STATE
OF
The Henderson County
Board of Commissioners met for a regularly scheduled meeting at 8:30 a.m. in
the Commissioners' Meeting Room of the Historic Courthouse on
Those present were: Chairman Bill Moyer, Vice-Chairman
Also present were: Associate
County Attorney Sarah Zambon, Deputy Clerk to the Board Terry Wilson, and
Public Information Officer Pam Brice as well as numerous department heads.
CALL TO ORDER/WELCOME
Chairman Moyer called
the meeting to order and welcomed all in attendance. He stated that this is the
Board’s Planning Workshop, a very important session.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Commissioner Messer led
the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag.
INVOCATION
Commissioner
Chairman Moyer explained
that the Board is having an abbreviated agenda today, not all the items we normally
have. A few consent agenda items couldn’t wait until the February 2 meeting so
they are on this agenda.
DISCUSSION/ADJUSTMENT OF AGENDA
There were no
adjustments to the agenda. Commissioner
McGrady made the motion to approve the agenda as submitted. All voted in favor
and the motion carried.
CONSENT AGENDA
Commissioner McGrady made the motion to adopt the consent
agenda. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
Consent Agenda consisted
of the following:
Minutes
Draft minutes were
presented for board review and approval of the following meetings:
November 3, 2008
November 14, 2008
November 19, 2008
Tax Collector’s Report
Deputy Tax Collector
Carol McCraw had presented the Tax Collector’s Report to the Commissioners
dated January 9, 2009 for information only. No action was required.
Henderson County Hospital Corporation acquisition of land
As part of
The following motion was
suggested:
I move that the Board approve the purchase as indicated in
the draft contract attached to this agenda item.
Reimbursement resolution for Henderson County Hospital
Corporation
Henderson County
Hospital Corporation’s Board of Trustees has determined it would be in the best
interest of the Corporation to purchase several local medical practices, in
accord with its long-term plans. Included in these purchases will be the
purchase of certain real estate used in such practices.
The Hospital Corporation
contemplates that the initial purchases of these practices should be made from
available cash reserves. However, the Corporation Board wants to keep open for
now the option of financing these purchases. To do so, since all real estate is
held in the name of the County, and since any borrowing done would (1) require
County approval and (2) likely require the real estate to be pledged as
collateral for the loan. To do so with a later purchase, and to meet the public
financing requirements for a County borrowing, this resolution is required.
The following motion was
suggested:
I move that the Board adopt the Reimbursement Resolution
contained together with this agenda item.
2009 HOME Grant Applications
Habitat for Humanity and
Housing Assistance Corporation (HAC) are requesting funding application
submission approval for HOME funds. HOME funds are administered through the
Asheville Regional Housing Consortium. HAC requests $100,000 for their
Homeownership Program through USDA Rural Development Self-Help to assist 5
low-income families (3 between 50-80% of the
Habitat for Humanity
requests $170,000 for road construction (phase 4 roadway) and septic tank
installation for 10 homes (phase 4 section) in the Shuey Knolls development in
the Edneyville community.
The HOME grant
application requires Board approval prior to submission (January 31, 2009
deadline).
Planning Staff
recommends approving the submission of these HOME funding applications to the
Asheville Regional Housing Consortium at their full amount. The complete
applications were too lengthy to be included in the agenda packet but are
available upon request.
The following motion was
suggested:
I move that the Board approve the HOME applications for the
Housing Assistance Corporation and
PLANNING WORKSHOP
Service Demand Trend Summary
Selena reviewed this
section with the Board. Service demand has dropped in several departments but
has picked up in others:
Demand down Demand
up
Code Enforcement
Environmental Health Health
Department
Inspections Law
Enforcement
Planning (Plat Reviews
and Development Library
Application Reviews) Planning (Major planning projects)
Register of Deeds (all
but issuing marriage license) Social
Services
Solid Waste Public
Transit
Basically, in hard
economic times you’ll see a decrease in development services and an increase in
human services.
Chairman Moyer
questioned how this information would be made available to the public. Staff stated that the information would be
put on our website. Copies will be available in the office for people to view
or they can purchase copies.
Energy Reduction Performance Report
Selena Coffey explained
that we have six months of data on the following:
Electricity – reduced
consumption of kilowatt hours by 6.5%.
Natural Gas – reduced
consumption of therms by 24%.
Gas – reduced
consumption of gallons of gasoline by 7.7%.
Diesel – reduced consumption of gallons of diesel fuel by 5.6%.
Selena also shared a bar
graph on Fuel Cost Trend Summary for the same timeframe.
In September staff put
into effect an emergency fuel usage policy where we only allowed emergency
vehicles to use our county fuel supply and, of course, that was the bulk of the
savings in gasoline use.
Currently the county
uses 100 gallons per day of diesel fuel and 600 gallons per day of gasoline.
The
Chairman Moyer requested
quarterly reports of service demands and energy costs on the Board’s regular
agendas.
Departmental Cost Allocation Summary
Darlene Burgess
(Internal Auditor) stated that cost allocation was based on the FY 2008 budget.
Reductions were made from the budgets of Human Resources, Engineering &
Facility Services, Information Technology, General Debt Service, Special
Projects, and Transfers to Other Funds.
The reductions were allocated to the various departments based on
criteria that would most accurately allocate the costs.
She explained that from
the Human Resources budget $72,371 was allocated to other departments, based on
the number of benefit eligible employees.
Included in this allocation were some of the wellness clinic expense,
background checks for employees, cobra benefits, drug screenings, employee
assistance program costs, flex spending accounts costs, and advertising costs
for new positions.
Engineering &
Facility Services - $2,569,695 was allocated, mostly based on square footage
with the exception of several line items such as automotive supplies which was
based on fuel usage. Included in these costs were items such as janitorial
supplies and services, rental of real property, insurance, and maintenance and
repair.
Information Technology -
$455,538 was allocated, based on the number of computers used by each
department. Some of the allocations,
such as software maintenance and support were direct allocations to
departments. Included in these allocations were e-mail costs, server expenses,
software licenses, and maintenance agreements.
General Debt Services -
$3,782,146 was allocated. The
allocations in debt service were allocated based on square footage. Included in
this category is debt service for the Etowah Library, Historic Courthouse,
Sixth Avenue Clubhouse, Vehicle voting machines, the Jail and Human Services
building.
Transfers/Non-Departmental
Expenses $996,211 was allocated and includes the wellness clinic expenses,
Historic Courthouse facility costs, Consulting and Grants Locator fees, and
transfers to Public Schools.
Darlene Burgess
explained that Governing Body’s budget changed by 261% because 92% of the debt
service on the Historic Courthouse was allocated to the Governing Body based on
square footage.
She explained that most
of the large percentages of change were because of debt service. The cost of
facilities include electricity, costs for heating, maintenance, lawn care
because we don’t have debt service for many of our facilities. Parks and Recreation had some items for the
FY 2008 such as sewer line construction, capital outlay for buildings and
improvements.
Capital Plan Update
Carey McLelland explained
that the actual outstanding debt ($117,939,042) is 0.91% of the total FY 2009
assessed tax value and the Board Policy maximum is 3.0%. Actual debt service
payments are 13.38% of the FY 2009 General Fund budgeted expenditures and the
Board Policy maximum is 15%. The current balance of the Capital Reserve Fund is
$2,437,195. None of this $2.4 million has been ear-marked.
Carey McLelland reviewed
outstanding debt principal:
Education
2009 – Public Schools $75,787,920
2009 –
2009 –
The Board was given the
numbers starting with FY 2009 and going to 2019.
2009 is the last year
for debt payments on the 1998 School Bonds for Public Schools and for the
Community College.
Carey McLelland
explained that rates are starting to come down, he is looking at the
possibility of refunding or refinancing some of this debt. He will share some information with the Board
and the Manager on that in the near future. Our highest priced debt currently
is our debt on the detention center. It is also our oldest debt.
Mark Williams stated
that as we reduce our debt load, it enables us to have a little more borrowing
power. He had specifically asked for this information to help guide the Board
in the Capital Plan.
Carey McLelland stated
that our grand total of debt service payments for 2009 are $15,400,368.
The following list of
Capital Projects has not been funded in the FY 2008-2009, or projected FY
2009-2010 budgets:
·
Schools:
Classroom Additions/Bus Garage
·
·
·
New
Fletcher Library/Main Library Upgrade
Chairman Moyer stated
that the Board needs to update the list at this time and look at other
possibilities. We have problems with lack of capacity in the new Courthouse and
problems associated with that overcrowding.
The issue of the shooting range has been raised. The Board will need to take a good look and
prioritize this list.
Chairman Moyer called a
10 minute break, starting back at 10:00 a.m.
FY 2007-2008 Year End Summary
Total General Fund
Budget
|
|
Revised Budget |
Actual |
Variance |
% Variance |
|
Revenues |
$115,053,276 |
$115,984,928 |
$931,652 |
+0.81% |
|
Expenditures |
$115,053,276 |
$108,697,973 |
$6,355,303 |
+5.52% |
|
Variance |
$0 |
$7,286,955 |
$7,286,955 |
+6.33% |
There were four pages of
county expenditures for the FY 2007-2008 budget.
Carey McLelland
addressed some of the major variances in expenditures. Board of Elections had about 40% in unspent
temporary and over-time wages and benefits.
There was $49,000 in contracted and professional services still
available at fiscal year end that didn’t have to be spent. There were also
$88,000 in other operating line items to make up the total for Board of
Elections of a $177,934 variance.
Carey McLelland
mentioned the following:
Assessor’s Office had
$211,947 variance. A little over
$100,000 in lapsed salaries was unspent.
Legal had $73,346 in
salary and benefits.
Building Services had
$174,422 – a couple of positions that have not been replaced so there are lapsed
salaries and benefits.
Carey stated that the
Health Programs were grant funds, unspent was $238,855.
Under DSS – Federal and
State – Medicaid was the majority of the $1,486,632, due to the Medicaid Swap
Relief Package that the General Assembly approved. Carey McLelland stated that
we budgeted the full amount of Medicaid that we anticipated having to pay off
but the budget was approved before the General Assembly actually acted on that
piece of legislation so we had $1.4 million in savings there.
Carey McLelland
addressed a $2,150,566 savings in debt service for the schools, because we
anticipated starting these projects earlier in FY 2008 and obtaining our
financing; however, the projects were not ready to proceed and we ended up not
actually starting until late in the fiscal year and we obtained our loan in
April of 2008. That money ended up not
having to be spent and rolled over to the current fiscal year for our first
debt service payment.
Stan Duncan addressed
the Board, stating that the tax base is made up of four different components.
The real property component is the largest (about 83% of the total tax base
projections). He stated that he and his
staff spend their time going out in the field and verifying properties on
record and making sure it is as accurate as of January 1 of each year as they
can. Personal property, with regards to
business personal property especially, has steadily dropped off over the last
couple of years. Looking ahead to FY
2009-2010 he continues to see that will probably be the case. He stated that
when we see any kind of plant lay-offs and people lose their jobs, there will
be a certain amount of people who go into an entrepreneurial type mode and will
start a service connected job like lawn services, mowing and landscaping has
been a big one over the past year or two.
So you may see additional growth in the total number of business
accounts but they will be very small business accounts. We’re not seeing the
kind of growth we would have seen 5-8 years ago. He explained that the other
piece of this is registered motor vehicles.
In registering motor vehicles they are starting to see that people are
not buying new cars as rapidly or as frequently as they used to buy new cars.
So the cars that we have on record are gaining another year of
depreciation. In the past we would have
seen some growth in new car purchases and older cars being traded in and taken
off our records, that is simply not taking place now. In addition, starting
with the September renewals in 2008, those vehicles were valued as of their
value on January 1, 2009. They saw about a 22-28% reduction in certain types of
vehicles, specifically large SUVs and large pick-up trucks. Combine all this together and you end up with
a significant reduction that we are projecting for FY 2009-2010 in the
registered motor vehicle component to the total tax base. Mr. Duncan stated that the last piece, that
we have very little knowledge of until they tell us what the numbers are, comes
from the NC Department of Revenue and that has to do with the Public Utilities
or Public Service Companies. Last year,
for example, Stan stated they projected on a $200,000,000 contribution there
and it actually came out to $198,000,000. In all of these except for real
property, in the coming year, he will be making projections and has been making
projections that he has shared with the Manager and Chairman to some degree,
that are less in everything except for real property. He stated we’ve had a little bit of growth in
real property but not sufficient to overcome necessarily the losses in personal
property. Registered motor vehicles is really the big one. Stan Duncan stated,
for all intensive purposes, we are essentially flat, we’re maybe $100,000,000
to the good but we are essentially flat for 2009-2010.
FY 2007-2008 Budget
Performance
Total General Fund
Budget
Revised
Budget Actual Variance %Variance
Revenues $115,053,276 $115,984,928 $931,652 +0.81%
Expenditures $115,053,276 $108,697,973 $6,355,303 +5.5
Variance $0 $7,286,955 $7,286,955 +6.33%
Mr. Wyatt reminded the Board of our big
ticket items which make up a substantial chunk of our budget; Medicaid and
school debt service. He raised caution
that these are one-time occurrences.
Something like that could happen again but they are unlikely. He feels our timing is excellent to have been
able to build up some of that cushion.
Fund
Balance Available (based
on current year budget)
Unreserved General Fund Balance = $21,872,379 (18.7%)
12% Board of Commissioners Fund = $14,050,098 (12%)
Chairman Moyer felt that the Board should
discuss whether the 12% policy is still appropriate. He has been amazed at
talking with other counties that the majority of them think we are on the very
low side. A number of them have told him they use 15% as a bare minimum in these
economic times. He hasn’t found anyone who is at the level we are that aren’t
in trouble. He’s hearing a lot of 20%s.
Maybe we need to adjust ours.
He also stated that we
still have hanging over us what the state is going to do to balance their
budget.
FY 2008-2009 Mid-Year Financial Report
Carey McLelland stated
that the $592,300 revision to the Sheriff’s Department budget was mainly
because we had borrowed $550,000 earlier in the fiscal year to do an expansion
to our E-911 Communications Center. That gets budgeted in the Sheriff’s
Department and there are loan proceeds to offset it on the revenue side. That
is a large one-time expenditure.
Economic Development -
$331,250 revision – Carey McLelland explained that we received a $300,000 grant
for the agricultural ADFP Trust Fund Grant for the apple wedge project. That is one-time grant money as well as the
$31,000 final payment to Elkamet for their NC 1 Fund payment.
Health Fund – Carey
McLelland explained that we received a new $380,000 Childhood Obesity Program
Grant. This is also a one-time funding.
Recreation – There was a
management decision to move parks and maintenance folks from Central Services
over to Recreation. That was a Board
approved budget amendment.
General Fund Total – we
have expended 46.4% of our budget for half the year.
Mr. Wyatt then addressed
FY 2008-2009 Revenues. He stated that
revenues are difficult to project, some are not in our control. Much of it
depends on when people pay their taxes. We are currently at 78.8% of paid
property taxes. Total General Fund
Revenues = 57.5% for half the year. We
are only slightly ahead of budget.
Permits & Fees –
Carey McLelland stated that category includes inspection fees and recording
fees in our Register of Deeds Office which are way off at this point in time,
somewhere in the 20-25% range.
Sales & Services –
Carey McLelland stated this category includes planning enforcement and
environmental health, sanitation fees.
Steve stressed that no
fund balance has been appropriated and our goal is to not have to spend it.
He does feel that we are
about on target in revenues. There are concerns about October, November, and
December going forward – sales tax revenues.
Steve reviewed a graph
with the Board regarding FY 2008-2009 Sales Tax Revenues, with the bottom line
being that we are at + $507,178 or half a million dollars ahead halfway through
the year. He cautioned the Board that it
is not because sales have been good.
It’s because we reduced projections in the spring. We will get
November’s sales tax figures mid-month February.
FY 2009-2010 Financial Projections
FY 2009-2010 Revenue
Assumptions
·
No
increase in property tax rate
·
Overall
property tax base growth less than 1%
·
Flat
sales tax projections and loss of final ¼ cent Article 44 sales tax due to
Medicaid Swap
·
No
incorporations
·
No
fund balance appropriated
FY 2009-2010 Projected
Revenues
Revenues are projected
based on the above assumptions.
Revenue Source
·
Ad
Valorem Taxes – Current Year $58,123,758 (relatively
level)
·
Ad
Valorem Taxes – Prior Year $1,470,000
·
Local
Option Sales Taxes $17,872,602
(a dip here)
·
Other
Taxes and Licenses $1,132,550
·
Unrestricted
Intergovernmental $62,000
·
Restricted
Intergovernmental $20,771,863
·
Permits
and Fees $1,291,500
·
Sales
and Services $7,539,161
·
Investment
Earnings $900,000
·
Other
Revenues (Includes
Fire Dept. Agreement) $2,253,527
·
Transfers
from Other Funds $410,000
·
Fund
Balance Appropriated $0
TOTAL
GENERAL FUND REVENUES $111,826,961
Difference
FY 2008-2009 to FY 2009-2010 $5,706,018
That’s a big difference
between current revenues and projected revenues, $5,706,018.
Stan Duncan explained
that the General Assembly enacted some major changes that involve tax relief for
our elderly and for our veterans. One is
an expansion of an existing program – we actually increased the amount of tax
value that we took out of the tax base by about 30% last year from what it had
been in the previous year. He stated that we do not have a good feel for how
much additional will be taken out with that expansion for this year but he
expects it to be somewhere in the neighborhood of about another 10% to be taken
out from that part of the base. That particular program involves local homes for
personal property as well as single family residences for someone who’s 65
years of age or older and makes less than $25,600 in calendar year 2008 from
all sources, then they qualify for 50% reduction in their assessed value on
just the homesite, the home itself and any kind of related residential
improvement so it’s a pretty big program.
Stan Duncan explained
that the second piece is something you may have read about or heard about
called a circuit breaker. That has to do with limiting a person’s property tax
bill to a percentage of their actual income for the previous calendar
year. The first threshold is a $25,600
ceiling for income and someone may elect to limit their tax bill which would be
a combination of the
Stan Duncan thinks that
if you qualify for the circuit breaker, there is a deferred lien placed on that
property for the amount of tax above the 4% or above the 5% and most of our
citizens have expressed they don’t like having a lien lay out there for a
number of years on their property for property tax purposes. They like to take
care of it on an annual basis.
Stan Duncan explained
that the other expansion program has to do with veterans and if you are a
permanently disabled veteran as result of a service connected disability, then
you can qualify for the first $45,000 to be taken off the value of that
home. The big part of this is it is the
only program that is portable to the spouse so if the spouse of a veteran is
still unmarried then this benefit is portable to that spouse as well. Mike
Murdock had indicated to Mr. Duncan that there is where the larger number of
applicant pool will come from, will be those spouses. They have looked at the revenue law
subcommittee as a way to try to correlate income to value of residences but
have found no data base anywhere in the country that allows them to do that so
they will simply monitor it this first year. They are building some estimates
into the numbers that he has shared with the
Chairman Moyer felt it
important to stress to folks that these are state programs and state
regulations. They require specific forms and we have to follow their rules when
we implement the program.
Stan Duncan explained
that his folks have come up with a brochure that they are happy to send out to
anyone who calls their office. They have
been on the radio stations and they have been fortunate enough to get an
article in the local newspaper about the tax relief programs. They want people
to know about them. It is not a
guarantee that if they call and make application that they will get it, but staff
will certainly work with them to try to make sure the information is accurate
and they know what their responsibilities are.
FY 2009-2010 Expenditure
Assumptions
·
County
government overall operating budget reduced by $2,060,080
·
Education
operating budgets maintained at current level
·
No
growth percentage projected for Mental Health Maintenance of Effort funding, or
grant
funded programs
·
No
new capital projects requiring debt service
·
No
obligation to fund Medicaid in FY 2009-2010
·
One
time NC Agricultural and Farmland Trust Fund Grant excluded in FY 2009-2010
·
Flat
fuel costs (gas and diesel)
FY 2009-2010 Projected
Expenditures
Current Obligations:
County $79,177,467
HC Public School System
·
Current
Expense $20,205,922
·
Capital
Expense $2,255,339
·
Debt
Service $9,111,197
Total= $31,572,458
·
Operational
Expense $2,314,409
·
Capital
Expense $90,724
·
Debt
Service $1,498,977
Total= $3,904,110
TOTAL
GENERAL FUND = $114,654,035
Projected Current
Obligations for FY 2010
General Fund
Expenditures $114,654,035
Projected Revenues $111,826,961
Variance ($2,827,074)
·
Based
on a tax base valuation of $12,970,000,000 in FY 2010, 1 TRE = $1,258,090
·
Based
on tax base estimate provided 12/17/2008
·
$2,437,195
is currently held in the Capital Reserve Fund
To fund projected
current obligations:
Fund Balance = (above
the 12% BOC Policy) 16.3% currently $7,822,281
Needed to fund FY
2009-2010 Current Obligations = $2,827,074
There was some Board
discussion regarding the increase in Public Health services and DSS services
due to the economic climate and less services needed in Planning and
Inspections. There may be a need to adjust upward for the departments who need
to provide additional services and potentially make cuts in the areas where the
demand for those services are down.
Commissioner McGrady
asked that Carey pull up information and share with the Board regarding fund
balance percentages and actual numbers that other counties are using. Everyone
(other counties too) is fearful of what the sales tax might be and, if this
economic situation continues the way it is, what the service demand might be on
particularly the social services side. Before he is ready to make a firm
decision regarding the next budget, those are numbers he would be interest in.
He doesn’t see the need to mess with the fund balance policy at this time
because he doesn’t think the citizens want the Board serving as their bank. He
stated on the other hand, if our fund balance is high, we can’t just spend it
down on things that will create continuing obligations for us.
LUNCH BREAK
Chairman Moyer called a
1 hour break for the Commissioners and staff to have lunch in the Community
Room.
Board of Commissioners’ FY 2009-2010 Priority Setting
Chairman Moyer thanked
staff for the wealth of valuable information they had provided to the Board. He
stated the Board should now build on that, seeing what additional information
is needed and what additional direction the Board needs to give to staff.
Chairman Moyer stated
that the capital projects may have an impact on the Federal Stimulus Program.
He wished to begin with a discussion of the Capital Projects:
Schools: Classroom Additions/Bus Garage
Chairman Moyer stated
that with respect to the Schools and their capital projects, he thinks that the
Joint Facilities Committee (Larry and Bill sit on that Committee representing
the Board) should meet as quickly as they can and see what they have in mind so
that information can be incorporated into this for discussion with this Board.
As we get into budget deliberations, the Board can decide when they are ready
to talk to the full School Board or how to handle this.
Chairman Moyer stated
that with respect to the
Sheriff Davis stated the
expansion for the
Chairman Moyer stated
that it looks like this might be one of those projects that won’t get a date
assigned to it at this time, but will stay on the Board’s radar.
Sheriff Davis added that
currently they see a bottleneck in their booking area. That bottleneck translates to deputies,
troopers, police officers not being able to get back out on the street as
quickly as what we would like. He feels that with the ICE money that they are
now generating, they would do a very small expansion enclosing part of a
week-ender section that opens directly to the outside (seems to be a design
flaw) and could literally have that capacity of 32 more beds immediately and at
a substantially lower rate. It would help get officers back on the street and
would additionally enclose that area so that it wasn’t a security risk. He
stated that is a minor project, maybe $1 million to $1.5 million.
Chairman Moyer suggested
Sheriff Davis write that up and submit it as part of the budget process.
Sheriff Davis stated
that the Sheriff’s department is bursting at the seams now, above capacity.
There have been some changes to some state and federal laws so that they now
have to hold onto evidence much longer and they have no option, they have to
have a secured facility to put those items in. There are more and more items
that they are having to hold onto. He doesn’t see how they can keep sustaining
this without going into some other type of facility just for storage capacity
alone. For instance, he just reassigned when they did some reduction in force
recently – he reassigned one position to the criminal investigations. There is a
higher workload there now because of the economy. There is no place currently
to put that person. As far as a timeframe – he can’t imagine how we can get
another facility (third facility) and keep it secured for evidence. His
timeframe would be sooner rather than later because he feels this is really
starting to hinder operations. They are having to “rob Peter to pay Paul”
constantly. Sheriff Davis thinks it would be prudent at some point that this be
addressed. He constantly has projects
that are maintenance type items that are going wrong in major ways. He hates to
see us keep putting money into maintenance issues if we know something is on
the horizon. “The next thing that we’ll have to do is a major expansion down at
our evidence impound building. If that area is going to be used at some point
for an expansion onto the courthouse or an expansion for whatever, I would hate
to see us sink money into that only to have it torn down later. So, some type
of direction on a timeframe would be very helpful to us in order for us to save
money long-term.”
When questioned about a
timeframe by a Commissioner, Sheriff Davis replied that at the current rate
that they are storing and holding evidence alone, he doesn’t see how they can
sustain five years, not without some type of an additional facility. “Five
years from now would be an outside number.”
Chairman Moyer felt that
the issues needed split, stating that they had talked about the evidence
storage and the Board knows that is an issue to deal with. You can’t say that to solve that problem we
have to have a law enforcement center.
“We can solve that problem with a metal building and some other issues.”
Commissioner McGrady
questioned how much is it going to cost us to maintain the spaces that law
enforcement are currently in that are clearly inadequate. He is just trying to
get a timeframe for the capital project. His impression is that 5-6 years from
now we need the building built and if that is the case then we need to get this
project online to begin the planning process next year or certainly the year
after.
Chairman Moyer reminded
the Board that there are other possibilities out there, other than building a
new facility for law enforcement.
Discussions were halted due to the economic times we are in.
Commissioner Young felt
that the Board needs to sit and have a thorough discussion on capital projects
and property that we need to sell. We have the assessor and the collector in
the courthouse that need to be in other places so that room can be expanded in
the courthouse for other court functions. He thinks the Board needs to have a
special called meeting and look at capital projects, where we want to go, and
what we’ve got available, what we’re going to do with excess properties we have
and how we’re going to restructure it all the way through. He feels that until the Board addressed all
this, they will not know where they are going.
Sheriff Davis said “In
1992 there was a Captain that presented to then Sheriff Jackson, plans for a
law enforcement center and Sheriff Jackson, who never said anything about
wanting anything – I remember very vividly him putting his hands on his suit
and saying this was needed twenty years ago. So you can well imagine where
we’re at now.”
Chairman Moyer also
suggested to Sheriff Davis that he do a write up on the evidence issue for
budget consideration.
New Fletcher Library/Main Library Upgrade
Chairman Moyer asked
Bill Snyder, Public Library Director, to update the Board on these issues.
Bill Snyder explained
that for a number of years, at least ten, the libraries’ highest priority for
facilities improvements has been the Fletcher Library. Fletcher Library is over
20 years old now. It is not the property of
Chairman Moyer stated
that for a number of years this project has been pushed but the Town of
Bill Snyder stated that
the Town of Fletcher promised us a number of years ago that they would provide
property (Bill Moyer stated “many years ago”) and the Town, within the last
calendar year, did meet with the Library Board and said that even if the Town
is not ready to proceed with the project, they have the land and will make it
available and anytime the Library wants to proceed with this they (the Town)
are ready. Bill Snyder said he didn’t think we could keep waiting for the Town
of
Bill Snyder stated that
the Main Library is coming up on 20 years old and they have issues, with any
facility that is being used that heavily over a 20 year period. He said the
main issue is electrical. The lighting system was not terribly good when it was
installed and it has deteriorated over the years. They are in a situation where the lighting
fixtures are getting so archaic that they can’t replace parts any longer. In
the next 2-5 years he thinks a plan needs compiled to update the building and
keep it usable for the next 20 years. He didn’t have a good budget number on
that because architects and engineers would need to be brought in. He certainly
feels it would fall within the $1 million to $2 million range.
Commissioner McGrady
raised the issue of the Green River/Tuxedo Library, stating that the Board had
in the budget four years ago about a half million set aside for the Library
and/or Park facility. He asked Bill
Snyder’s view on that. Bill Snyder stated that it is not the Library’s highest
priority. It is on their radar. The
issue they face in that community is lack of a good plan. Bill Snyder said they simply do not know
which way the community wants to go there. When you look at the usage of the
library it’s not growing like the other libraries are. Bill Snyder stated that
if the citizens of that area can come together and come up with a good plan, a
good definition for the Library Board as to what they want in a library, the
Library Board would be in a better position to move forward. He stated until they have that, it is
something they know they need to do but it certainly isn’t their highest
priority.
Chairman Moyer said that
covers the items on the capital projects list previously but he opened it up
for other projects.
Firing Range/Shooting Range
Chairman Moyer stated
there had been some discussion of a firing/shooting range at the
Chairman Moyer said this
project could be submitted under the Federal Stimulus Package. Heath Shuler’s office has met with
Commissioner Messer on one occasion and has talked with some of the parties.
Apparently there is going to be some money ear-marked in this Federal Stimulus
Package clearly for law enforcement.
Commissioner Messer
stated that
Commissioner Williams
stated that ultimately the state is going to do what the state is going to do
and we are left to pick up the pieces.
If we can’t move forward by February which is an unrealistic timeframe,
from all indicators he has heard, the State is going to press forward and will
build the outdoor range and then we’ll be put in a position to where we either
find the money to enclose it or it remains an outdoor range. He feels that we’ve been “painted into a
corner.” We weren’t asked much on the
front side, plans were made and then we were told this is going to happen. There has been very little that any of us
have been able to do about it for close to a year now. Commissioner Williams
agrees with the approach that is being taken right now and the efforts that are
being made to try to get some of our neighboring counties involved and look at
moving forward with changing things around to make it more safe for the
community, the safety factor and the noise issue.
Chairman Moyer stated
that where we’re headed is another special meeting with one of the issues being
overall capital projects. He stated that the Sheriff needs to supply
information on the detention center, evidence storage, and law enforcement
center. He thinks the Board should talk
with the school system and tell them we want a joint facilities meeting as
quickly as possible to get that information so it’s ready for the special
meeting. He asked the Board what
additional projects they would like staff to take a look at, if any, before
that meeting.
·
Shooting/Firing
range
·
School
and
·
Recreation
Facilities needs
·
Bus
Repair/Depot/Solid Waste/Recycling
·
Look
at the sale of excess property: water dept., old health bldg., chamber
building, Sheriff office on
·
Green
River/Tuxedo Library/Park
·
Courthouse
overcrowding – Old health dept. building
Chairman Moyer stated
that when we have that special meeting, we’re starting off with an assumption –
no new capital projects requiring debt service in the coming year. That will be our starting point. If we adopt
that and move forward, then we’re talking about starting in year #2 to take a
look at how much debt service we’ve paid off and how much will be becoming
available, take a look at these projects and see if we can match and have
enough information on the projects and enough information on how much money
will be available to see if we can come up with a schedule.
Chairman Moyer asked
Carey McLelland to work up a refinancing plan before this special meeting. He
thinks that we can free up some money by refinancing some of our debt at the
current interest rates.
COST ALLOCATION
Chairman Moyer feels
very strongly that we should prepare our budget this year using the
departmental cost allocation method. Other Commissioners were in
agreement. Commissioner Williams used
the term Enterprise Accounting. If each
county department is run like a small business, then you have to know the cost
of running that business.
Chairman Moyer stated
that we want to come up with a budget that is as transparent to the public and
as understandable to the public as possible.
FY 2009-2010 EXPENDITURE
ASSUMPTIONS
Chairman Moyer felt that
one of the very significant ones was that there would be Education operating
budgets and
Chairman Moyer asked how
do we move forward working with the School Board and the Blue Ridge Community
College Board with that as one of our assumptions?
Commissioner Messer
stated that we have a new State Governor and we have a $3 billion deficit
sitting there. He said they’ve already cut the schools and now they’ve cut the
colleges. Commissioner Messer said the
information is already out there but we need to wait a while and leave this
window open. We don’t know what the
State is going to do, or the Federal Government. Regardless of what we plan, if
the State didn’t plan that way and have put the burden back on us, then we’re
in a mess. Who’s to say, in April that
we won’t have to come up with another half million dollars for the schools or
college, it’s very possible if we keep the same level of service at the schools
and the Blue Ridge College as we have now.
Commissioner Young
agreed but stated that we likely could not offset what the State would take
away.
We already cut the
county budget and county services this
year by $1.5 million. We didn’t ask the School System or the College either one
to cut their budgets that much. If they
stay at the same level they are now, then they’ve really already got an
increase in their budget.
Commissioner Williams
stated that they haven’t gotten an increase.
We’re talking here about the State putting pressure back on the
counties. He doesn’t think that we need to be there trying to fill that void.
If we keep the operational side about where it is, that is an advantage that
the school has over where we’re going with local government in general. We are looking at about a $2 million
reduction with county government with the schools staying at the same level.
They essentially are getting a little bigger piece of that pie from the local
level. He would be more open to funding some of the capital type expenses that
they may have rather than adding to the operational side of things.
Commissioner McGrady
felt we should tell the schools and the college that this is what we’re working
from as the assumptions we’re making going forward and plan to put your budget
together with the same set of assumptions that we’re making. If you have critical needs, whatever type,
put together that list and communicate it. He can’t see us filling in what the
State is cutting back on. “We’ve had teachers coming to us wanting additional
supplement and I’m sitting here – we’re laying off people on the one hand and
you’re asking us to put more money in a supplement, you’ve got to be crazy. How
tone deaf are you?” I’m not going to go there. I’d just say to the schools,
make the same assumption that we are making here.
The consensus of the
Board was to allow some flexibility in the schools budget for maintenance
issues rather than for operations. These
sorts of things will come out during a Joint Facilities Meeting.
Chairman Moyer
summarized that he be authorized to send a letter to both the Community College
and the School System explaining the assumptions we are going on. “We will be anxious to receive your budget
but these are the assumptions we’re looking at so far and we want you to identify
your budget and these are the guidelines we’ve set up for us to look at so far.”
FUND BALANCE
Chairman Moyer explained
that we’ve improved our fund balance.
There is a willingness to want to consider this but there is also some
concern – we don’t want to become a bank sitting on monies. But it seems that
everyone is interested in Carey and Steve coming up with some information as to
where are the other counties, what is their fund balance, both percentage wise
and dollar amount. The Board will then take a look at those figures and discuss
our fund balance and policy.
Commissioner Williams
talked briefly about using some of our fund balance for debt reduction. He
stated that the note on the
Fuel Costs – Chairman
Moyer wasn’t sure that flat fuel costs was the right way to budget. He was not prepared to accept that assumption
at this time.
CNG – Compressed Natural
Gas
There was some
discussion that we need to move fast on locating a property and moving forward
with a CNG fuel station. The closest one is in Arden/Fletcher area.
ADJOURN
Commissioner McGrady made the motion to adjourn the meeting,
at 1:55 p.m. All voted in favor and the
motion carried.
Attest:
Elizabeth W. Corn, Clerk to the Board William L. Moyer, Chairman