Orange County NC Website
23 <br /> Chair Carey asked if the staff has information on the square footage of each of the <br /> jurisdictions. Rod Visser said that it is included in the attachments. The County has about <br /> 408,000 square feet of space in 46 buildings. Orange County Schools has 1.2 million square <br /> feet in 16 buildings and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools has 1.7 million square feet (exact <br /> number of buildings not available). <br /> Commissioner Jacobs said that there is also a letter from OCS. He said that he couldn't <br /> imagine analyzing these options tonight and voting on this within the next five minutes. He said <br /> that OCS is talking about supporting a permutation of 5-C, which is different from option #2. He <br /> would like to have time to read the materials and make an informed decision. He would like to <br /> see some recommendations from the staff on the list of questions. He would like to see the <br /> staff's take on the options. <br /> John Link said that he could give an opinion tonight. Commissioner Jacobs said that he <br /> could not square that with the letters that he has not read yet. Commissioner Halkiotis agreed. <br /> Commissioner Gordon said that one of the things to be decided is the use of restricted <br /> versus unrestricted revenues. The public school building fund and the impact fees are <br /> restricted revenues which are only to be used for the schools. She said that the new options <br /> mix them in with the general capital funds so that the restricted and unrestricted revenues are <br /> together. She has a stronger objection to doing this with the impact fees. She would like to see <br /> the restricted revenues used like they are in the current policy, and then see what the resulting <br /> revenue differences would be in the new 60/40 capital funding policy. <br /> John Link said that the rationale for including those funds that are designated to pay for <br /> new construction of schools is that they put the impact fees and the state school funds on the <br /> top in terms of pursuing simplicity. The simplest way to address this is to use the monies for <br /> debt for new construction. This is a policy change-for impact fee revenue. Options 2 and 4 <br /> address removing the burden of paying the debt for Cedar Ridge from the OCS. He <br /> recommends that the Board narrow it down to option 2 or 4. After that, the second option still <br /> retains the three cents for school systems and the one-cent for the County recurring capital. <br /> Option 4 changes this to the 60/40 split. Option 4 most clearly reflects the 60/40 policy. He <br /> made reference to page 5 of 9, and said that Orange County government receives $9 million <br /> more over the ten years than it would under option 2. He recommended that the Board narrow <br /> the options down to 2 or 4. <br /> Rod Visser said that another piece of the rationale for putting the public school building <br /> fund up front for debt service is the past experience with the Governor sequestering the money <br /> for public school building funds. The second piece of information relates to impact fees and <br /> that they need to be used to pay for construction of new school space. He pointed out that <br /> after middle school #3, OCS will not need any new construction for the next ten years. Any <br /> impact fees that accrue to the OCS over the next ten years, if they are not spent in debt <br /> service, will sit there unspent because they cannot be spent on anything else. The rationale <br /> was to use the impact fees for debt service on new school space for OCS. Then they did the <br /> same for CHCCS. <br /> Commissioner-Gordon said that this is not any simpler. What happens is that more <br /> money goes to the County and less money goes to the school systems because now the <br /> County is using restricted revenue (impact fees)to pay debt service. She does not think it is <br /> fair to the school systems to use restricted revenue this way. <br /> Commissioner Halkiotis said that he needs more time to study this. He suggested <br /> moving this to the front of the work session on May 5th, even if it starts an hour earlier. <br /> Commissioner Jacobs pointed out that most of the County buildings are older buildings, <br /> so he would like to see dates on buildings. <br /> The Board agreed to consider options 2, 4, and the option described in Superintendent <br /> Carraway's letter on May 5 th, as well as the funding for High School #3. <br />