Minutes - 20080925 - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

Chair Jacobs said that there is no easy way to talk about this. He said that if the public is going to be told that the costs have risen dramatically, he would like to have some numbers. If there is going to be a case to the public, the whole idea is to tie it to the cost of building the buildings. Steve Halkiotis said that he remembers the debate that took place on this issue with the OCS Board, and it was rather heated at times. He said that OCS has been fortunate in that the revenue stream has been pretty steady with regard to impact fees. He asked the County Commissioners to please keep the OCS Board posted on this. He was under the assumption that the County Commissioners had already discussed this. Commissioner Gordon said that the school boards should know that the County Commissioners are going to collaborate and join with the school boards to figure this out. The Board of County Commissioners has every intention of consulting with the school boards on the impact fees. She said that it seems that there are two different decisions on this. She thinks that the Board should sign off on the student generation rates before it decides whether to levy the impact fees. She also asked that there be a little bit of preparation so that the public understands what this is all about. Also, on December 1, 2008, it says, "BOCC adopts updated impact fee levels." She said that this might not be a good date because it is the date that the new Board of County Commissioners comes online. Jean Hamilton said that the impact fee could affect the demand for new construction. She suggested looking at the impact fee in this larger sense of controlling growth. Anne Medenblik said that, even though there are impact fees, the markets have been very volatile. This also leaves a section of the population without the ability to purchase homes. Mike Kelley said that he is struck by the fact that in CHCCS, the growth has continued despite the fact that the number of housing starts are going down. The growth is continuing outside the realm of the marketplace of housing. Chair Jacobs said that it would also seem that an indirect consequence of an adverse impact on new housing would be a positive impact upon the existing housing because there is a limited housing stock, and therefore, one affect would be that those that own housing would see an increase in the demand. Pam Hemminger pointed out that about a third of CHCCS students live in apartments, which are not included in school impact fees. Commissioner Nelson made reference to the process and agreed with Chair Jacobs that the County Commissioners need facts and evidence and a consistent philosophy about why this is important. He also asked why this could not be done every year and the impact fee could be based on inflation, etc. so that people are not getting a huge increase all at once. He said that an impact tax is much fairer to people than an impact fee, and he would like to revisit this issue. 3. Draft School Districts Local Current Expense Fund Balance Policy Donna Coffey said that for a couple of years now, the School Collaboration Work Group has worked on the fund balance policy, and she thinks that there is a draft that everyone seems to be pleased with. The policy sets the recommended fund balance at 5.5% of budgeted expenditures for the CHCCS and 3% for OCS. These are targeted amounts. There was also language added about the extraordinary emergency needs, should an occasion arise, such as a roof blowing off of a school, etc. Steve Halkiotis said that Ted Triebel brought him up to speed on these deliberations. He said that the collaboration meetings are going very well. There is language about a policy review every 18 months. Some of the minute by minute details were removed. He made reference to the Regional North Carolina School Board Association meeting and said that he is concerned that a charter school is suing Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and was successful in the first lawsuit and is now going after the school system's fund balance. He finds it incredible