Minutes 01-21-2025-Business Meeting

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1 APPROVED 2/25125 MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS BUSINESS MEETING January 21, 2025 7:00 p.m. The Orange County Board of Commissioners met for a Business Meeting on Tuesday, January 21, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. at the Whitted Human Services Center in Hillsborough, NC. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Chair Jamezetta Bedford, Vice-Chair Jean Hamilton and Commissioners Marilyn Carter, Amy Fowler, Sally Greene, Earl McKee, and Phyllis Portie- Ascott COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: None. COUNTY ATTORNEYS PRESENT. John Roberts COUNTY STAFF PRESENT: County Manager Travis Myren, Interim Deputy County Manager Caitlin Fenhagen, and Clerk to the Board Laura Jensen. (All other staff members will be identified appropriately below) Chair Bedford called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. All commissioners were present. 1. Additions or Changes to the Agenda A motion was made by Vice-Chair Hamilton, seconded by Commissioner McKee, to remove the closed session and add item 4-b, a Resolution Regarding an Air Permit Application Request from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, to the agenda, and to move item 8, Consent Agenda, to be considered after item 4, and to move item 6-c to before item 6-a. VOTE: UNANIMOUS Chair Bedford did not read the public charge. 2. Public Comments (Limited to One Hour) a. Matters not on the Printed Agenda Kari Hamel said she would like the school construction policy to be a discussion only item for the night. She asked the public to have more opportunity to provide meaningful input to the revised recommendations. She asked for the page number for the night's agenda to find out the current policy. She said a high number of children are not proficient in math or ELA in both Orange County School District and the Chapel Hill Carrboro School District. She said that the energy being given to the construction lens seems outsized when compared to the real struggles faced by youth such as school absenteeism and poor special education services. She said that the Chapel Hill High School construction project is over budget my millions of dollars. She said that the proposed revisions to the construction policy do not contain the guardrails needed for the public to reasonably know what business the county is undertaking with taxpayer dollars. She said that county-based inspector general role, a public dashboard with real-time construction spending, a public facing monthly work group where the current spending and account balances are required to be disclosed are a few of the policy language improvements that jump out as improvements. She said that the past five years of budgetary mishap in the school district and the declining enrollment are risk points worth offsetting by adding accountability into the policy. She said that household budgets will be more constrained with tax increases, and it would be helpful to have the same policy language for schools receiving funding.