Agenda - 06-06-2023; 8-a - Minutes

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3 1 Garden opening and dedication. She said a large portion of the food grown at the garden is 2 dedicated to local individuals who are experiencing food insecurity. 3 Commissioner Hamilton said she attended the Alliance Health board meeting. She said 4 Alliance is the local management entity for managing state dollars to provide mental health 5 services for individuals on Medicaid and some uninsured individuals. She said the School Safety 6 Task Force met on April 13th and Karen Fairley, the director of the Center for Safer Schools, gave 7 an overview of school safety initiatives for the NC Department of Public Instruction. She said the 8 Capital Needs Work Group would meet the following morning. 9 Commissioner Fowler said on April 12th the county held the biannual Intergovernmental 10 Parks Work Group meeting. She said each entity discussed the events they plan to hold in honor 11 of the Year of the Trail. She said people should visit each entity's website to learn more about 12 the events. She said that Orange County's website has an interactive trail map. She said that 13 April 201h is the VIP ribbon cutting for the Panther Branch Natural Area, which is managed by the 14 Eno River Association. She said they received updates from the various entities, including 15 discussion of Chapel Hill's new AstroTurf. She said that Chapel Hill also changed to LEDs, which 16 was funded by a county climate action grant. She said the next meeting will be in October. She 17 said April is autism awareness month, and she attended a movie and discussion hosted by the 18 Chapel Hill Public Library, B3, and the Autism Society of North Carolina — Orange/Chatham 19 Support Group. She said the movie was called Deej, and was about a non-verbal young man 20 who attended college and there was a panel discussion afterwards. She encouraged everyone 21 to look out for similar opportunities to learn more about autism. She said earlier in the day she 22 attended the ABC board meeting and it appears that the ABC board will allocate 10% more in 23 funds to the county. 24 Chair Bedford said there will be a poetry slam at the Eno Arts Mill on April 19th at 7 p.m. 25 26 4. Proclamations/ Resolutions/ Special Presentations 27 28 a. Property Tax Appeals Bias Study Presentation from UNC School of Government 29 The Board received a presentation on the results of the Orange County Property Tax Appeals 30 Bias Study. 31 32 BACKGROUND: The Tax Administration Office wanted to identify and mitigate potential systemic 33 bias in its property tax appeal process. 34 35 The primary goal was to determine whether residential property tax appeals are less prevalent 36 and less successful for properties located in majority-minority and low-income neighborhoods as 37 compared to properties located in white and median-and-above-income neighborhoods. The 38 study also considered if residential property tax appeals are less prevalent and less successful 39 for lower value properties as compared to higher value properties. 40 41 Christopher B. McLaughlin, Professor of Public Law and Government with the School of 42 Government at the University of North Carolina, conducted the study. Professor McLaughlin has 43 conducted similar studies in other North Carolina counties and will present Orange County's data 44 alongside the data from other counties as part of the presentation. 45 46 Professor McLaughlin has worked with the School of Government since 2008. Mr. McLaughlin 47 works in the area of local government tax and finance, along with ethics for government attorneys. 48 He has written books on property tax collections, tax foreclosures, and occupancy taxes, and has 49 published over 200 blog posts, including subjects such as local taxes and legal ethics. 50 51 Nancy Freeman introduced the item and the speaker, Chris McLaughlin.