Agenda 05-24-22; 8-a - Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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12 1 behind. She said that North Carolina has adopted a statewide policy called Safety Organized 2 Practice and this should create consistency among all one hundred counties. She said this will 3 require an increase in staff workload to help with transitions and increases to help with staff 4 recruitment. She said they need help recruiting and retaining qualified staff. She said it is 5 concerning that DSS lost staff to neighboring counties and other county departments due to 6 higher wages. She thanked the Board for assistance to the community. 7 Commissioner McKee praised both the Boards of Health and Social Services. He said 8 these boards put you as close to the needs of Orange County as any board and encouraged 9 other commissioners to serve on the boards. 10 Commissioner Hamilton thanked the Board of Social Services for their work. She asked 11 if there is a breakout of the number of older adults versus children or families that receive 12 Medicaid. 13 Lindsey Shewmaker said she would get that information to the commissioners. She said 14 their number for total Medicaid enrollment for April was 21,000. She said the number is typically 15 higher for children. 16 Commissioner Hamilton thanked Lindsey Shewmaker for the information. 17 Lindsey Shewmaker said the criteria to qualify is so limited for older adults that the 18 greater population tends to be among children. 19 Chair Price said they had a huge budget to manage and thanked them for their work. 20 21 22 23 2. Discussion on Board Members Voting on County Funding for, or Contracts with, a 24 Non-Profit While Serving on a Non-Profit's Governing Board 25 The Board discussed and considered options for addressing a new state law regarding BOCC 26 members voting on County funding for, or contracts with, a non-profit while serving on a non- 27 profit's governing board. 28 29 BACKGROUND: The state adopted a new law last year prohibiting elected public officials from 30 participating "in making or administering a contract, including the award of money in the form of 31 a grant, loan, or other appropriation, with any nonprofit with which that public official is 32 associated." The law describes the covered officials as those who serve on nonprofit boards or 33 entities that are "organized or operating in the State primarily for religious, charitable, scientific, 34 literary, public health and safety, or educational purposes and of which the public official is a 35 director, officer, or governing board member." It further requires covered officials to recuse 36 themselves from votes on funding for or contracts with these nonprofits. Since outside agencies 37 are funded by County grants through contracts with those agencies, the determination of how 38 much funding to give to individual outside agencies is most likely covered by this prohibitive 39 language. Violation of this law is a Class 1 misdemeanor. The prohibition does not extend to 40 nonprofits or other entities that are created by the state or a local government. 41 42 This is a prohibition on individuals engaging in activity while serving as elected officials rather 43 than a prohibition on the BOCC itself, and ultimately it will be up to covered commissioners to 44 determine for themselves whether they may be in violation of the statute. As noted above, the 45 statute requires covered commissioners to recuse themselves from voting on these matters 46 presumably because each individual commissioner is in the best position to know on what 47 outside boards that Board member sits. 48 49 Although there may be other ways to address this issue, four options in order of the ease with 50 which they may be implemented include: 51