Board of Commissioners · Regular Meeting · May 8, 2023

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Board of County Commissioners

May 8, 2023 · Full Transcript

Us to Pledge of Allegiance.

Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any agenda adjustments commissioners hearing on I will move on to the announcements and have Miss Wallace if she will read our announcements for us good evening Commissioners and to the public I will read the announcements that are published in our agenda get free covet home test kits all North Carolina households are eligible to order two free covid-19 home test kits per month now through June 30th there is a link on our website where you are able to order those breathe home test kits are also available at Durham County Department of Public Health to obtain a kit please visit 414 East Main Street where one can be picked up at the front entrance screening Windows kits are available on Mondays and Fridays from 9 A.M to 1pm they are also available on Wednesdays from noon until 4 pm property tax relief program Durham County Tax Administration wants to ensure wants to help ensure that all property owners are aware of property tax relief programs that may benefit.

Them there are three major tax relief programs known as Homestead programs available for homeowners who qualify the application deadline for the homestead program is June 1st 2023. please visit deconc.gov backslash tax and search for relief or you can call the tax administration office at 919-5600300. Changes in supplemental nutrition assistance program electronic benefit transfer which is snap or EBT starting March 2023 extra snap and EBT formerly food stamp benefits or emergency allotments received during covet ended March 2023 recipients can review their regular monthly benefits available online through the EBT Edge app there is also additional information about free food programs in Durham you can visit in hunkerderm.org for additional information need help buying food snap may be able to help with buying food helping help with completing a Snap application can be provided by Katie Forest at Durham County Cooperative Extension you can contact Katie at 919-909-7469 there's also a contact number for individuals who need assistance that speak Spanish WIC is a program to help women infant and children receive food for additional.

Information about that you can contact Lincoln Community Health Center at 919-956-4042 kids voting Durham Civic leadership intern youth age 14-24 looking for a meaningful experience this summer where you can earn service hours work with a great team of Youth and adults meet Durham decision makers and make an impact on your community in the upcoming election learn more about the Civic leadership intern opportunities at kids youth Durham by visiting kids youthderm.org you can also email info kids voting durham.org or call 919-560-7321. Children's book week bookmark design contest for kids calling all kid artists the library wants you to help design a bookmark for children's book week the theme is read books spark change pick up a handout at your local library location create a design and turn it in to the library by Saturday May 13th winners will be announced Monday May 22nd there is a link here for additional details about the contest as well as contact information there are four different individuals that you can reach out to National Foster Care month May is.

National Foster Care month and the 2023 theme is strengthening Minds uplifting throughout the month of May Durham County Department of Social Services will help raise awareness about foster care in our community while honoring the young people in foster care as well as the volunteers who support those in need of temporary or permanent housing learn more about how to help change the life of a child in our community at decode DSS foster care web page it is located on the deconc.gov website you can also call 919-560-8092 for additional information that concludes the announcements that are in our agenda thank you Miss Wallace I appreciate you reading those for us the next item commissioners or minutes we have her before us the April 10th 2023 regular session minutes are there any edits or comments regarding the minutes hearing none I will ask for a motion to approve Madam chair I've moved the approval of the April 10th minutes second moved improperly second all in favor aye ocean approved passes five to zero.

Next we have ceremonial items Madam chair can I make one quick announcement thank you I'm sorry I should have made it right before the announcements since we have so many folks in the audience tonight a lot of you all know that Fidelity Investments is here in Durham and they recently announced a 250 million dollar Scholars Program for African-American and Hispanic kids the deadline was Friday they have extended it it is 250 million dollars worth of scholarship money last dollar scholarship money and wraparound Services the funding is only available to students in five cities in North Carolina Durham Raleigh High Point Greensboro and Jamestown it is actually available to every zip code in Durham that is unheard of every zip code that only three states us Massachusetts Massachusetts and Texas I'm gonna get of course I will pass along to the clerk but they extended today that's just 250 million dollars left on the table that our kids can get and the money cannot it's not just used for a degree program.

It can be used for a certificate program so I see President Buxton sitting there nodding his head in affirmation so it can be used at Durham Tech as well so please please please if you know a deserving student in high school please go to the Fidelity Scholars Program and get your application in by May 15 11 59. Thank you so commissioner Burns will that information be on our website so that the public have access to it where will it be located I will send it to Monica right now so that we can make it available on our website thank you.

Okay now we are our ceremonial items is next Commissioners 230308 a resolution resilient and thriving communities week so the board is requested to receive a resolution from the child adverse childhood experience and resilient coordinator and the Durham adverse childhood experience and resilient task force and I have asked commissioner Burns if she will read that resolution for us Durham County Board of com of County Commissioners resolution resilient and thriving communities week whereas resilient and thriving communities are vital to our community and State's future health success and prosperity to ensure a strong foundation for everyone at all ages and stages of life and whereas the science is clear that resilience is built and that communities and systems play a key role in promoting safe secure and nurturing environments for all and whereas adverse childhood and life experiences adverse Community environments atrocious cultural experiences and adverse climate events impact overall quality of life and well-being of an entire community and whereas healthy North Carolina 2030 a path toward Health by the North Carolina Institute of medicine in partnership.

With the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health identifies reduction of adverse child experiences by 25 by 2030 as a goal and whereas it is our Collective responsibility to collaborate in a non-partisan fashion to promote positive experiences secure relationships and supportive environments to buffer stress and adversity and to support local resilience coalitions collaboratives task force and initiatives across the state and whereas investing in policies programs and strategies that address adversity and strengthen Community resilience is essential to health and well-being of our community whereas Durham County encourages all individuals and all sectors public-private Early Childhood through post-secondary education faith-based organizations Health Care Systems Justice systems Social Services systems businesses and elected leaders to collaborate to strengthen our communities and now therefore be it resolved that we the Durham County Board of County Commissioners do hereby Proclaim April 29th through May 6 as resilient and thriving communities week in our community and commend its observance to our citizens be therefore further resolve that we the members of the.

Durham Board of Board of County Commissioners do hereby urge the entire Durham Community to become trauma-informed and supportive of strategies that strengthen individual family and Community buffers that can prevent or alleviate the effects of adverse childhood experiences and adverse Community environments be it further resolved that we the Durham County Board of Board of County Commissioners commit to work with the Durham adverse childhood experiences and resilience task force to develop and act upon a policy agenda that will address the root causes of adverse experiences in our communities this the eighth day of May 2023 thank you commissioner Burns and I will ask staff DSS staff or Health Department staff to address.

You thank you Board of County Commissioners for this resolution thank you chair Howerton for working with us to make it a stronger call to action this year and we really do look forward to working with the board on a policy agenda that can really make real change for our community around adverse experiences would you give your name oh yes your depart your title yes sorry Jess Bosque adverse childhood experiences and resilience coordinator Durham County Public Health thank you so much any comments commissioners.

Well thank you Jess for bringing this to us and for your great presentation at our last meeting and I'm just so glad that we have you as our coordinator and all the work that you're doing to implement what was highlighted in this resolution and I just want to also mention that the Surgeon General announced last week that loneliness is a National Health crisis and and especially among young people so really lifting that up and I think that that's I feel like that's something that we can do something about in Durham we we are an Engaged Community creating a community that is inclusive is important I know this summer there's a big focus on getting all children and youth engaged in something and the other thing I wanted to share as I listened to a podcast just this week I did share with a few people because we're going to be talking about mental health at our joint school board and board accounting commission meeting talking about how the conclusion of the podcast about the.

Mental Health crisis in our with our youth is the importance of our youth or children having a relationship with one person just one adult having a positive loving mentoring relationship and that being such a strong protective Factor so again I I think we can this is something that we can do in Durham and thank you and I also want to say thank you Jess thank you for taking this on because it's so important to all of us and and Heidi and I were gonna wanted to get with you but Heidi was busy with a new grandbaby congratulations so you know the it starts there yeah it starts with the little ones so thank you for all the work that you're doing we're we really appreciate it thank you thank you for the support in this absolutely the next Proclamation is 230309 older Americans month and the board is proclaimed requested to Proclaim May 2023 as older Americans month and I've asked Mr Potter if she would read this resolution and have staff from the.

Department of Social Services come forward it would be my honor to read this resolution proclaiming older American month 2023 whereas Durham County includes a growing number of older Americans who contribute their strength wisdom and experience to our community and whereas Durham County is a diverse community and benefits people of all ages abilities and backgrounds and they are all welcomed supported included and given the opportunity to participate and live independently and whereas Durham County recognizes the need to create a community that offers the services and supports older adults may need to make choices about how they age and whereas Durham County can work to build an even better Community for older residents by implementing the master aging plan not limiting our thinking about aging exploring and combating stereotypes emphasizing the many positive aspects of Aging inspiring older adults to push past traditional boundaries embracing our community's diversity and confirming all people regardless of race ethnicity gender age or disability have the right to make choices and decisions about their own.

Lives to live independently for as long as possible and to participate fully in our community now therefore I bring to a Howerton chair on chair chair and on behalf of the Durham Board of Board of County Commissioners do hereby Proclaim May 2023 as older Americans month in Durham County North Carolina and urge every resident to celebrate our older residents help to create an inclusive society and accept the challenge of flexible thinking around aging we also recommend this observance to our community and urge all residents Community agencies Faith groups medical facilities and businesses to join with the Department of Social Services the Durham Center for Senior Life dementia inclusive Durham and aging well Durham to honor older adults and those who care for them during May and throughout the year this the 8th day of May 2023.

Carter we have with the police good evening my name is Megan Russ and I'm here with Lee little we are both program managers with aging and adult services division with the Department of Social thank you for this Proclamation and recognizing may as older Americans funds to not only have it recognized Statewide but even more importantly for Durham County our community recognizing older Americans month is so important for our residents who are aging while at the Aging in America conference this past March Lee and I were reminded that we are all aging every day not just those who are over 60.

This year's theme for older Americans month is aging Unbound which highlights the many diverse aging experiences as well as the community's role in combating ageism and stereotypes one statistic that Governor Cooper highlighted in his Statewide Proclamation is at 14 percent of employees in North Carolina are 68. We all know that the number of citizens over 60 is growing rapidly and I'm sure that the percentage of people over age 60 that are employed will be growing as well this is something that not everyone thinks about when considering the needs of our older community.

As Community as a community combating ageism we need to recognize Advocate and support our aging population as their experiences are changing there are more and more adults over 60 staying in the workforce or continuing their education acting as the primary caretaker for children and giving back to our community in meaningful ways we also have a community of older adults and poor health both physically and or mentally and their aging experience can be vastly different it is estimated that over 300 000 North Carolinians are affected by Alzheimer's disease and related dementias this number is estimated to grow to 400 000 by 2025. we cannot as a community see someone's age and have a one-size-fits-all approach our older community members are aging Unbound I was thrilled to see that Governor Cooper on May 2nd signed executive order 280. North Carolina's commitment to building an age-friendly state this order has outlined 10 sections and the three that we're most excited about are creating a caregiver Workforce strategic leadership group improving protection of vulnerable.

Adults which we know is all so important as APS cases have increased by nearly 70 percent in the last five years and submitting North Carolina's application to become an age-friendly state as the governor signed this executive order I am reminded of what Durham has already put in place with our Master aging plan our plan's mission is that we will celebrate aging as well as meet the needs and engage and engage the strengths of all residents towards the goal of building a safe affordable accessible connected and inclusive community for all ages I feel so fortunate to be able to reside in a community where leaders both here in Durham County and at the state level take action to improve the lives of our older community our aging and adult services division along with our many Community Partners and with the support of this board of Board of County Commissioners strive to provide our older adults with the various resources services and funding that is needed to allow our community to age Unbound.

Lee and I with the aging and adult services division along with the Department of Social Services are so very thankful for your recognition and Proclamation for May to be older Americans on May we all age Unbound thank you commissioners. Mr Jacobs thank you so much for bringing us this Proclamation for your comments Megan and and and both of you for the work that you do I I did not realize that Governor Cooper was following Durham's lead in being designated an age-friendly Community we started the process about four years ago and our our in in the process with implementing our aging plan and I I want to recognize that we had a dementia awareness event on April 29th just before the beginning of this special month and Lee thank you for being there and and for DSS Durham County DSS being one of the sponsors of the event and we had over a hundred people who came out from all different ages all different backgrounds because dementia and Alzheimer's really impacts almost everyone in the room.

Raised their hand when I asked how many people have know someone or have a family member or friend impacted by the disease so something that we need to keep working on and I just I'm grateful for for both of you your leadership and aging Adult Services and the great work that DSS does every day thank you and I also would like to say thank you and for lifting this up it's one of the things that we all know if we live long enough we're going to all get there I've been to two events this week for seniors and everybody's dancing so it must be something about dancing I show up it's a good it's a good exercise for seniors to dance so thank you for bringing this and honoring older adults thank you thank you can't help Sharon because you mentioned that DeMent dancing is considered to be one of the things that you can do to prevent dementia and Alzheimer's I keep dancing oh there you go.

Keep it up all right we will move on to our next Proclamation and this one is drug National Drug Court month the board is requested to Proclaim May 20 2023 as National Drug Court month and I've asked commissioner Alum if she would read this Proclamation and then we'll have I see a judges coming to the podium Durham Board of Board of County Commissioners Proclamation National Drug Court month 2023 whereas treatment courts have been restoring lives and families for more than three decades and whereas there are now more than 4 000 treatment courts Nationwide and whereas treatment courts are the Cornerstone of Justice Reform sweeping the nation and whereas treatment courts have served more than 1.5 million individuals and whereas they are now recognized as the most successful justice system intervention in our nation's history and whereas they save an average of six thousand dollars for every individual they serve and whereas treatment courts significantly improve substance use disorder treatment outcomes substantially reduce addiction and related crime and do so at less expense.

Than any other criminal justice strategy and whereas treatment courts improve education employment housing and financial stability promote family reunification reduce foster care placements and increase the race rate of addicted mothers delivering babies who are fully drug free and whereas treatment courts facilitate community-wide Partnerships bringing together Public Safety and Public Health and whereas treatment courts demonstrate that when one person Rises out of substance use and crime we all rise now therefore I Brenda a Howerton chair and on behalf of the Durham Board of County Commissioners do hereby proclaim the month of May 2023 as National Drug Court month in Durham County North Carolina and urge all citizens to join in recognizing how important it is to help justice-involved individuals remain drug and alcohol free and to become productive members of society this the eighth day of May 2023.

Hi my name is lentura Duncan I'm the drug treatment Court coordinator I just want to say thank you for proclaiming made drug court month Durham County drug treatment Court currently has 30 participants with an average of serving 45 a year last year we had five graduates and we continue to accept referrals our drug treatment Court team was selected to receive training from the National Drug Court Institute for this August as we celebrate drug court month we have Spirit Week for the entire week just to highlight a few this week we're teaming up against drugs by wearing one's favorite sports apparel on Friday May 18th we will have a socket to drugs by wearing tacky socks celebration at cjrc and on May 31st we will have no drugs in sight with the paint knot paint night wearing neon colors drug treatment Court participates in several events throughout the year to include recovery month and during the holiday seasons we provide each participant with the holiday dinner box once again thank you for your continued.

Support and we look forward to seeing you at our next graduation in June thank you good evening chair Howerton and other honorable members of the commission my name is Judge David Hall I preside over drug court and thank you for the opportunity to address the commission tonight I didn't prepare anything because sometimes it's best to speak from the heart and I've had the honor to preside and or be the steward of drug court since 2018 and I want to uplift the support the leadership that the county provides in funding drug court it wouldn't be here without you you are the leader of our team our family our village it goes without saying that people come to drug court sometimes at a low point in their lives of Justice involvement and trying to get out from under addictions we've had the opportunity the pleasure to have graduated some wonderful people and with your support of wraparound services employment and we have some folks working for the county we've really been.

Able to see some people turn their lives around but we couldn't do it without the support of the cjrc team that is really the backbone and support the inner workings they meet with these folks day to day they get to know them they get to know the ins and outs it's a very intimate courtroom it is a closed courtroom due to the nature of the issues that we deal with in drug court but it is open for you to come to visit I would ask the members if if you want to come in and visit that let them know you're coming in you are always welcome we have some more graduations coming up we've had quite a few graduations in the last year and drug court should be and is a feather in your cap we are one of only 16 counties in the state to have drug court it is a big deal there's a big deal in Durham and it is a big deal across the state to.

See people graduate have their families come back together reunite kids I could go on all night about all of the good things that come out of drug court with your support I hope you'll continue to support it I hope you will come and visit get to meet some of the folks and please keep providing the services that you do because you give hope you have folks that come in get out from under we offer employment you offer housing we work with Freedom House The Hope Center and that's just a few I don't want to name names because I'll probably leave somebody out but the sheriffs the DA's public defenders cjrc and all the treatment providers the police department they're all part of the family so thank you for all you do and thank you for the proclamation for National Drug Court month and we hope to see you soon thank you anything for you Miss Parker.

Good evening and thank you again I I didn't have a lot to say I just wanted to support the team coming up but I do want to say thank you for the continued support of drug treatment Court drug treatment Court provides a valuable resource to the Durham Community Helping those individuals that are drug and alcohol addicted to become drug and alcohol free and then also become employed and productive members of society so we just thank you so much for the continued support of the court and offer that you come out to our graduation if you want to tour the drug court Suite on the sixth floor of the courthouse come and visit us there we can tell you all about the court and then really let you see the ins and outs of what the staff do on a day-to-day basis with the individuals that we serve so again we thank you thank you Commissioners commissioner Burns yes ma'am mine will be relatively quick as always thank you all for so much.

That you do and thank you for the open invitation I I look forward to June I will try to we have three events I think on the last one but I in preparation for the night I did look up some numbers so this is 20 20 numbers so I think in 2020 they did a national survey and 41 million people said that they were dealing with a substance abuse issue in the United States of those surveyed people between the ages of there were 1.6 million people between the ages of 12 and 17. so those are our adolescents that's Nationwide that's before 2020 that's before covet that's when that's before people were coping trying to use alcohol and drugs to cope so I imagine the numbers are way worse now court is way Fuller now it's exacerbated now and judge how I love what you said about it being a feather in the cap but it's only a feather in the cap if we receive it that way if the elected officials in the.

Communities receive it that way anybody who's taking the time to go through drug treatment court and graduate that is a nod that they want to take a step in the right direction and so last month was Second Chance act month and in this month is drug treatment Court I almost wish they would reverse so that we could do drug treatment Court last month and then I could press upon you all these are the individuals that need a second chance and so it's only a fit in their cap if we're prepared to say yes you can come here and get a job it's only a fair then they cap if we say yes you can come here and get a certification or improve your education yes we will put your child in this daycare for free while you are out here looking for a job so while it's good that they're doing their part and we have on some other Community Partners I do hope that you all get to.

Visit the court I you said 16 I thought it was 61 course I mean I was way off judge Hall in the state of North Carolina I thought it was more drug courts than that in like 32 counties but we we have a really really great opportunity here to take somebody who's trying to do better and give them the next leg up as they try to the heel so again there's a lot more people that chose alcohol and drugs just to cope post pandemic everybody is not some long-term user some people are just looking for some help so I hope that you all take some time to see what these organizations are doing it sounds crazy we taking the C off of cjrc we're not saying substance abuse anymore we're saying substance use so we're changing our rhetoric because we want to be an open community and I just hope you all can join us in that and last thanks special shout out to Goodra who's been at cjrc or 20 some years and she's.

Retiring so we're gonna miss you sis doing some of this great work I was all okay so commissioner alum thank you Charlton I just want to thank you so much ditto to everything commissioner Burns said and just adding just how amazing it has been to watch the staff who leads this program when Torah and Roshana when I came for this Justice Resource Center tour and even after the conversations I've had with you Rashana like the passion that exists within your hearts to help our community members and the amount of care I think it's really exemplary of the service leaders that we have within Durham County the way that like that you speak about every individual that comes through the program and you speak about their kids and their families and the impact you want to have I think it's so so important to show the type of environment that we're trying to build here in Durham County and how vital these programs are not just to exist but to have good people running them people.

Who genuinely care and I'm really glad that we have that here in Durham County with three of you thank you just yes I also want to express my thanks and admiration for the really important work that you three and and your whole team do related to drug treatment court and I have had the chance to to visit two different times since I've been a commissioner and each time I've learned something new and and you know just just felt the the heart in the room for the the work that we're doing and I also know that you are continuing to you're continuously looking to improve and are trying to follow best practices so that you know our our numbers and data will reflect the the data that was in this resolution as it is doing but I really appreciate that aspect of your work we recently added medicine for opioid use disorder as one of the potential outcomes of the court it's not just about you know abstaining it's a lot about harm reduction and all.

Of the things that we know are about practices so thank you so much and I'm glad that you brought this resolution to us tonight well I just want to say thank you did you one I just want to say thank you again for all the work you've done I haven't been to the the workshops that you have usually conference I normally I used to go to those I haven't done that in a while but we know that when we started this work how important it was then and how important it still is so thank you for all the work that you do to keep it going thank you.

All right our next item is a proclamation a resolution honoring The Life and Legacy of Musa Nathan T Garrett senior former County Commissioner and business leader the Board of Commissioners is as to approve this resolution honoring The Life and Legacy of Mr Garrett who made his transition on April 26 2023 the resolution was prepared and read it was not read at his service but it was Bill Bell announced that it was there that we had prepared it on Saturday May 6 at Duke Chapel and at this time and we the family is not here tonight we will do that at another time but we wanted to as a community honor this County Commissioner this Legacy a man that was important to our community commissioner Jacobs thank you for this honor the Durham Board of Board of County Commissioners resolution honoring the Legacy of Nathan Taylor Garrett senior whereas Nathan Taylor Garrett senior was born in Tarboro North Carolina raised in Durham where his family relocated during his early years.

And where has he received his Early Education in Durham Public Schools and graduated from Hillside High School as valedictorian and whereas Garrett continued his formal education at Yale University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology studied accounting and business at Wayne State University and earned his CPA certification in 1961 becoming the fifth African American CPA in Michigan where is he opened the first black owned accounting firm in the state of North Carolina and used his insights on black business to achieve success in various professional arenas and where is Garrett founded and served as executive director of the foundation for Community Development originally formed as part of the North Carolina fund a cutting-edge wealth and education program conceived at the request of former North Carolina governor Terry Sanford to break the cycle of poverty for many of the state's residents and whereas as lifelong learning was a personal value he earned a Juris doctorate degree from North Carolina's Central University School of Law in 1986.

And wears in 1992 he was elected the first African-American president of the National Association of state boards of accountancy and whereas during his career he was chairman of the minority Economic Development advisory committee to the U.S Secretary of Commerce chairman emeritus of the board of directors of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance president of the National Association of minority CPA firms and the North Carolina Association of minority businesses and served as a county Durham County Commissioner from 1972 until 1974. And whereas this gifted pioneering and passionate business leader will long be remembered as a Trailblazer benefactor mentor and dynamic change maker now therefore be resolved that we the members of the Durham County Board of Commissioners do hereby resolve to honor the memory of Nathan Taylor Garrett senior we urge all Durham County residents to reflect on his extraordinary Legacy of business accomplishments his strong worth ethic his genuine love of this community and his extraordinary contributions this the sixth day of May 2023 Brenda Howerton chair Wendy Jacobs Vice chair knit Alum commissioner namashina.

Burns commissioner Heidi Carter commissioner thank you and after the service on Saturday his wife said let's go dance and there was an area at the on the other side of the chapel that we went over and we danced so that's what a way to say goodbye to your community is that everybody gets to dance Tammy Hall was there with me and it was quite exciting to be there and joyous occasion all right so we are down to other business so 23-0324 the FY 2023-24 managers recommended budget presentation the Durham County Manager Dr Kimberly Sorrell will formally present the recommended budget for FY 2023 to the Durham County Board of Commissioners this is in accordance with NCG as 159-12 of the local government budget and fiscal Control Act so we will here manager give us the budget.

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So I will first say that it is a little disappointing for me that budget adoption season coincides with allergy season so please forgive me if I am constantly clearing my throat but I want to say good evening to chair Howerton and this illustrious and very distinguished Board of Commissioners good evening to County staff good evening to County residents it is indeed an honor and a privilege for me to present to you my recommended budget for fiscal year 2023-24 this second budget of my tenure reflects the values and goals of our Visionary board and my personal leadership belief in the power and effectiveness of cohesive comprehensive and focused local government the hard choices made in this recommended budget are meant to solidify some of the gains that the county has made over the past year respond to issues we are currently experiencing and the choices are also meant to set us up for future successes it is also the culmination of thousands of hours of work across all County departments shared City County agencies.

And a significant number of partner agencies many of them here tonight these partner agencies are vital to our County's goals and objectives so to all of our County Employees especially our budget and management staff thank you all so much and to our partner partner agencies who also helped in this process I want to give you a great big heartfelt thank you would not be possible without your assistance the budget process that culminates in this document can be seen as a census of County needs and annual evaluation of County direction as well as a fiscal application of County resources this undertaking is much more than just the costing of a Year's worth of County Services it is a dynamic opportunity for organizational self-reflection it offers a chance for process realignment and as always it offers a chance for our commissioners as County representatives to be active participants in guiding County outcomes through fiscal applications the annual budget process is a series of considered decisions attempting to culminate into comprehensive Solutions.

So with this in mind we must be a resilient government that not only performs during the best of time but also and perhaps more importantly during times of economic environmental and social uncertainty and while there are so many areas where the county can expand or provide additional services or even invest more time and resources trust me there are limitations to our very finite resources therefore my recommended budget is a result of very targeted decisions that offer what I think are the best County Investments moving forward I will ask our Board of Commissioners employees as well as residents for Clear short-term and long-term guidance so that we can develop key goals and direction for the county in order to clarify that guidance I am setting in motion a reimagining of the county strategic plan it is my very strong expectation that this updated strategic plan will be a frame of reference for every major policy budget and operational decision made by management and our board in order for a strategic plan to work it.

Must be referenced it has to be believed in it needs to be constantly discussed and it must be measured that is the essential heart of a strategic plan involving people and actions and being willing to measure the success so am I very excited opinion I believe we are ready to make this important step and in order to identify and make strategic decisions along with our board it is critical that I have a trusted management team that can inform as well as challenge me and they do that quite well after taking about nine months to observe and understand the management structure that was in place I felt that some changes to the structure could be beneficial to increasing our organizational efficiency the organizational restructure includes a realignment of leadership portfolios as well as the inclusion of Deputy County managers and assistant County Manager these positions will be vital to ensuring that our best planned Solutions become reality so the development of this budget is predicated on a third straight fiscal year of significant growth in major.

Revenue sources Durham County continues to grow in terms of Business location job expansion as well as the number of people who choose this community as a desirable place to live all of these economic drivers are in turn pushing our Revenue sources higher and higher and yet we still see feel and recognize the need for so many more services more intensive existing Services as well as new programs to deal with the evolving issues that are part of our fast-growing community simply put this amazing growth in Revenue has been easily offset by a faster set of growing expenses ultimately though this budget is about meeting the near future needs of the community with an eye toward the ongoing sustainability of Durham County's vibrant economy culture and life so key priorities that I've built into this recommended budget attempt to apply significant Revenue growth to the most important areas that I feel will provide the best outcomes my first priority given such impressive Revenue growth is to implement services at a pace that allow us to.

Minimum to minimize general fund property tax rate increases that may be needed second is protecting the economic stability of our employees by funding compensation levels that keep up with inflation as well as support existing benefits and thirdly is continuing to support and grow educational and Workforce opportunities for all Durham County residents and while new new positions are needed practically every year I have made a very intentional choice to limit potential position growth for this upcoming fiscal year so broadly speaking estimated Revenue growth for the upcoming fiscal year is distinctly positive major revenues include property tax sales tax Medicaid hold harmless funds occupancy taxed and general fund fund balance Durham County has seen very strong growth in sales tax revenue as well as growth in city and county property valuation both are a direct reflection on local economic activity which in turn increases overall Revenue collection however even with significant natural growth in revenues the financial needs presented by various departments across the organization are significantly higher than the natural growth in Revenue alone can fund.

So the fundamental challenge for the development of this recommended budget is that even with significant natural growth and key revenues which total 36 million dollars four key priorities consumed most of this growth as you can see here these priorities totaled approximately 38 million dollars which is two million dollars more than the growth in revenues employee compensation changes represent the largest single increase in the budget and reflect current economic realities facing our employees as well as compensation study recommendations educational and Workforce Development funding increases Mark the second biggest increase in the general fund budget at nearly 13.8 million dollars including Durham Public Schools Durham Technical Community College and Pre-K support also over the last two years there have been significant challenges to filling vacant positions to keep employees from leaving high stress jobs as well as overcoming the the loss of organizational knowledge that occurs when we have long tenured employees that retire to that end it should be noted that costs from current year compensation decisions mid-year reclassifications and management changes will cost an.

Additional 3.6 million dollars in the upcoming fiscal year please note that the Board of Commissioners and I strongly believe that all of our employees deserve to have salary increases that at a minimum keep up with inflation and surrounding County compensation trends her guidance from a compensation study by the management Advisory Group a major recommendation is a seven percent across the board salary increase for every County position and let the record show I strongly support that recommendation also along with those increases it's like a cola increase but I also want to encourage and acknowledge that our Workforce is an amazing Workforce and I would like to support and acknowledge the hard work they do by supporting a three to four percent pay for performance increase along with the seven percent increase it is my belief that the most comprehensive solution we can make as a local government is to appropriately recognize the people who will determine vitally important programmatic and service success so in total all employees will be able to receive.

Will be eligible to receive anywhere from a 10 percent pay increase to a maximum pay increase of 11 percent I like working for Durham County so now I'd like to talk about Revenue current projections of year-end property tax collections have the county surpassing budgeted amounts by approximately 7 million dollars this additional Revenue comes from growth and property valuation the high growth and tax collection for the current fiscal year is largely fueling property tax revenue growth or the upcoming fiscal year these explanations translate into estimated additional property tax revenue of 16.8 million dollars for the general fund and capital financing fund before any property tax rate increase so to put this into context that's an equivalent to over three cents on the property tax as part of the recent 550 million dollar general obligation Bond referendum the county noted that there may be a related two and a half cents property tax rate increase requested to support future Debt Service based upon these our updated estimates we now feel that a one and a.

Half cent property tax rate increase is needed for Capital financing while an additional one and a half cents is needed for general fund personnel and operational costs this means a total property tax rate increase is recommended at three cents I certainly recognize the impact that property tax increases have on residents and that is it is important for the county where possible to limit the increase on property tax rate this is why our management team was intentional about maximizing efficiencies as well as limiting expansion of services in other areas to provide the highest return on investment for all of our residents so for context we budget property tax revenue in two categories one to support general fund expenses and the other to support Capital financing funds the capital financing fund pays for capital projects and Debt Service I would like to remind everyone that the property tax rate is the primary revenue source that is controllable by the board and it is the only significant way to raise additional Revenue in future years.

While the recommended rate for the upcoming fiscal year increases three cents future tax rate increases may also be necessary to support ongoing County goals including our significant commitment to Durham Public Schools to Capital planning and other initiatives so looking at special tax District strong growth in property valuation across all of our special tax districts has allowed me to recommend no tax rate increase for any of them in fact the Durham County Fire and Rescue District which covers the RTP area is requesting a one cent property tax rate decrease I will note that the value and the valuation of a strong and vibrant local economy cannot be overstated looking now at sales tax the total amount of budgeted sales tax revenue for for next fiscal year is 128 million dollars for perspective this is the equivalent to 25 cents of property tax revenue sales tax revenue is our second largest revenue source and it is entirely related to economic activity the estimated current year sales tax collection is expected to come in well.

Above budget in fact it is expected to increase 17 percent over what was originally budgeted that over collection for the current fiscal year plus estimated growth in sales tax for next year equals a 21.8 million dollar increase or 20.5 percent increase in sales tax revenue it should be noted that 8.4 million of that increase goes to the capital financing fund by board policy while 13.4 million dollars helps many different general fund initiatives an estimated five percent growth in sales tax collection revenue for next fiscal year is real is relatively conservative and reflects the unknown consequences of any economic downturn so continuing to look at Revenue other Revenue sources of note for the upcoming year based on current trending include an increase of three million dollars in the Medicaid hold harmless funds to an estimated total of 12 million dollars collected a decrease of one million dollars in register of deeds fees due to higher mortgage loan interest rates which caused a downturn in house buying within the county and directly related to the problem that.

Caused a reduction in the register of deeds fees the higher interest rates on cash account translates into a positive for the County due to an increase in our investment Revenue and now let's look at arpa as it relates to arpa or the American Rescue plan act funds Durham County will expend nearly 63 million dollars in arpa funds over the next several years these dollars will support the public health and economic recovery efforts resulting from the coronavirus pandemic these resources will allow infrastructure Investments which are essential for the community's growth and viability so after much deliberation including Community input staff feedback and board discussions a spending framework was adopted by the board of County Commissioners that aligns with the U.S treasury spending guidelines as well as the board's strategic plan the spending framework and plan supports transformative Equitable and evidenced based investment the recommended budget includes a 3.26 million dollar allocation of arpa funds to support general fund needs with additional allocations occurring in future months through our request for proposal process.

So while the general fund is where the vast majority of daily activity and spending for government services occurs there are a number of other funds that serve specific County financial and operational purposes these include the already mentioned special tax District The Debt Service fund as well as the sewer Utility Fund the total County budget including all of these funds increases 12 percent to just under 890 million dollars while the general fund which is a subset of that total amount increases 9.6 to 601 million dollars some examples of increases in the general fund include compensation support for Durham County employees increased Durham public school funding Pre-K expansion increased funding for dtcc offer support in the general fund the creation of new positions opioid settlement funding and the maintenance contract for the Detention Center to support some of these increases there were reductions totaling 2.5 million dollars in general fund operations and I just mentioned this budget does include new positions and the previous slide reflected a need of three million dollars for those new positions however.

I think it is important to note that the number of new positions this year compared to previous years has dropped considerably with ongoing High vacancy rates the long-term cost of positions and limited available space for additional personnel I felt it is important that we find ways to reallocate existing Human Resources before we look at expanding our Workforce efficiency gains an effective application of existing positions can help slow unnecessary expenditure growth for future budgets in recent board Retreats and conversations the main priority expressed by our commissioners has been education this budget recommendation reflects that priority with Durham Public Schools continuing to be the single largest expenditure for Durham County government at 188 million dollars or 33 of the entire general fund budget the recommended funding level in this budget matches the full request made by DPS and it largely supports salary increases for certified and classified personnel this funding includes a current expense increase of 10.8 million dollars which equ equates to a per pupil funding increase of 289 dollars to 4.

650 per student which is nearly a seven percent increase Additionally the county provides approximately 58 million dollars in indirect support for DPS through a number of different programs and departments also DPS will be receiving significant Federal covet related funding over the next several years up to 136 billion dollars this Federal funding support will go a long way towards supporting student needs coming out of the pandemic this recommended budget demonstrates that counties continued unwavering commitment to funding education another integral part of Durham County support for education and Workforce training is funding for Durham Technical Community College this higher educational system provides a myriad of services degrees and opportunities that either continue education After High School and towards college or towards a high-paying stable and lifelong career total funding for dtcc increases almost 2 million dollars or 20 percent of that increase five hundred twenty thousand dollars is for Durham student scholarships designated through board policy that allocates a portion of sales tax dollars collected a total of 2.4 million dollars of total.

County County funding to T dtcc is for Durham student scholarship like Durham Public Schools additional County funding is being allocated to support salary increases along with additional position support new positions are focused on improving the school to work pipeline needed to support the talent demand of the growing number of businesses in the county and especially those located in RTP dtcc will continue to provide a pipeline of trained workers for technical jobs with continued funding of five hundred thousand dollars for the dtcc back to work initiative as well as the Bulls initiative as companies have chosen to locate in Durham discussions have been among dtcc and various Economic Development groups as well as the county around how we can help companies meet these increasing Workforce demands these programs being offered by dtcc will help provide and enhance the skills of local residents so they are able to get these jobs and keep these jobs to put it in context more jobs filled by local workers means more dollars in the local economy.

Which means a more vibrant and thriving economy for all of Durham's residents Additionally the goal of this board has been to reach Universal Pre-K for all Durham County Children this budget reflects the County's support of an increase of over one million dollars for Pre-K this additional funding will expand Durham pre-k by serving up to 100 additional children the estimated cost of universal Pre-K support across the county is more than 25 million dollars annually in total the county is funding education with over 207 million dollars between Durham Public Schools Durham Technical Community College and Pre-K I will state this emphatically our board has and continues to seek ways to expand opportunities for Regis for residents through the continued support of education and we thank you for that this recommended budget funds several efforts to enhance Community prosperity Cooperative Extension will oversee a second year of food security grants I am recommending 532 thousand dollars to support food security efforts to assist Durham County's most vulnerable residents Additionally the board specifically.

Asked what was needed by the Department of Veterans Services to better support the needs of our large veteran population within the county Lois Harvin Raven director of veteran services answered honestly and said as much as you all can afford to give the department So to that end I am recommending an additional veteran services officer who will assist with expanding Outreach to the 11 500 veterans who need help accessing VA benefits and other services also to bolster Community safety the sheriff's office is working to mitigate the increasing incidences of co-occurring Mental Health and substance use disorders for persons who are detained through the medication assistant treatment program to support this vulnerable population I am recommending a dedicated medical director to manage all Detention Center programs related to opioid treatment and medication assistance treatment I am also recommending funding a Detention Center maintenance contract which will provide preventative maintenance and repairs consolidating services that are currently spread out between other County departments and separate vendor contracts also for Community safety a new Deputy.

Chief Fire Marshal position is recommended to provide increased inspections as statutorily mandated as mentioned earlier there has been an increase in the number of individuals who are entering the County Detention Facility with mental health and Behavioral Health needs as a result I am recommending funding in the newly renamed Justice Services Department formerly known as cjrc for additional Psychiatric Services in the Detention Center I am also excited about the efforts to establish a familiar faces initiative which identifies persons showing up in multiple systems like the detention facilities homeless shelters and emergency departments in order to provide more targeted care in addition the County's new youth home is nearly completed this budget supports opening of the facility to transition current operations and support a new Assessment Center lastly I am recommending funding to expand the juvenile crime prevention council's annual award amount which supports high-risk juveniles this funding will be used to support expansion of services that significantly reduce risk factors leading to educational difficulties juvenile crime and Community safety concerns related to community stewardship.

The sewer utility Division and Enterprise fund agency that fully supports its cost through fees charged to customers is adding four new positions two of those positions will ensure adequate 24 7 coverage of the plant while the other positions will provide additional maintenance at the treatment plant and pump station also sewer consumption rates will increase 10 percent to address anticipated operational and capital costs which ensure our high level of operational Readiness and Environmental Protection the storm water and erosion control division which is another Enterprise fund has two new recommended positions a public education specialist and a storm water and erosion control technician I am following the recommendation of the stormwater plan which was presented several years ago by including an increase in the stormwater utility fee the Departments this is the Department's primary revenue source that fee will increase from forty eight dollars to sixty four dollars per equivalent residential unit the rate increase is one step in a larger approach to eventually increase the fee to 96 dollars per unit by fiscal year 2026.

As a reminder these charges are the cost of complying with the Falls Lake and Jordan Lake State requirements which is a nutrient management strategy to restore water quality in The Lakes by reducing the amount of pollution entering Upstream as we have seen the opioid epidemic which was exacerbated by covid-19 continues to negatively affect families and communities across Durham County as part of the historic 37 billion dollar opioid settlement the county will receive 11 plus million dollars over the next 18 years a portion of that settlement amount four hundred thousand dollars is recommended to fund the community linkages to care support program this was developed to connect individuals who are struggling with substance use disorder with Comprehensive evidence-based care also to help improve Community well-being I am recommending a five-year 750 000 partnership with the Duke Endowment for healthy people healthy Carolinas this partnership will fund a health education specialist to develop a community-wide coalition designed to establish Equitable strategies to address physical activity nutrition and food access all with the focus on addressing the.

Effects of racism and other social barriers on the health of our most vulnerable population now to note other priorities addressed in this recommended budget it has been a goal of mine to bridge the gap between Durham County government and the valuable voices of our residents to that end I am very excited to recommend the County's first office of Engagement this office will work with the office of strategy and performance as well as the public information office to establish a Vibrant Community engagement initiative as engagement as an engagement manager will lead in establishing Durham County's first engagement strategy and this position is expected to build lasting internal and external stakeholders relationships there will also be a data analyst position that will provide analytic support to the community engagement effort my expectation is that we will begin to see the impact of this higher level of community engagement on our decisions as Durham County progresses forward other new positions recommended in the budget include a new administrative assistant in the clerk to the board's.

Office as well as a new paralegal position in the County's attorney's office. With the next presidential election scheduled to take place in 2024 election integrity and Security will be of Paramount importance a new Board of Elections facility opening in the upcoming fiscal year will provide enhanced security and a centralized warehouse for equipment and staff to provide support for this new facility I am recommending two new positions a public Outreach specialist as well as an election specialist who will respond to the increasing number of customer inquiries we receive for our isnt department I have included an arpa Broadband manager who will oversee Broadband infrastructure programs and operations for the underserved communities additionally a senior Financial business analyst will serve as the subject matter expert for large Enterprise Financial applications this in-house expertise is critical as we begin to move towards a new or upgraded Erp system and now for key dates that you can mark on your calendar budget work sessions will begin on Tuesday May 16th and this is where we.

Will provide an overview of the budget and the environment in which it was built another work session is scheduled for May 24th to begin the review of departmental budgets and earnest Monday May 22nd the board will hold a public hearing for this proposed budget as part of the regularly scheduled meeting additional work sessions are scheduled for June 1st and June 5th and if another work session is needed we have reserved the date of June 6th to hold that work session and then finally budget adoption is planned for June 12th.

And so now that I have spent a little over a year on the job looking at how we can reorganize the organization re-energizing the leadership team and working towards comprehensive Solutions it is my sincere belief that this budget reflects a continuation of the necessary strategies that will make Durham County an even higher performing organization our management team looks forward to the upcoming board work sessions and the many great outcomes that Durham County Community will experience through the dynamic programs and services delivered out of this budget I said it last year and I am happy to say it again every visitor every student every County resident every employee every business has a stake in the development of the many services that make up not just a fiscal year but that make up a a thriving environment for people to live grow and thrive in Durham County with that I conclude this presentation of the manager's recommended budget for the 2023-24 fiscal year I look forward to working with the board to get our budget.

Adopted thank you all so much for your time and your attention this evening. Thank you.

We get up give our manager another hand please all right that is some awesome incredible work that has been already been done so Commissioners we are down to our.

We did a public comment period but we did not receive any written comments but we do have a presentation that Daryl Parker with Will down Financial Services I will go through and then we can answer any questions you all may have and then if there's anyone there to speak for the public hearing hey any questions for staff hearing none I will open public hearing anyone signed up to speak there's no one signed up to speak but I believe they have their presentation to share before we open the public hearing okay yeah this is Daryl Parker with well Dan can you hear me okay we can hear you go ahead all right Monica I hear that you're going to be running the PowerPoint or would you prefer me to share I am running the PowerPoint you just let me know when to click there's gonna be a lot of clicks because I put in some animation effects just you know for for the for the look but we'll get through it and move along as quickly.

As we can I first off good evening I know it's been a long night for all of you already so we will move this along pretty quickly but if you have any questions as we're going feel free to stop me so all right let's get going perfect so you know what we're here to talk about tonight is the system development fees and their addressed by a house bill from back in 2017 and so kind of what the bill did is it outlined procedures for for for calculating and for implementing the system development fee so we'll talk a little bit more about about exactly what those fees do and what they're for and this is specific to to publicly owned Utility Systems such as your sewer system okay.

So basically what a what a system development fee is and we'll call it SDF to just make it a little easier a little shorter so it's a feed that's imposed on new development and it's to fund Water and Sewer improvements here again we're we're looking just at your your sewer system tonight both existing and planned facilities and we'll talk more about that and and Facilities that are necessitated by and attributable to the new development okay oh okay there we go so just kind of a general description an svf is is a one-time fee that's applied to new system customers and when we calculate these we calculate them separate for water and sewer as required by the bill here again we're just talking about your sewer system tonight recovers costs incurred to provide system capacity to new users and it does help growth pay for itself a biggest benefit is it protects your existing system customers it kind of medicates the possibility of them having to pay for four new facilities that are really.

Only there for for Duke to support new growth okay Monica so there's three different calculation methodologies and these are right right out of American Waterworks Association manuals as well as the the water environment Federation manuals which is the the the Wastewater equivalent to the awwa but they're they both have the exact same processes and methodologies so the buy-in is the first method we looked at and what we're what the buy-in does it looks at just what you've already got the the facilities that you've already built to to provide service treatment facilities collection lines horse Mains that kind of thing and then there's also the incremental cost method and the incremental cost method looks at the future facilities your Capital Improvements program so what are we having to build over the next five to twenty years to support growth and then there's the combine method which is is really just kind of a weighted average if you will of the other two combined together okay Mark.

So the the the house bill did put procedures in place basically this the analysis has to be done by Financial professional that's that's our role most employed generally it's at the industry practices it looks it at least a five-year planning Horizon for the incremental cost method but no more than 20 years what's the analysis is done and the report is done it's has to be posted online for 45 days for public comment and as Steffy mentioned we're through that 45-day posting period and there were no comments public hearing is required which is exactly why we're here tonight if there were any modifications to the analysis as a result of either public comment or or the public hearing that would take place fees must be adopted by a resolution or ordinance and must be updated at least every five years and and that's that's where we are now you currently have spfs in place for the service system they were adopted five years ago and it's time for the for them to be updated okay Monica.

So just real quick these are the facilities that we're looking to recover from from an SPF as I mentioned earlier treatment collection Force Mains list stations disposable facilities but we're not recovering are things like localized lines in the neighborhoods and that type of thing or or anything that's donated by contributed by developers or Grant funded so you'll see we'll we'll just kind of briefly touch on some some of the adjustments that are made to the calculations but you'll see those as we've known okay so our really what we're trying to identify here is our recoverable cost I mentioned there's the the buying method that looks at the existing facilities incremental costs method looks at the CIP and then the combined so we've looked at it only separately what we're recommending tonight is the the combine the results of the combined methodology okay so here's kind of a visual so we've got them separated to buy in the incremental cost and we combine those costs gives us a total recoverable now.

That then there are adjustments made to those recoverable amounts there's a Debt Service Credit to the that's applied to the existing facilities and what that does is whatever outstanding debt is currently on the system we we back out the remaining principal balance on that debt with the with the the thought basically that we don't want a new customer paying an SPF and then paying their their rates that include the payment of your annual debt service requirements so we make an adjustment for that so we net that down and then that the house bill also requires a an adjustment to the CIP so we've made that adjustment as well so the total recoverable less The Debt Service and zip credits gives us our net recoverable facility costs from that is how we calculate the fees so here's yeah go ahead you're a good monitor so here's just kind of the the numbers that result there you'll may recall from a couple slides back that combined 229 million we back out the.

Combined credits and so we have our net recoverable costs okay Monica so once we've got those net costs we want them separated between the treatment facilities and the collection facilities and we've all already got our data separated that the the existing assets which as part of our analysis we've separated those and same with it with the CIP we've separated those and so so then we the reason we do that is because treatment facilities and collection facilities don't have the same capacity so basically we take that net cost for treatment divide it under treatment capacity and that gives us a cost per gallon of treatment capacity to the exact same process on the collection side and so now we've got our cost components per gallon of capacity okay Monica and here's what those numbers look like so basically what we're doing is taking it Taking the treatment and dividing it the treatment net treatment costs divided by the treatment capacity of these capacity numbers are adjusted for for example influent infiltration for.

That impacts the services system that reduces the amount of capacity that's available to to new customers but we won't go into detail of that but what we're ultimately doing here is we're looking to identify that cost per gallon of capacity and you can see the the treatment facilities are as you might expect quite a bit more costly than the collection facilities and then for upon a combined basis it's the 1669. So then what do we do with those numbers go ahead Monica so we've got our cost per gallon of capacity and then we apply it to to a level of service per equivalent residential unit that's what eru has basically just your your typical household so the the state has a number of 240 gallons per day minimum that's based on 120 gallons per day per bedroom but their their minimum requirement is two bedrooms so that's where the 240 comes from so we take our costs multiplied times our our equivalent residential unit level of service and gives us our SPF per eru.

Go ahead Monica so here's what those numbers look like we can see the note there we round them down because you know don't want to be accused of over recovering so the so the the fees that you see kind of under the existing right the middle that's your current SPF or eru it's and we've assumed here that a typical eru is going to be a three-bedroom househoods the minimum two bedroom plus each additional bedroom and so you can see those where under the column what we're referring to is calculated those are the the fees that have resulted from the analysis we're going to calculated as as opposed to proposed because that's the the number that we can support we even though we might recommend that that you go through the full cost of recovery you don't have to you can come in at some lesser number if you want but we just can't back up anything higher let us know and you can see the the difference.

Between the two if you go from from the current fee to the calculated fee it'd be noticeable increase in your in your SDS which would also result in a noticeable increase in your your revenues for those capital projects okay Monica so this is how your fees are currently applied and we discussed this with Stephanie and her team and and it was determined that we'd stick with the same methodology because it's by by type of customer and so so we use the the calculated numbers to come up with with those resulting fees for all those different options and with that we can jump ahead and see if there are any questions or comments.

Well I first want to thank you for the presentation very thorough and appreciate this work just to note I guess it's it's quite a big difference we've we've been dramatically under charging is it sounds like is what the result is and I didn't realize that we actually updated this every five years so this is a really big increase so it's I'm glad we do update it every five years thank you okay no questions for staff okay then. Do I I need to open the public hearing are there any speakers online no one signed up correct no one has signed up to speak and we do not have anyone online okay thank you so we will close a public hearing and bring it back to this board are there any questions from commissioners hearing none I will ask for a motion.

Chair there is no motion there is an emotion so there is no action needed I don't see I'm looking here that no action needed on this item either no me okay then we will move on to our next item. Data manager will this increase fee be include included and when we adopt the budget it goes to our budget it will be included as a part of okay thank you goes on to the budget approval the other business the board is requested to receive information on the following documents the Meg study report proposed pay plan and at this time we have Kathy Everett Perry our chief human resource officer to introduce this item for any additional comment.

Good afternoon chair Howerton Commissioners so well attorney Andrews Monica do we have the consultant ready so we're going to have the consultant from management Advisory Group to Russell Campbell lead this presentation. Good evening good evening everyone I appreciate the opportunity to come back and share with you the results of the compensation classification study we've been working on for the past five six months or so when I was there last time one of the things we talked about was moving forward with developing a compensation philosophy I in turn provided some resources to the HR staff and I believe that your retreat they took you through an exercise of explaining what a compensation philosophy is designed to address its impact the importance to the organization and so I was pleased to see that the organization did a very good job of developing the outline of a compensation philosophy that I think is consistent with the goals and objectives that were part of the compensation classification study so what I'd like to.

Do tonight is just highlight some of the findings and recommendations from the study I think you've been given some of this information in your packet so I won't go through exhaustic detail I just hit the major points as I go through each slot first slide please with respect to a compensation philosophy obviously the goal is to help with the French retention recruitment of employees to the organization major advantages associated with having philosophy is probably the biggest thing is that it gives information to the employees so they're not left trying to figure out how the values were determined for different positions with the organization what can they expect in terms of a promotion increase should they be promoted to a job in a higher salary ban as well as whether they they're transferred or they're making classification requests all those things are part of philosophy and they're spelled out in black and white which cuts down on on on confusion and misunderstanding within the organization it also Echoes a sense of fairness and.

Equity within the organization serves as a good recruiting tool because it does have the stamp of the leadership within the organization both the commission level as well as the administrative level and it serves as a good tool for career progression as well as a professional development particularly in ranked departments where you want individuals internally to step up and apply for higher level positions within the organization you want to make sure there's permissible confrontational goal alignment that high level of responsibility next one.

If it's not done well a compensation velocity can create some internal strife within the organization it has to make sense to everyone involved employees leaders constituents there needs to be a strong commitment to address inequity issues within your organization it needs to support recruitment retention as I've previously said and also a new support of career development next major factors that go into consideration we've developed a philosophy of course you've got to Define your labor market and Define what your position is going to be in that labor market one of the things I'll share with you here in this presentation are the organizations that served as comparables or peer organizations that list was mutually developed by mag and the HR staff as well as the input from leadership we went into this thing wanting to position the county at the 75th percentile as it relates to compensation typically we found that if you can reach the 75th percentile where you're paying better than 75 percent of your your your.

Your peer group then you should be able to compete across the board with respect for new employees on the recruiting side as well as retain existing skill employees within an organization so as I unveiled the new Compensation Plan it will be built on the premise of giving you in town of the regional labor market other things that need to be considered at your pay for performance program going forward we'd like to see you increase the potential rates in terms of what a top performing employee could receive because in addition to making sure that the values of the positions are competitive we also want to make sure actual salaries are current in Commons around that 75th percentile as well so it's important that moving forward since the majority of the increases are going to be tied to Performance that those increases will sustain your current position assuming the study is adopted at that 75th percent Gap and we've also developed some other policies to support the study that specifically speak to compensation administrative guidelines.

In terms of hiring transfers reclassification requests promotion policies to make sure there's consistency going forward with respect to how those things are handled we've also put together a pay structure that is an Open Range structure where every job is assigned to a pay grade every pay grade has a range that has a minimum which is indicative of the entry level salary the midpoint which is derived based on the market average and then the top end value for position at this given point in time and we've also provided instruction and guidelines to the staff in terms of maintaining the study until it's time to do a comprehensive study down the road in the next four maybe five years next slide these are the 12 cities and counties that were mutual agreed to by staff and mad to serve as peer organizations with respect to collecting organizational and pay information from we have of course the city of Durham City of Raleigh Greensboro City of Winston-Salem counties we have Charlotte Mecklenburg Wake County Forsyth County Guilford.

County Cumberland County Orange County and Gaston County and then at the bottom there you see over there we must take in consideration as well what's being paid in the private sector for comparable jobs so we did access private sector data through the Federal Department of Labor view of Labor Statistics so we could get information on what's being paid in the marketplace for example for skill crafts like electricians plumbers I.T Personnel drivers secretarial staff as well as other administrative and operational positions and as I said all this was done with the mindset of getting you to the 75th percentile next one talking about your paper performance I know the HR staff will be looking to bring to the commission some recommendations with respect to going forward with the intervals in terms of the actual increases for paper performance down the road based on the five different performance levels extent outstanding exceeds expectation these expectations needs Improvement and unacceptable based on what we've seen of what the staff is proposing and looks very.

Realistic and does reflect what we've seen in the public and private sector in terms of potential increases based on pay for performance in the marketplace it's important that we make sure that the pay for performance increases maintain the County's position within the marketplace based on the results of the study so that we can award reward High achieving employees within the organization next one. Just a couple of policy comments in respect to going forward and how we manage the compensation system when there's a need to reclassify jobs at a minimum someone should receive a an adjustment of five percent and then two and a half for each additional grade if they're going upward in terms of a multiple grade increase but it's capped at 10 so the most any individual could receive from a reclassification request would be ten percent the same holds true for promotion Baseline of five percent because they're based on the number of grades they're promoted into will dictate the total amount of increase and usually that matches what.

You do for the reclassification process so that should be in line with around 10 percent and keep in mind there will always be extenuating circumstances where you may have to make some adjustments but the system is set up to be flexible and to allow the HR staff to to to make adjustments to deal with certain situations that may come about we also talked about pay for interim appointments giving the individuals who are going to go into these animal points make sure that they acknowledge that it is a temperate until otherwise by signing a statement acknowledging as such and their pay will be adjusted to reflect the fact that they are in an interim position by considering what the previous incumbent was made as well as what the pay grade the pay range recommended in the study has in mind for the value of the job next one Aaron typically you want to hire individuals that have experience particularly when it comes to technical middle and upper management jobs so that.

The learning curve is is not as Steep and in order to do that you have to pay someone of a premium when you hire people with extensive experience based on what we put together we're recommending that you take in consideration a maximum of five years of comparable previous experience in terms of setting the salary for a new hire and again that should fall in line with the requirements that we've recommended for reclassification requests as well as promotions with that cap of somewhere around 10 percent next slide.

The pay structure we've developed we've developed two pay structures we've developed one for Public Safety which just has the public safety swarm positions in it and then everyone else who's not a part of a small position of Public Safety was assigned to the unified pay structure both pay structures have a range spread from minimum to Max of 70 percent going horizontally they have a five percent increment between grades when you go vertically we found that was consistent with what we were seeing with some of the market peers those 12 cities and counties that I pointed out earlier the last time the study was done we actually had three separate pay plans we had a separate plan for senior management positions but have to talking with HR and Leadership we decided that it made more sense from an ease of administration in terms of managing the different pay plans and to make sure that everyone's position was was treated fairly and equitably we felt it made more sense to go from three down to two.

Plans that being a unifying and then one for the public safety scoring positions within the organization it's easier to manage it makes sure that there's internal equity in terms of how jobs are grouped in salary ranges are presented for the jobs based on their duties responsibilities as well as their qualifications and what we're trying to do is to develop a process where there's not so much pressure placed on HR to reclassify jobs I think in some instances in the past reclassification requests were based more on a desire to reward a deserving employee more so than the job from a contextual change from chain standpoint actually change and so reclassification should be triggered by a potential change to the job not an increase in volume of one or performance it's a performance issue that should be recognized through the annual performance review and the pay for performance program next slide.

In terms of maintaining the system the pay ranges will need to be adjusted on an annual basis starting in July of 24. We recommend using the ECI employment cost index which is published by the Federal Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics that particular index takes in consider consideration the cost of benefits and salaries from an increased perspective from that of the employee you can also use the CPI Consumer Price Index as an alternative instrument in terms of determining what the annual adjustment is going to be to the pay ranges I will add whatever you decide to do in terms of a general increase or cost of living increase let's say July 24 you wanted to do four percent you would only need to adjust the pay ranges by two or two and a half percent but give current staff the full four percent Cola by doing that you again mitigate salary compression because current staff would be the beneficiary of the full four percent and just which impacts more new hires.

Than it does existing staff because we have gotten you to that 75th percentile you don't have to be as aggressive with the pay range adjustment themselves so 50 of whatever you decide to do for a general increase our Cola would be applied to the pay rate so if you did four percent colon you'd only adjust the range about two or two and a half percent going forward and individual salaries of those already on staff would be adjusted by the full four percent next next one there have been lots of conversations around the country about moving to a livable wage in Durham you do have a livable wage ordinance probably the most recognized data source for livable wages just the mass Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT which has been publishing the cost of of living in various parts of the country based on family size single two adults the kids Etc we have built a structure moving into the 74 percentile which means the lowest paid position within the county whether.

It be full-time or part-time would be nine dollars 1020 per hour which we think is a significant Leap Forward not only within the county but for an employer in the region I would suggest that going forward that you tie the livable wage ordinance to the Consumer Price Index so that it increases each year by whatever the CPI is as published by the federal department of labor so that it will gradually increase going forward many of the organizations that we deem to be Progressive organizations who have implemented livable wage ordinance have tied it to the Consumer Price Index to make sure that it they stay competitive with the cost of living so we recommend that you index that to the CPI index each year which you wouldn't need to worry about until July of 2024. next slide please.

Here's a breakdown of the cost by Department of the study also included in this slide you see the total number of employees in each department and to the right you see the total a budget amount which is going to impact 1876 employees the approximate cost to implement the study is roughly 9.8 million dollars that includes giving every employee a seven percent General increase to make sure actual salaries again are competitive to make sure there's a hedge against the inflation which is skilled by historical standards of still a little higher than we've typically seen it over the last couple of decades and so at a minimum no one would get less than seven percent as it relates to the study some will get more than that based on how their actual position fell out within the analysis but as it stands right now the cost to and to implement the studies 9.8 million you'll see that some of the larger departments like the Sheriff's Office DSS as well as public health you'll see some.

Significant costs there tax administration had some fairly significant costs there so the County engineering but it's a good distribution throughout the county as expected the larger departments because they have more people are going to take our larger slice of that 918 but every department is impacted as it relates to study and creating new competitive pay ranges throughout next one okay I think we'll open it up now for questions we'll like to clarify that one slide on the living wage is 19.22 for those who didn't have access to a slide I thought I saw was 90 dollars.

Thank you all for this presentation and the intentionality around this I know this is very important to our Board of making sure that all our Durham counties employees feel appreciated and valued I had a question around like the salary bands just wondering like around the transparency I know with the part that they were mentioning about the experience levels how they'll impact the starting salary for transparency are we going to update like how on the website the salaries are listed to show like because right now I think some positions have a really wide range where it can be like starting salaries sixty thousand Max salary 130 000 and sometimes like when people apply especially people of color and women they don't know what to ask for in that range so that band that you were that was talked about about like if you have one year of experience if you're going to be minimum around this two years this three years that is that going to be on the job posting to create transparency.

I think we could address that by having a hiring salary we'll have a range so that people won't look at the entire pay ban to make a I guess indication of what they would like to have and when we put a hiring range they will know that that is where the salary will fall and we will internally look at those experience levels and make the determination yeah because I think my concern is more around like some of the positions that have that really large band and like if someone's applying for it and they may be really experienced but they may be like too nervous to ask for the higher ban and it tends to be like women of color who sell themselves shorts.

Okay commissioner Carter first of all I I like to just like thank Mr Campbell for this incredible report appreciate that work and then commissioner Carter you want to go ahead oh yes yes thanks Mr Campbell thanks for our own staff for this information feels like something I should be thinking about out of work that this is you know I don't know it's late at night and I feel yeah I feel feeble-minded but this is super important and I I do have a number of questions are we intending for this to be a discussion tonight or more of just just the presentation tonight and we can have more discussion around it manager doing the budget session tonight it's just a presentation we don't have to go into any depth in-depth conversation okay great well thrilled to see the 19 in 1922 sorry since 1922 as the new living wage for Durham County that's.

And you know some things for us to consider I think is part of our compensation philosophy would include one one one element that comes to mind is you know I do think it makes sense to increase our range for pay for performance or four percent right and in so doing we need to be sure it's a really robust evaluation that you know definitely leads to an outcome where wow this person is truly out so we'll be hearing some more about that it sounds like so I think that's really good and I will just say that when I look at the attachment last comparison list by pay plan some of the upper ranges especially for more executive staff who I think are all amazing but they were really high I was surprised at the upper range of some of our hay bands and want to be sure that we're spending the bulk of our salary increases on those who are already not making a a you know one of our larger wages.

So some of our people who you know are in DSS and these are hard to fill positions and their work is super traumatic you know being sure that substantial percentage of the increase is going to that group of employees you see what I'm saying just you know those are some things I'd like to think more about and and look into a little bit more detail and that's that's what comes to mind for me tonight I know I'll have some other points of discussion going forward oh you'll have another bite at it okay well commissioner Carter I can reassure you I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier I'm David Richardson HR manager and I'm responsible for class and comp here under the wonderful leadership of Kathy Everett Perry but I do want to just point out that in those hiring ranges we tend to rarely ever hire anybody past the midpoint of a range is to and especially for executive positions I want to point out is to be.

Able to reflect the potential of where a position can go so say for instance we're looking for a new CFO we're not going to hire that person right at the minimum of that range but they would want to come in especially if they're highly experienced in that area and see that I do have a potential to grow while at Durham County so as Kathy mentioned before we do recommend on our position select the candidates know where our hiring Max is so although that range is there we don't hire people right there at the end.

Thing I wanted to consider is the recommendation is for seven percent across the board I don't know I guess I'm just wondering about the possibility of having higher rate higher raises for those who are in our hard to fill positions and maybe are making less you know dollars per hour and not as a great an increase in those who are already at the executive level of our salaries schedule I don't know beyond the seven percent the majority of the money is going to those that are non-supervisory positions right I'm sure that's true I did look at that chart you know and just in the manager's office the 24 employees even though the percentage their slice of the pie may be small but it per person it was quite large compared to some of the other departments so just these are just things I've noticed and I want to think more about really we'll just what what which one of our budget sessions will this come up manager we are developing the schedule now and.

So we can we'll send out the schedule once it's developed but we are working with the Departments to develop we'll know when this is going to be on our budget session yes okay mine mine is really quick for the manager because I had the same concern the commissioner Carter had and correct me if I'm wrong one of the beautiful things about the budget and the way the staff set it up you all have given yourselves room and latitude to do just what commissioner card at so I asked that doing my one-on-one so they've given themselves that space and that latitude for the artists to feel positions and for some of the ones that are lower where the market might be asking for more because as you know you know we've lost what's the good example some of our mechanics you know we've lost some others and so we have to be more competitive so I think from what I got from staff and from the manager there's latitude in the budget you know.

Six months from now to kind of sort of do something so I had that same concern and and I'm happy that other folks have it so hey we can do it if we need to do it and correct me because I want to put words in your mouth doctor so well you are correct and if you all recall last budget cycle I recommended a lower percentage increase for those that made above 75 000 and it was a higher percentage increase for those that and so that is something that we are aware of and we're making sure that we're addressing the compensation needs of those who are our lower salary positions Monica are we accepting calls I see Dr Allison on the call are we accepting calls we are not she has been watching the entire time but because I am showing the full screen to keep Mr Russell online for questions or for answers that's why you can see Dr Allison but we do not have anyone signed up to speak.

Okay thank you I just wanted to check thank you commissioner Jacob yes I'm gonna basically hold my questions and comments to the budget earring Sim it's 10 till 10. I mean the budget work session yeah I do really appreciate though Mr Campbell and staff the policies you know I think that's really really important that we have very clear policies and that it's transparent and and I appreciate the importance of having those policies for everybody's sake so I'm really really glad to see that and the philosophy as well and I just wanted to ask when will we get the full report do you know when that will be ready to be sent out to us it should be the end of this week okay right awesome all right thank you so much I would just quickly note as well we did a large piece of work the year before last on hard to feel positions so those positions still have sign-on bonuses those are some of the things that we put.

In place so although we are having these adjustments and moving people forward for our Detention officers and our EMS technicians our youth home counselors they have nice hard to feel bonuses that are being offered now for those individuals so that's in addition to the work that we're doing all right thank you so much for all of this hard work and we know we'll get to look at it and discuss it at another time thank you anything else for you Andrew okay Okay so that is that was our last item anything else from Commissioners or manager hearing none I will ask for a motion to adjourn.

Second moved and properly second all in favor.

Board of Commissioners · Regular Meeting · May 8, 2023

▸Pledge of Allegiance26:56

▸Consent Agenda1:52:10

▸Public Comment2:27:35

▸Adjournment3:13:09