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

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Chair Jacobs: Now, how would the Board like to proceed? As far as I know, no member of the public has signed up to speak, but that doesn't mean that as soon as I turn my head and look, people won't want to be recognized to speak. Would you like to discuss the items on the agenda and then solicit public comment, or have public comment now? Commissioner Carey: Let's discuss the items on the agenda first. Commissioner Gordon: I just wanted to mention that I had faxed to the Commissioners last night an augmented proposal. The details of the proposal, as you remember, four Commissioners presented proposals, and the details of the proposal that I presented remain the same, but I did fax to the Commissioners and then I passed it out tonight, and it's almost the same as the thing that I faxed last night, except that I found a couple of typos that I corrected. It's a rationale behind the proposal and also it discusses how my proposal fits in with the issue of possible merger. The main thing I wanted to mention was that there seemed to be some misunderstanding about what the funding equity part of my proposal included. And what I wanted to stress was that the Commissioners are going to have to decide the ultimate maximum level to tax, and the voters would have to approve it. But if that happened, the tax would be available as soon as possible, and that means July 1, 2004.. And when I studied these issues, I thought it was very important that the money should be available to the Orange County system as soon as possible. My proposal seemed to be misunderstood in the sense that what kind of affect it would eventually have. My thought would be that if we could all agree that it the County supplemental tax would be put to a vote, and there's work to be done on that, is that we'd have a permanent targeted tax, and it would specifically provide money to the Orange County school system as soon as possible, again, .July 1, 2004. The other thing I wanted to mention was if the Commissioners and the voters agreed the amount of tax levied could increase in subsequent years until the funding disparity was reduced or even eliminated,. I think the proposal was misunderstood in thinking that there would be a certain cap. My proposal had to do with getting money to the Orange County school system in July 1, 2004, and then the voters and the Commissioners could agree. But the funding disparity could be reduced or even eliminated using this approach, and that was something that people in the public hearing didn't seem to pick up on. I assume the Commissioners understood it, but the public didn't seem to. So I just wanted to clarify that. And I passed out copies and I have more copies here. Chair Jacobs: Let me suggest that just in the interest of having some order to the conversation, we have the agenda abstract set out with specific topics in some kind of order that the Chair and Vice -Chair worked out with staff. If it pleases the Board, I would suggest we go in that order. The first has to do with collaboration. As staff notes, it was part of virtually every proposal. Commissioner Carey: With one exception. And when we get to discussion of my proposal, because I think I don't see it on here. I see the three. John Link: It's referred to as next steps on page four of the abstract. Chair Jacobs: When I said virtually, I consider merger the ultimate collaboration. So if you want to speak to collaboration in terms of merger, you're certainly welcome. Commissioner Carey: Well, you're right, it is the ultimate collaboration. And I think it would be one that I think has the only chance of working. I can wait until the other discussions about collaborations are held tonight. The amendment I would like to make in my proposal is not necessarily inconsistent with collaboration, or what I think might be developing in terms of collaboration. So I can wait. aIi