Environment, the Board of Health, Health Director Rosemary Summers, and <br />Environment and Resource Conservation Director Dave Stancil on some process of <br />coming together on these positions. He does not think that they need three positions. <br />Commissioner Gordon distributed a statement of the mission of the Health <br />Department which she got from their website. She also made reference to Appendix E-4 <br />(Outcomes Related to the Hydro-geologist position} and Appendix E-5 {ERCD <br />Departmental Mission}, which were included in the budget materials. She said that the <br />Water Specialist position proposed by the Health Department was related to the <br />department's core function of preventing and intervening in epidemics and the spread of <br />disease and protecting against environmental hazards (website handout). She said that <br />it is very clear that both departments could do something legitimate within their core <br />functions that would be helpful to the County. She noted that when the Commissioners <br />established the Environmental and Resource Conservation Department {ERCD}, the <br />BOCC assigned the ERCD the core functions outlined in the ERCD Department mission <br />(Appendix E-5). She said that last year the County Commissioners approved the Water <br />Resources Initiative, proposed by the Commission for the Environment, which was <br />related to the core functions of the ERCD and the Commission for the Environment. She <br />said that the people speaking in favor of the Water Specialist position in the Health <br />Department were talking about having one place to go for public health questions, but <br />that is a different mission from the one proposed in the Water Resources Initiative. She <br />thinks that the Hydro-geologist position would allow the county to build on the data <br />gathered by the USGS scientific studies {which were conducted over a period of several <br />years), thus allowing the county to implement the Water Resources Initiative approved <br />by the County Commissioners last year. The Hydro-geologist would also work on the <br />Water Resources component of the Comprehensive Plan. The core functions of the <br />Health Department relate to their regulating the public health aspects of water, while the <br />core functions of the ERCD are non-regulatory in nature. She said that each one has a <br />place in county government. The Water Resources initiative could be implemented by <br />the ERCD Hydro-geologist, while the public health issues related to water could be <br />