MINUTES
STATE
OF
The Henderson County
Board of Commissioners met for a special called meeting at 8:00 a.m. in the Courtroom/Commissioners'
Conference Room of the Historic Courthouse.
Those present were: Chairman Bill Moyer, Vice-Chairman
Also present were: Research/Budget
Analyst Amy Brantley, Deputy Clerk to the Board Terry Wilson, Communications
Officer Pam Brice, DSS Director Liston Smith, Sheriff Rick Davis,
Engineering/Facility Services Director Marcus Jones, Assessor Stan Duncan, Emergency Services Director/Fire Marshal
Rocky Hyder, Planning Director Anthony
Starr, Aux. Business Manager for the
Sheriff’s Department Bill
Blalock, and Communications Officer Pam Brice.
CALL TO ORDER/WELCOME
Chairman Moyer called the meeting to order and welcomed all in
attendance, stating that the purpose of this meeting was a FY2008-2009 Budget
Workshop.
FY2008-2009 BUDGET
WORKSHOP
Revenue forecast update
Steve Wyatt reviewed revenue projection assumptions with the Board:
No increase in property
tax rate
Sales tax rate remains constant at 6.75 cents
There is the change in
the sales tax distribution formula from
Per Capita
to Ad Valorem
We have an
intergovernmental agreement with Fire Departments
Sales tax is forecasted
for the coming year below the current budget
Steve Wyatt stated that staff also has concerns about the current year
sales tax projections. Chairman Moyer requested figures from the State on what
their projected sales tax revenues will be. Steve Wyatt then reviewed the
revenue projections, revised for FY2007-2008 and projected for FY
2008-2009. He explained that he had
asked for a designation of $500,000 for an emergency fuel reserve for this
coming year. Mr. Wyatt explained that Ad Valorem property taxes make up about
half of the revenue stream (49.81%).
Tax Rate Equivalent
(TRE)
Steve Wyatt then reviewed the amount of money 1 cent or a fraction of a
cent brings in at the 97% collection rate:
In the FY2007-2008
budget:
1 TRE = $1,192,576
.5 TRE = $
596,288
.25 TRE = $
226,983
A “TRE” is a measure of the relative impact of a function, department,
agency or project on the existing tax rate. Based on a tax base valuation of
$12,880,000,000 in FY2008-2009, 1 TRE = $1,249,360.
Mr. Wyatt explained that our sales tax receipts run a few months behind.
February is the most recent data we have.
January was off about 7.2%, and February was down almost 17%. That’s a dramatic increase. Projections show
we’re down about 2% in the current fiscal year.
Mr. Wyatt briefly discussed Fund Balance Available:
Unreserved Audited General Fund Balance at June 30, 2007 $15,381,495
12% Board of Commissioners’ Fund Balance Policy $13,602,185
Fund Balance Available for appropriation – over the 12% policy $ 1,779,310
Included in recommended budget for appropriation $ 1,279,310
Reserved for Strategic Energy Reserve Fund $ 500,000
Remaining Fund Balance Available for Appropriation $ 0
Discussion followed, no action taken. The Board requested some additional
information from staff.
HENDERSON COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
School Board Chairman Ervin Bazzle thanked the Board for their support
for Sugarloaf Elementary, Hillandale Elementary, and
Current expense which is what it takes for them to operate (includes salaries and
benefits) Uncontrollables are salaries that reflect the raises given by
the State each year for their state employees.
The schools have local employees, both certified and non-certified and
they are required by law to match the raises that the State may give. They are projecting a grade/step increase
plus 5% for certified employees. That may change. Non-certified and certified
employees (locally funded) include teachers, maintenance workers, technology
staffing people, and some of the custodians. They project a little over
$202,000 for the certified employees and $190,000 plus for the
non-certified. The supplements for these
positions would come to a total of $176,000 plus. Hospital benefits for those
positions would be a little over $11,000. The increase in the utility costs is
based on estimates they have been given by the utility companies. Total =
$698,872,072. They are using other revenue generated from investments and/or
from accounts to reduce their request to roughly $557,000. That is one
uncontrollable, the second one is Sugarloaf Elementary. Mr. Bazzle stated that
they understood at the beginning of this process that the amount was earmarked
and was $540,235. He stated those are the rock bottom numbers that they have to
have to operate. After that, they responded to a tremendous amount of community
input to the School Board and to the Board of Commissioners regarding school
nurses, special education needs, the different type of counselors and things
needed in the schools but specifically the school nurse issue. He stated that
Mr. Wyatt’s proposed budget does not cover the uncontrollables. Except for the
$141,000 that the schools are putting in, it would be well short of over
$100,000 plus. It’s still $90,000 short
of the uncontrollables. He stated that the schools have been underfunded for
uncontrollable for the past three years.
Mr. Bazzle stated that when the schools merged in 1993 there was an
agreement that was reached between the County, the City and the
Mr. Bazzle stated that the Schools budget is clearly laid out with no
fluff in it whatsoever. He stated that
we cannot afford to not take care of our buildings. He stated that the schools
are funded well below the State average and well below the level of our
contiguous counties.
FY2008-2009 grand total of uncontrollable expenses is $698,872 and the
schools are funding $141,870 from other sources leaving roughly $557,000. Out of uncontrollables they are $90,000 short
and $40,000 for Sugarloaf Elementary for a total of roughly $130,000.
Proposed Maintenance
Schedule
Mr. Bazzle stated they are right at $1,000,000 short for maintenance
projects, according to the
Discussion followed regarding school nurses and whether they should be
funded through the Department of Public Health or the School’s budget and how
it might skew the per pupil expenditure numbers.
Commissioner McGrady expressed that he will vote against this budget due
to underfunding of the school’s budget.
There was some discussion concerning debt service for the school system.
Chairman Bazzle felt that debt service shouldn’t be a part of the school budget.
The
Commissioner Young expressed that this was not the time to raise property
taxes with the economy the way it is and the way gas prices and food prices are
escalating so much so quick. He said “I don’t know of any member of this Board
that says that we’ve done enough for education.
I don’t think anybody has made that statement. Now, have we done all we
can do, yes. Are we gonna continue to do
all we can do, yes. But to say that
we’ve done enough, I think that’s a mis-statement.”
Other Commissioners expressed similar sentiments.
Jane Orwoll, a member of the School Board, commented that she was
freezing in the meeting room. She talked about the technology in the meeting
room, the new equipment and the low temperatures and said “I can find several
ways that you all can cut down on your budget.”
Chairman Moyer suggested adding to the list the uncontrollables and the
maintenance plan. He felt they warranted more review and consideration.
College President Molly Parkhill stated that the College had presented to
the Board of Commissioners their operating expenses and capital improvements
budget at the Board’s retreat in January. She stated she and other staff were
present to answer any questions the Commissioners might have. She recognized
the folks from the Community College who were in attendance: John McCormick, Chairman of the Board of
Trustees; Bill Farrell, Chairman of the Finance Committee, Tom Orr, Chairman of
the Facilities Committee, and David Whitson Dean of Administrative Services.
David Whitson explained that on November 28 he had met with the Joint
Facilities Committee. The College’s 5-year Capital Improvement Plan was shared
at that time. On December 7 he made the proposal to the
He expressed appreciation to the Board for funding the current request
for this year. Out of that request the College was able to fund a couple key
positions. They were short a couple positions in their maintenance department
and custodial but because of county funding they were able to fill an
electrician position. They have already
saved several thousand dollars as a result of having that position on board.
The college’s current operating budget to the county for next year is just over
$331,000. Of that money $201,000 is for the new building. The
Salaries and fringe
benefits $82,000
+
Other costs 12,000
Campus Security 5,000
Utilities 90,000
Insurance 11,000
Total Projected cost of new facility = $201,000
When you subtract out the $201,000 for the new building, that leaves
$129,000 for the existing buildings and existing maintenance. Of that the
biggest increase falls under other costs. He stated almost 50% of their
buildings are 30 years or older. There
are several things that need done as repair and renovation to those buildings.
They are projecting no additional positions for the rest of the campus but are
projecting a salary adjustment of 5% for county paid employees. That is
included in the current operating expenses.
Mr. Whitson then reviewed under Capital Outlay that they are in the
catch-up mode regarding maintenance. He stated the lists are extensive, many
deficiencies campus-wide. The request to the county from the assessment of
their facilities amounts to just over $900,000. They are building a parking lot
out of the funds for the
Molly Parkhill extended an invitation to the full Board to attend the
Flat Rock campus in July for a Joint Meeting with the Board of Trustees. This would be an opportunity to see the
A question was raised regarding the schedule for the Community College to
repay the County for county monies spent
on the Baseball Program. David Whitson
stated that they are living up to the program.
The
Recess
Chairman Moyer called a brief recess.
Sheriff Department/Law
Enforcement
Sheriff Rick Davis stated that the Sheriff’s Department took over animal
enforcement this year. Six animal services employees were transferred to the
Sheriff’s Department operational expenses.
He stated their operational expenses would have been significantly lower
had they not had the staffing increase. Sheriff Davis switched the courthouse
personnel (5) to the detention center budget so they are under operational
control there effectively in the same building. Sheriff Davis informed the Board that as far
as Federal negotiations for inmates, the new amount is $76.22 per prisoner per
day. That is higher than the majority of counties are getting now.
A question was asked about the Capital Outlay line. Sheriff Davis
explained the significant decrease was because 14 vehicles were transferred to
debt service, financing for the purchase for the Sheriff’s Department. The Sheriff had to pick up a new initiative
this year for the lease of E911 Radio Consoles in the amount of $140,000 which
previously had been funded in the E911 fund.
Chairman Moyer stated that the Board had made a big issue that debt
service should be part of the schools budget but it looks like staff has pulled
items out of county department’s budgets for convenience so we don’t show the
total cost of operation of the department. “I think if we’re gonna have a fair
representation of what our departments are costing us, they need to certainly
have debt service in there. If we’re going to make that argument for the school
system we need to apply it to ourselves, our own departments.
The
In answer to questions from the Board Sheriff Davis answered:
He does not feel that the number of patrol officers
is adequate. According to the S.B.I., we have 1.6 officers per 1,000 people in
He stated that we’re short on drug enforcement
officers, specifically for highway interdiction according to the US Attorney’s
office.
He stated that the Sheriff’s Department is housed at
seven different locations. Three of those locations are actually owned by the
County, the others are leased.
He answered that he currently has 5 deputies at the
Sheriff Davis stated that this is not an enviable time to be at the helm
due to the declining economy and the budget constraints. He feels that staff has the best interest of
the County in mind and have done a remarkable job.
The Commissioners requested information on the number of gallons of
gasoline used by county departments. Staff will provide that to the Board.
Chairman Moyer realizes that it is a little late in the game to make
changes in the way the budget is presented but feels that next year staff needs
to find a way to better explain the budget, especially to the public.
Recess
Chairman Moyer called a five minute recess, to change videotape.
Social Services
Liston Smith recognized two folks in attendance from DSS today: Board
Chairman Dave Adams and Head Business Officer Penney Summey. Mr. Smith addressed the number of children
and the number of elderly and disabled served monthly by DSS:
Children
FY 2005-2006 15,490
FY 2006-2007 16,432 (6.1% increase from 05-06)
FY 2007-2008 (estimated) 16,797 (8.4% increase
from 05-06)
FY 2008-2009 (trend
analysis) (12% increase from
05-06)
Elderly & Disabled
FY 2005-2006 4,698
FY 2006-2007 5,179
(10.2% increase from 05-06)
FY 2007-2008 (estimated) 6,222 (32.4% increase from 05-06)
FY 2008-2009 (trend
analysis) (52% increase from 05-06)
He has seen a particular increase in the number of elderly and disabled.
These are just the numbers from the seven core Social Services Programs. He had removed all the welfare programs.
There are currently between 27-40 programs.
The elderly and disabled are two categories. Mr. Smith stated that it is
hard to separate them so he usually counts them together. The elderly includes
people 60 years and older and is mainly Medicaid. He stated that the primary government
funding source for citizens in this county and nation-wide, for people who end
up in out of home care and expensive long-term care is Medicaid, not Medicare. In
fact nationwide research shows that within the first year of a person going
into a nursing home 20% of those folks go to the point where they’re eligible
and their funding is Medicaid based. Our county is having a real acceleration
in that area.
Mr. Smith stated that one of the positions he requested was for a person
to monitor the rest homes/adult care homes in
Dave Adams stressed the need for the same high priority staff position
Liston Smith discussed above. He addressed the growth in the department. Last
year they didn’t request new personnel. They decided to have an outsider come
in and look at how they do things so they contracted a study. They have
requested additional staff. They have constant turnover. He said they are
requesting four positions in the Medicaid Processing area. The State and Federal Government create these
programs and then they manage them through regulation changes. He stated that
they have learned that their work quality is being jeopardized by their work
quantity. They have numerous young staff
that need closer monitoring and more training. He explained that they don’t
have the proper supervisor/staff ratio, stating they are about 1/14 and it is
recommended that they should be 1/7. The DSS Board and the entire staff has
gone through every single line item in the DSS budget and re-evaluated and cut
and reviewed again all items. The DSS Board approved a 4.51% budget increase. The DSS Board has not approved a 2.7%
budget. Mr. Adams asked “What happens if
we don’t get the positions we’ve asked for? – two things are gonna happen: 1.
We’re gonna start making some errors and the State’s gonna come back in and
catch those errors. If you make errors
you have to refund the State now. They aren’t doing that yet but there is indication
that might be a concern somewhere down the road. 2. There will be delay in
getting the Medicaid applications processed.
We will be behind and the people that need help the most will be the
ones not getting the services that we are mandated to provide. $120,000 more
will keep the DSS Department from backing up, will keep them moving
forward. That is the difference between
the 2.7% and the 4.51% budget that the DSS Board approved. The $120,000 would
fund the county’s share of the additional five positions requested and it would
leverage additional state and federal dollars. It was the consensus of the Board
to re-examine the DSS requests, especially the Medicaid request for five
additional personnel.
Recess
Chairman Moyer called a 30 minute recess for lunch.
Governing Body
Chairman Moyer raised a few question about the budget for Governing Body,
questioning whether there is enough allotted for travel and training for the
coming year. He also questioned the
amount of money in the medical insurance line.
There are seven employees in Governing Body. Ms. Brantley stated that
the cost for medical insurance is per unit, being $7,899 per person. That amount times seven equals $55,298.00.
A question was raised about the Wellness Clinic and whether that had
helped the situation any. Ms. Coffey stated that it has limited the amount of
increase from 16% to 8%.
Department of Public
Health
Tom Bridges stated he projected very optimistic revenues to come in. They are also using a substantial amount of
their fund balance from Medicaid settlement
program which carries over from year to year. They are facing increasing
costs, especially for specialty people such as nurses. Costs have gone up
substantially over the last several years.
Mr. Bridges addressed the issue of school nurses, stating that the Board
of Health would like to look at the issue with the Board. He stated that the schools have the mandate to
provide care plans. It’s not just a
health clinic or first aid services. It
is a care plan for how the schools will work with children who have special
health needs. The Health Department has provided this service by contract to
the schools in the past. The Health Department has provided the nurses who do
the health care plans. He feels it is a good public health arrangement. If we have a communicable diseases and other
issues arise that will be a place where the nurses can serve as sentinels for
the health department and help in dealing with those issues. He stated that the
problem has been their ability to work with increasing numbers of students and
having fewer nurses. National
recommendation is 1 nurse to 750 students. Ours is one of the lowest in the
state so our staff are having to work much harder to meet the requirements that
are mandated. (
There was one privately funded school nurse working at Bruce Drysdale
Elementary – a trial period to see what the advantage would be to have a
full-time nurse. They found some very
interesting statistics such as seven hours of instruction time was saved
because the teachers didn’t have to attend to children. The school nurse also
saw that they had doctor’s appointments, that they had dental care and
appropriate things were done. The idea is to make them (children) more
successful so that they learn better and wind up being productive citizens. The
grant ran out and this full-time nurse is being terminated. If one nurse gets
added this year it will basically be keeping status quo. They have outreach
nurses and other nurses who do specific programs that draw down funding. They bill for services. They are generating revenues to help cover
nursing. Mr. Bridges is hopeful that in
the not-too-distant future there will be a billable service for Medicaid for
Medicaid children for school nursing. It won’t cover everything but will be a
shot in the arm. The schools would have
to do the billing for the health department due to how the system is set up.
The schools have to show provision of some money towards school nursing. The
Health Department has raised some of their fees in Environmental Health which
has helped some with their revenues.
In answer to a question, Tom Bridges stated that the School Nurses are
causing a financial concern because the Health Department is using some of
their revenues that they would otherwise use for other things but instead are
putting towards the school nurse issue (they have been doing so for the last
several years). Mr. Bridges sees it getting worse next year and if so the
Health Department would not be able to fund the school nurses out of their
budget.
Mr. Bridges stated that when they provide an interpretor, it takes twice
as long to provide the service. They don’t get any additional monies so the
health department has the expense of the interpretor as well as twice the time
of personnel. He stated that the demographics have changed in the ten years he
has been with the health department. They went from mainly having those with
insurance and those speaking English to a more challenge with language as well
as with the income barrier. They are doing a lot of the prenatal care that was
dropped at Blue Ridge Health some years ago.
Tom Bridges stated that in times past they had estimated something like
$150,000 for flu vaccine. They have found realistically that there are people
who will come in from out of state who will buy up massive amounts of the
vaccine right now, before the new fiscal year.
In the meantime the health department has to wait until the new fiscal
year to negotiate/firm up a contract and an order. Those who order earlier get a lower
price. They can recruit nurses to come
into a venue (grocery store, etc.) and give flu shots. The health department
cannot compete in a market driven system like that. Where they can compete more
is if there is a disaster. The health department is looking at administering no
more than about 3,000 – 4,000 doses of the flu vaccine. They get criticized for
charging $25 (while privates set the price). He stated that he could have
gotten over $30 from Medicare to administer the flu shot, but for a person
paying cash they try to get their revenue in line with the going rate. They
could charge less but if they have 2,000 doses left over, he has to eat that
cost. He has to try to cover his administrative costs too. They didn’t have the
demand this past year like they have some year.
If they had had a big outbreak of influenza they would have used up all
those doses. It’s a gamble to try to break even every year.
Regarding the mosquito control, they were able to save some last year
because of using less of the chemical for the spray. That also helped in being able to maintain
some stock of the chemical.
Mr. Bridges stated that they are facing reappointment of some of the
Board of Health members. They have about five that will be expiring. The Dentist appointee had to step down due to
going back to school. Dr. Bell has served his full term so he will be stepping
down. He said they will look to the
Board to provide some excellent appointments and/or reappointments to the Board
of Health because it will be a very big
year ahead to plan the budget and find ways to reduce the burden on their fund
balance. Staff are eager to do what they can to keep costs low but at the same
time provide quality service to the citizens.
Parks & Recreation
Tim Hopkins stated that he had stayed within the 2.7% growth request set
forth in January. They work partly on revenues from grants and from individuals
in the county who would like to do something for recreation purposes. He stated
that the sewer project at Jackson Park is being finished up and hooked up to
various restroom and building facilities, concessions building, and a temporary
building at ballfields #8 & #9. The
ballfield renovations have just been completed and will be a huge benefit to
the ball players. Programs are running smoothly.
He stated that the hardest thing with the multiuse field is that it is
used for a variety of different activities and grass grows during the prime
season for soccer. Soccer season runs in
the spring and the fall. The area is also used for other activities. There is no down time and there are no fences
around the area. They don’t have the ability to irrigate that large area so as
it stands they do what they can within the capacity of the central
services/maintenance department. They have a program where they aerate the
fields, add fertilizer and grass seed however, the way the soccer programs have
developed and the league dates make it difficult and sometimes the weather
doesn’t cooperate either. There was a
dry spell this past year. A need for a soccer complex is listed in the
facilities needs assessment. The renovation of the ballfields has helped
tremendously. With the fencing they have
been able to control access and determine when it was appropriate and not
appropriate to use. They renovated all nine fields at Jackson Park and the
playing conditions are far superior. Now they are working on the maintenance
factor.
They currently have two officers who rotate, three gentlemen who operate
in and around Jackson Park, a Chief Supervisor and two deputies. They come in
towards the end of morning and they stay through the end of the games. They
patrol the parks. He feels their
presence has deterred some activities and helped make people feel safe there. Graffiti
and gang issues seem to be their biggest vandalism issue they are trying to
work with currently. They have caught some individuals doing the graffiti and
they try to clean up the graffiti as quickly as they can. The deputies have
helped with some speeding issues in the park.
The inmate crews have helped clean up the areas that have occasionally
been used for hobo camping.
He stated that he hasn’t had a problem with
Emergency Services/Emergency
Medical Services
Rocky Hyder stated they were able to meet their obligations to reduce
their funding. That helped offset some
of the capital costs they had in emergency medical services. He is pleased with the budget recommendation
with regard to the stretchers and cardiac monitors for the
Steve Wyatt stated there is no recommendation to change the fee schedules
in
Rocky Hyder stated the new ambulances had arrived and they are currently
installing the radios.
In answer to a question, Rocky Hyder explained that there are fewer
paramedics that graduate from the program than there are job openings in NC
each year. One of the advantages that
they try to utilize in Henderson County is they offer a ride-along program for
all the students that may be either in Blue Ridge Community College or
Asheville Buncombe Community College. With the ride-along program they get to
know the folks here and they get to see how we take care of our employees here
and look out for one another. He stated
it’s very much a family atmosphere on the shifts. He feels that allows them to attract the
personnel they need in order to provide the service. So far they have been
extremely successful. They recruit early. Competitive pay helps in the
recruitment.
Rocky stated that last year they were able to secure almost $2,000,000
worth of grants. They are pass through grants from the State to local
government yet we turn around and turn it back over to the State. They will be
able to improve their communications infrastructure at the three mountaintop
facilities we currently have. There will actually be bricks and mortar going up
throughout the course of the next fiscal year but there is no county funding
expended for these improvements. This is some infrastructure to help connect
one end of
Fire Departments
Rocky Hyder explained that this budget has been quite a process with the
Fire & Rescue Advisory Committee. They developed a standardized budget
package that each department uses to submit their information. The Advisory Committee reviews that
information with each department about the first of May to try to determine
what the tax rate should be to provide a good service for that particular
district. This year, because of the
sales tax agreement, he reported that ten of the twelve departments that we
deal with maintain the same rate. Only
two departments received some slight increases and typically those were for
capital projects that they already had planned but they hadn’t necessarily
requested the funding for. The Fire & Rescue Committee worked closely with
the Fire Departments. He feels they have developed a good system by which to
bring forth recommendations for fire protection units in the county.
Chairman Moyer mentioned that each of the departments was charged with
taking a look at their fuel costs. Most departments, mainly on their own, have
come up with steps to reduce the number of gallons of fuel they are using by
using smaller vehicles, using fewer of the large vehicles when they go out on
calls to get lunch or go to the grocery store and things like that. Most of them took a look at the number of
gallons, came up with an increase based on looking ahead at $6, 7 or $8 a
gallon and budgeted that. In most cases
the fuel was adequately taken in consideration and they intend to conserve
enough to make up for the difference if they have to. “I guess in a couple of cases they may have
to go into their reserves but they’re confident they can deal with the fuel
situation.”
Chairman Moyer had sat in on the whole process with the Fire Department
budgets and was comfortable with the budget request. Chairman Moyer recommended tentatively
approving the Fire Departments budget and the Commissioners were in agreement.
Rescue Squad
Rocky Hyder stated that the Henderson County Rescue Squad requested over
$100,000 this year. Their total
operating budget was $217,000. The
portion of their operating budget from
Chairman Moyer stated the Rescue Squad has regular fund raisers. They had
one last year at Christmas and were able to purchase a new ambulance with the
fund raising efforts alone. Rocky stated
the Rescue Squad helped
Planning Department
Anthony Starr stated that his department’s budget maintains the current
levels of service and they are trying to look at ways to streamline the process
to make better use of the resources that they have. Some of the initiatives
they will be working on this year: Two community plans running simultaneously
as well as working with Marcus in developing the potential for a stormwater
management program as well as a typical review of development projects. They are trying to have a more sophisticated
approach at measuring and forecasting development to anticipate its impact on
various county services. They are working at developing the parameters for
that. They are also continuing their
oversight of housing grants as well. Mr. Starr stated that he kept his fee
schedule the same, trying to be conservative.
Building Services
Anthony Starr stated that this budget was prepared with a 1.17%
increase. He and Marcus currently share
the oversight of this department. They
are working on some software enhancements with the permit software. Hopefully
the changes would simplify the process for customers. They hope to launch in
the next few days an online permit and inspections information page, which
should cut down on phone calls and walk-ins. In the next phase they hope to
implement on-line inspection requests.
Marcus Jones explained that residential permits are down 66% through
April of this year and commercial permits are down 34%.
Steve Wyatt stated that gas prices will hit this department hard because
the building inspectors have to actually visit the building sites. Marcus Jones
has changed policy so that inspectors are no longer taking county vehicles
home, effective July 1. They are also currently working on getting multi-trade
certification for their inspectors for the four trades: electrical, plumbing, mechanical
and general. This will help because one inspector can visit the site instead of
three or four having to visit the same site. That would also allow the
assignment of inspections by geographical location rather than by trade. Marcus stated that they are taking the
opportunity in this slower time to cross train employees in erosion control
with Natalie Berry.
Commissioner Young asked that the Commissioners receive the inspection
reports by hard copy. Chairman Moyer receives it by e-mail and stated that he
would forward it to each Commissioner.
Engineering and Facility
Services
Solid Waste
Marcus Jones stated that there were increases in landfill fees effective
July 1. The State has begun a $2.00 surcharge.
We also have mandated closing costs for the C & D landfill. He
stated that in the very near term and immediate future there are some
significant challenges that the enterprise fund will need to tackle. They have
done a detailed capital improvement plan (10 year cash flow analysis) for that
enterprise fund. Marcus stated that the Construction & Demolition (C &
D) landfill is permitted by the State of
Code Enforcement
Toby Linville stated that his budget for this year decreased .28% from
the request last year. That is due to a change in practice – he swapped a
full-time code enforcement position for a part-time administrative assistant
(Secretary to the Board of Adjustment).
Toby Linville mentioned the sign removal his department has absorbed
recently. His personnel remove any signs
in the right-of-way and dispose of them. There have been numerous positive
phone calls regarding sign removal. Mr. Linville feels that code enforcement is
moving along satisfactorily. Several junk yard cases are currently going
through court. Mr. Linville has had some staff turnover in the last year but is
getting back to normal. Most of those calls are for excessive outdoor storage,
motor vehicles, and junk cars.
The total increase from FY 2007-2008 to FY 2008-2009 was 0.67%.
Recess
Chairman Moyer called a five minute recess.
Public Library
Bill Snyder stated that his budget stayed within the 2.7% increase, as
requested. In order to make this work they made reductions in their materials
budget (publications). He stated that
fortunately the library does have other sources of income. They will receive some refunds on their phone
bills totaling about $40,000. He has spoken
with the Friends of the Library and they will make this a high priority this
year in their fundraising efforts, to come up with additional funds to help
offset that loss of income in the materials budget.
There was a mention of the Fletcher Branch Library no longer being
adequate. It has been a high priority
for several years. The Library Board has been waiting to see what the Town of
Finance
Carey McLelland stated that his budget was basically “business as
usual”. He has the same staffing levels
he’s had for a number of years. He
doesn’t experience much turnover. He feels comfortable with his budget in terms
of operating next year. Carey McLelland and his staff have worked hard to fill
their needs with quality materials at lower costs.
Board of Elections
Beverly Cunningham explained that this year is the year for a big
election, the presidential general election but they still held the costs for
their department budget. There was some discussion regarding early voting. Ms. Cunningham stated that the three sites
worked well. They voted approximately 1,500 within about 50 votes at each of
the three sites. The elections office continues to be the big site. They voted
about 4,900 there. County mail outs they voted just over 10,000 before election
day (over 40% of the voters). They voted
15,000 on election day. The total increase from FY 2007-2008 to FY 2008-2009
was 2.42%.
Human Resources
Jan Prichard explained that her budget if fairly small with not a lot of
change that could be made to it. She stated that the largest line item in her
budget was for professional services, where they group all the employee
relations programs such as the Christmas Luncheon and the Employee Recognition
Luncheon. They also pay some of the benefit related administrative fees such as
EAP to the benefit broker and cobra administrator and the flexible spending
account administrator. She stated the gifts they purchase for the employees
come from the Commissioners but it is actually listed in the HRD budget.
Jan Prichard explained an organization change in the HR Department
regarding the Risk Management person. This budget reallocates the Risk Manager
position (Yvonne Moebes) to the Risk Management Department and includes the
Benefits Coordinator position. Yvonne also manages our Worker’s Compensation
Program and has saved a lot of money for the county. Our renewal will come in lower again this
year by about $6,000 - $7,000. She manages our property and liability reports
and has been managing our wellness clinic in terms of keeping a good eye on all the expenses
there. She has done a very good job with
the clinic. Ms. Prichard also hopes to bring the contracted nurse practitioner
on as an employee. Those associated
salary expenses have been built into the HRD budget. We currently contract with a wellness
management firm and will continue to contract with them. Right now the nurse practitioner is their
employee and we pay them. There will be
some savings by bringing her on full-time with us, if that occurs.
Steve Wyatt stated that because of the success of the Wellness Clinic,
we’re looking at going full-time from part-time and expand the coverage to dependents
over the age of 12. Staff is working on a cost benefit analysis to share with
the Board.
Ms. Prichard stated that our sick leave usage has declined. They calculated the sick leave reduction to
be over $200,000. That is significant.
Our medical expenses have gone down. She
is receiving a lot of positive feed-back from employees. Employees have saved
time by going to the wellness clinic to be seen and not having to make an
appointment and not incur an office visit charge. She stated the wellness
clinic is viewed as a very successful program and she wants to capitalize on
that, keep the momentum going and expand it. She expects the wellness clinic
will come in on or under budget this year.
Chairman Moyer stated he would like to see all the wellness clinic
expenses identified and set out separately so it would be earlier to tract
them. Now part of the expenses are in Risk Management and part are in Human
Resources.
Legal
Russ Burrell stated that the overall increase from FY 2007-2008 – FY
2008-2009 is 2.59%. He stated all of that is in personnel costs and operating
expenses for them.
Chairman Moyer asked how the juvenile court situation and the legal work
for DSS was working out. Russ Burrell stated it would become a great deal
easier come August when a new attorney comes online. He stated one thing that
doesn’t show in his budget is the amount of revenue that they generate because
of their billings to DSS and Child Support. They are billed as if they were
private clients and as a result they bill the State of
Register of Deeds
Nedra Moles stated this year they are relying very heavily on the automated
enhancement and preservation fund and will be relying on it heavily next year
to stay within the 2.7% increase. The
part-time position (temporary) she has will be working on preservation projects
so that will come out of the automated enhancements and preservation fund. Several things they will be working on next
year will be able to be deducted from that fund and not come out of the general
line item budget.
Nedra Moles stated that they have started scanning the birth
records. They are currently back to the
year 2000. She stated that lots of people come in doing research and they
handle the birth records especially,
they are beginning to get brittle and the ink is beginning to fade on
them. As quickly as they can get them
scanned in the public will be able to access those copies on computer rather
than handling the original documents. The part time person is progressing
nicely on the project.
Cooperative Extension
Denise Baker stated that the main change in their budget was to take care
of some staff needs. She hopes to have
the new agriculture agent on board in July and will be fully staffed at that
time. She increased the travel and staff training line item due to the fact
that they are fully staffed. None of their programs have been eliminated. The
total increase from FY 2007-2008 to FY 2008-2009 is 1.74%.
Ms. Baker talked some about the shared agent positions, stating that the
expense is shared proportionately with the other entities we share the position
with. The state funds 51% of the agent
and the counties share the remainder equitably.
Assessor
Stan Duncan addressed technology progress in his office, helping citizens
and staff. It is a 2 year process in this year and also in the FY 2009-2010 Mr.
Mr. Duncan addressed the line item “contracted services” stating the
increase is due to implementing the changes that the General Assembly fostered
upon us in 2007. He said that 2007 will
probably go down in terms of property tax at the local level as the most
significant year since 1973. 1973 was
when they went to a market value standard and it was when they instituted
present use value. In 2007 the General Assembly passed in one chamber the four
year reappraisal cycle which does not affect us and more importantly they
passed the circuit breaker legislation.
They increased the income allowance for elderly exclusion for 2008 and already his staff have taken in almost 25%
more approved applications for elderly exclusion than they did last year. They
are approaching 34.04% as of this morning additional excluded value of single family
residences and mobile homes excluded because of that program than what they had
in 2007.
What he sees coming up for 2009 is the Circuit Breaker bill which has
passed. It’s a matter of getting it implemented. Currently his staff has been working with a
six step process in their exclusion program.
The Circuit Breaker program that the state is forcing them to comply
with is going to be somewhere around a 65 step process. It is a major hit on his office staff in time
and will be a major hit regarding software. There is an increase in his budget
to accomplish this. To date this is about a $26,000,000 reduction in the tax
base in the coming year.
Reappraisal Reserve Fund
Stan Duncan stated this budget reallocates one position from the Assessor
budget and moves one project position to a regular position. The total increase
from FY 2007-2008 to FY 2008-2009 is 3.05%.
Mr. Duncan thanked the Board for appropriating the money last year for
the pictometry project. Those images
have been received. They are
incredible. Staff has had their
training. It provides an oblique photography view, different from ortho., where
you just get a bird’s eye view. This is
at a 40% angle and you get all four sides of most of the properties. In
extremely steep locations you’re reduced a lot of times to one or two. It is a great aid for law enforcement. In most of the jurisdictions around the
county, it’s the law enforcement that really takes advantage of the
product. It will be loaded here to
E-911, the Sheriff’s deputies and others. IT will benefit a lot of other
departments besides just the Assessor. It will certainly help the Assessor’s
office reduce in-county travel, to be able to monitor that more closely and to
route it better so that we can cut down on the fuel cost of those
vehicles. They are using it as part of
their review process.
Animal Services
Brad Rayfield stated his budget includes reclassification of a temporary
position to a Kennel Attendant position. Another increase was for some
education. He sees a need to get more
information out to the public regarding the spay-neuter programs, adoption, and
other events. There’s an increase for professional services because he has the
large animal transport program in place now and he will contract for the transport
of large animals in emergency situations.
They also have a veterinary on retainer to come out and address any
issues they may face out in the field.
Printing and binding is up a little for the educational materials he
anticipates providing this year. The
increase from FY2007-2008 to FY 2008-2009 is minus 3.77%.
Steve Wyatt stated this is one of the departments that has come a long
way in the past year. The Board has made this a priority and Brad has done an
outstanding job with Selena’s leadership.
Information Technology
Becky Snyder explained that she and her staff have been looking at ways
to keep their costs under control. In
the past they were replacing computers every three years or so, based on age. Right now they are funding to replace 20% of
computers each year but only replacing them if they need to be. There are some computers that last more than
four or five years so they are replacing on need. They are also budgeting based on the function
that a computer is going to serve. There
are low-end users and there are high-end users.
Not all computers cost the same amount of money. They are replacing
servers every five years. That’s usually
driven by the fact that the manufacturers will only carry them under
maintenance for five years and servers are generally critical.
The major line items that changed this year were professional services due
to enhancements to the permits and inspections software ($42,000) and
mediatract which is a subscription service that they are budgeting for that will
allow them to broadcast Board of Commissioner meetings on the internet. The GIS
project line item has gone down because in the current year they funded $50,000
for the orthophotography which is in its final quality assurance this week and
hopefully will be available for viewing in the next week or two.
CJPP
Selena Coffey explained that two years ago the Board of Commissioners
made the decision to include county funding for the CJPP Program to support the
pre-trial release program. That is something that staff recommended to zero out
as far as the county funding portion of that this year for two reasons. One is
that with the implementation of the new Public Defender Program one of their
charges is to do pretrial release and to work with the detention center in that
way so they are actually providing more of that now. One of the other reasons
is that they are working on some legislation right now that will limit the
amount of time that folks spend in the jail to 72 hours, with or without a
pretrial release program and that is one way of limiting the amount of time
folks spend in jail before their trial.
That’s actually $19,527 in county funding that came out of the
recommended budget for that program.
Selena Coffey stated that the CJPP Advisory Board has recommended that
the grant application go forward with 80% time on behalf of the person that’s
in that position, managing the program. So she will actually go to 80%,
basically four days a week, in order to provide more treatment money and less
salary money in that grant.
Dues & Non-Profits
The Board reviewed the dues and non-profit contributions.
Economic Development
There was some brief discussion regarding economic development.
Public Hearing
A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for Thursday night, May 29 at
7:00 p.m. It appears the Board is ready for the public hearing. Staff will get some information to the Board
prior to the public hearing, i.e. fuel information.
Adjourn
Chairman Moyer made the motion to adjourn the meeting at 4:56 p.m. All
voted in favor and the motion carried.
Attest:
Elizabeth W. Corn, Clerk to the Board
William L. Moyer, Chairman