Minutes 09-28-2017 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

3 FY2016 continues to offer living wage to its employees as prescribed by Orange County. In addition, the State's FY2018 budget included funding ear-marked for increasing bus driver pay statewide. OCS received approximately $112,862 for its drivers. On September 11, the Board of Education approved a salary schedule for bus drivers that increase driver pay by an average of surrounding districts. With this change, all drivers exceed the current living wage level and approximately 27% of drivers exceed $15 per hour. OCS currently contracts with a private firm for custodial service at nine of its 13 schools. An Alternate Bid obtained during the initial solicitation in 2016 would have increased the bid cost over $245,000 for the bidder to pay all employees a wage commensurate with Orange County's living wage at that time. Funding constraints prohibited the award of the Alternate Bid. Recent discussions have challenged District staff to consider options to the contract service delivery model. Preliminary cost data indicates a minimum of$500,000 additional funding would be required to support an all OCS staff custodial service. County Commissioners are aware of the OCS Board of Education's desire to continue to honor its employees through a living wage commensurate with that set by the County. However, the Board of Education is concerned about the long-term viability of meeting the $15 /hour living wage intended for FY2018 given funding constraints anticipated in the FY2018 budget. Pam Jones said OCS has based its living wage on the County's previous living wage, despite the fact that the Board of County Commissioners raised it to $15 this year. She said OCS is unable to afford that wage. Commissioner Marcoplos asked if the number of subcontractors who are local Orange County residents is known. Dr. Todd Wirt said 18 of 31 contracted employees live in Orange County. Todd LoFrese reviewed the following information for CHCCS: The Board of Education began paying a living wage in 2015-16 and formally adopted a living wage policy in January 2017. All district employees are paid at or above the living wage rate. The district requested an additional $700,000 expansion during the 2017-18 budget process to pay a living wage for employees of contractors that have displaced or may displace district staff. This was also a goal of our living wage policy. The district has two service contracts that fall into this category, custodial evening cleaning services and our child nutrition program. In June 2017, bids were opened for custodial cleaning services that included an option to pay a living wage. As highlighted in the attached materials, the additional cost for paying a living wage was approximately $300,000. We also conducted an analysis on the cost to internalize the positions. That analysis required an even more sizable increase of over $1.6 million. Ultimately it was decided that we could not proceed with either a living wage or internalizing positions as the additional local funding received for 2017-18 was only sufficient to cover our continuation expenses, not expansion requests. Commissioner Jacobs asked if the living wage could be phased in over a period of time to allow for more financial planning. Todd LoFrese said this has not been discussed, but is something CHCCS could consider. Commissioner Rich asked if both schools systems would please consider this. Steve Halkiotis asked if the number of Chapel Hill contracted employees that live in Orange County is known. Todd LoFrese said he does not know, but can research this. Commissioner Marcoplos said he remembered a discussion about the added cost of paying in house contractors would, in part, be due to more equipment and machinery.