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I ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONER 2 BUDGET PUBLIC HEARING 3 JUNE 3, 1997 4 5 MINUTES 6 7 The Orange County Board of Commissioners met on Tuesday, June 3, 1997 at 7:30 p.m. in OWASA 8 Community Meeting Room, Jones Ferry Road, Carrboro, North Carolina, for the purpose of holding a Public Hearing 9 on the proposed budget.. 10 11 ORANGE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair William L. Crowther, and members Margaret W. 12 Brown, Alice M. Gordon, Stephen H. Halkiotis and Moses Carey, Jr. 13 14 ORANGE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: None 15 16 COUNTY ATTORNEY PRESENT: Geoff Gledhill 17 18 STAFF PRESENT: County Manager John Link, Deputy Clerk to the Board Kathy Baker, Assistant County 19 Managers Rod Visser and Albert Kittrell. 20 21 OPENING REMARKS FROM THE CHAIR 22 Chair Crowther convened the meeting and welcomed those gathered. 23 24 PUBLIC CHARGE 25 Chair Crowther dispensed with the reading of the Public Charge. 26 27 PRESENTATION OF BUDGET: 28 John Link presented the schedule of upcoming Budget Worksessions. He reviewed the highlights of the 29 $85,574,588 proposed budget. 30 31 QUESTIONS AND/OR COMMENTS FROM THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS: None. 32 33 The meeting was opened for public comment. 34 35 JO HARRIS, a Chapel Hill-Carrboro School employee and an Orange County citizen, requested that the full 36 amount requested by the school board be funded. In particular, she felt that the English as a Second Language 37 (ESL) and Special Education programs needed to be fully funded. The impact of the Charter Schools, the 38 anticipated need for funding reserves along with the needs of the instructional programs, send a clear message that 39 full funding is necessary. 40 41 FRED BLACK, an Orange County citizen and a member of the Chapel Hill Public Library Board of Trustees, 42 spoke in support of additional funding for the library. He thanked the Commissioners for their current level of 43 funding and discussed a proposal which would have the county fund the library based on the percentage of non- 44 Chapel Hill residents who use the library. He mentioned that Orange County's support of the library is considerably 45 lower than that of other counties in the area. A copy of his report, in its entirety, is in the permanent agenda file in 46 the Clerk's office. 47 48 CLAUDIA HASKINS, an English as a Second Language(ESL)teacher in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School 49 System, spoke in support of full funding for the school board's budget request. A copy of her comments, in their 50 entirety, are in the permanent agenda file in the Clerk's office. 51 52 GLORIA FALEY, an Orange County resident, also spoke in support of full funding of the School Board's 53 budget request. She felt that certain requests have been waiting from years past and now is the time to fill those 54 needs. Specifically, there is a critical need for new AG teachers as well as for an alternative school. She also 55 mentioned that the ratio between teachers and students needs to be decreased and additional money will be 56 necessary in order for that to happen. 57 58 LOUIS D'ADDANO, an Orange County resident and member of the school system's Transportation 59 Advisory Committee, spoke in support of full funding for the Chapel Hill school system budget request. In particular, 60 he mentioned that the needs of the transportation department are critical.