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<br />b. Final Report of the Child Care Task Force <br />The Board received the report of the Child Care Task Force, assigned the responsibility <br />for implementing the recommendations to the Social Services Board with help from the County <br />Manager's Office, and sunset the Child Care Task Force. <br />Chair Jacobs thanked Commissioner Foushee for representing the Board of County <br />Commissioners. <br />Social Services Director Nancy Coston said that Commissioner Foushee was the chair <br />of this committee and she is asking the County Commissioners to accept the report from the <br />task farce. She said that the report includes a list of recommendations, which is in the agenda <br />abstract. She thanked the other groups such as the Chambers of Commerce, families on the <br />waiting lists, providers, etc. She said that, in addition to the support that the County gave in <br />subsidies, this task force brought the issue to the forefront and State funds were received, which <br />allowed the waiting list to be reduced greatly. The total received in State and federal funds was <br />$400,000. <br />Nancy Colton made reference to the benchmarking recommendation and suggested <br />updating the waiting list before budget time and suggested for the Social Services board to track <br />this information. She said they will spend over $4 million an subsidies this year and there will <br />still be children on the waiting list. One of the goals is to make the waiting list a matter of <br />months and not a year. She thinks that it is important that the County Commissioners get at <br />least an annual update on all of the data about the subsidy programs. <br />Commissioner Foushee thanked Nancy Colton and her staff. She said that she thinks <br />that there is more community awareness now. She hopes that the recommendations will be <br />able to be implemented. She thanked everyone involved. <br />Commissioner Carey asked if the awareness was conveyed to the people in the private <br />sector concerning quality childcare environment and tax subsidies. Nancy Coston said that she <br />thought that the ones that were involved did get it but this should remain on the radar for <br />increased community awareness and getting a larger audience. She said that all employers <br />agreed that there is a need for more subsidy funding. <br />Commissioner Foushee said that during the discussions, employers did think about this <br />and were willing to take it back with them, and one of the main focuses of the Women's <br />Assembly agenda is childcare. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis said that he considers it an honor to have served with the best <br />two Social Services Directors -Marty Pryor-Cook and Nancy Coston. He asked Commissioner <br />Foushee to keep the fire burning on this issue. <br />Chair Jacobs made reference to Durham Technical Community College and asked if an <br />opportunity was lost to incorporate childcare. Nancy Coston said that DTCC is open to discuss <br />it, but they expect money for it. <br />Chair Jacobs asked the Manager to speak with the architect of DTCC about whether it is <br />too late to have a conversation about accommodating childcare at the new building. <br />Chair Jacobs made reference to education and said that the County Commissioners <br />originally were inspired by a suggestion from the Mayor of Carrboro about the governments <br />covering the subsidy costs necessitated to deal with their own staff people and Orange County <br />did this. He does not think that any of the other municipalities have done this. He asked Nancy <br />Colton or the Manager to write a letter to the three municipalities and the University and <br />suggest that the County is trying to lead by example and that it was inspired by Mayor Chilton's <br />suggestion, and that the County Commissioners urge the municipalities to join the County in a <br />leadership role in the community to try and ease the burden of childcare subsidies for <br />employees. Nancy Coston said that UNC does put money in childcare services but UNC <br />Healthcare does not. <br />