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3 <br /> Page 2 of 4 <br /> project. (See §115C-429(b)) Orange County has traditionally allocated capital funds by <br /> purpose, but not by project. Budgeting such funds by project, however, is not unusual <br /> across the state and is done regularly in other counties. When budgeting by project, <br /> each School Board would develop its priority list of projects for review and discussion <br /> with the BOCC. After those discussions, the County and the School Boards would begin <br /> to construct and fund the projects in the priority order as funds and staff capacity would <br /> allow. In this way the highest priority projects are done first, giving the community the <br /> maximum impact of the available resources. <br /> After the priorities have been settled, there are several additional choices as to how the <br /> County and the School Boards go about carrying out the design and construction <br /> process. <br /> 1). The school boards could be responsible for contracting out the <br /> design/construction/renovation work and the amount budgeted to a project by the <br /> BOCC would be the maximum amount that could be expended on a project. This <br /> is more or less the way the County has handled school construction and <br /> renovation projects in the past. The schools could not make substantial <br /> amendments to the allocated amounts without written approval of the BOCC. <br /> (See §115C-433(b) and §115C-433(d)); or <br /> 2) The County could enter an intergovernmental agreement with the school <br /> boards and directly hire a project manager (or contract for a consultant) to be the <br /> project manager. This approach would move the project management obligation <br /> from the school board staffs onto a dedicated, central resource that may be <br /> better positioned to carry out construction management and oversight, especially <br /> in light of the tremendous scope of projects facing the County over the next <br /> several years; or <br /> 3) The County could enter an intergovernmental agreement with the school <br /> boards for the project manager to take the lead on projects all the way from <br /> design through construction, with programming and timing input from the <br /> schools. <br /> The purpose of considering options 2 and 3 is to consider different approaches given <br /> the scope of the upcoming construction program. More resources will undoubtedly be <br /> necessary to carry out the vastly increased scope of projects in an efficient and timely <br /> manner. Considering an increase in project management capacity under the County's <br /> umbrella would reduce the burden on the schools and allow for more, and more <br /> specialized, resources to handle the load. <br /> Orange County is currently the registered owner of multiple schools in the two school <br /> systems. In financing situations, the county will usually take ownership of school <br /> properties used for collateral and immediately leases the property back to the school <br />