Agenda - 02-12-2004-6 - Laserfiche WebLink

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1'. those do appear in the base document that the schools used to put their budget together. Commissioner Halkiotis: One question I have, Geof in section B. It says the Board of Education may amend the budget to transfer money to or from the capital outlay fund, to or from any other fund, with the approval of the Board of County Commissioners to meet emergencies, unforeseen and unforeseeable at the time the budget resolution was adopted, Then it goes on, when such an emergency..... Is this just for emergency situations and that's all? Geof Gledhill: Yes. Between capital.,, Commissioner Halkiotis: So it's not standard operating procedure, day to day business stuff, it's just for an emergency. And how is an emergency defined? Geof Gledhill: I don't think that it is. The one thing that I'll say about it is that it has to be something that arises after the adoption of the budget. I don't know, I don't have any experience with this, I don't think the County has had any experience with this. I don't know what would be regarded to be an emergency. It's probably something you would recognize if it happened. Rod Visser: I can offer an example that's provided from a textbook perspective, and this is digging way back into classes from longer ago than I'd want to admit. The example that I recall being cited was, for example, if a tornado came through and ripped a roof of the building and a school system did not have adequate reserves to get that replaced immediately. What this basically provides is a way around the prohibition that exists in the statutes to keep school system from just routinely moving money from current expense to capital and vice versa. There are some checks and balances that were put in here that require the Board of Commissioners to approve it, and also provide an opportunity for any other school board in the County to comment on that emergency request prior to the Board of County Commissioners taking action on it. Geof Gledhill: And ultimately, there would have to be agreement, I think, between the Board of Education and the Board of County Commissioners as to whether there is an emergency before it could be transferred. Commissioner Gordon: Just about the countywide supplemental tax. Is there any more information that we need to know besides what you've given us? I was interested in the process by which this could take place. Have you given us all the information that you know of to give us? Besides, your recommendation about timeline and stuff, but just in terms of background information, have you given us everything you can think of? Rod Visser. As far as I know. It doesn't mean that you guys might have asked a question and we didn't think through it.. In the materials here, as I said, Geof has written about this topic on a number of occasions actually dating back to 1990, sometimes with slightly different perspectives each time. Also, the September 15`h report had quite a bit of material, both in the narrative and in the appendices that talks about the statutory workings. So we hope that we've covered everything, but we're certainly wide open to any questions that you might ask. Commissioner Gordon: Just in terms of the countywide supplemental tax that the County Commissioners would ask for on their own initiative. My understanding is a) we could ask for it on our own initiative; b) it would be a countywide referendum; c) in the referendum document, that it would be specified if it's capital or whether it's current expense and what the maximum tax rate would be; and that it would have to be appropriated to the school districts within a specified time frame. What I wasn't quite sure of is to what extent the school boards and the 9