THE BOARD OF
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
DURHAM, NORTH
CAROLINA
Monday, May 3, 2004
9:00 A.M. Worksession
AGENDA
1. Citizen Comments
15
min.
1. Mr. Jack Steer has requested time on the agenda to
address Durham County’s
FY 2004-05 Budget.
3. Reverend
Rona Tankard has requested to speak to the Commissioners about property
taxes for the Power in the Word Ministry church facility.
2. Truancy
Intervention Project
20
min.
3. Acceptance
of DOT Contingency Funds to Pave Subdivision Streets
15 min.
4. Request for Court-Ordered Care
Funding by the Durham
Directors for the “System of Care" Initiative
25
min.
While Durham has many things to
be proud of, our community struggles to adequately meet the needs of children
and their families with complex health, mental health, and socioeconomic
challenges. Resources to help address
these needs are often insufficient and frequently not coordinated. Durham
County’s human services
agencies, Durham Public Schools, and representatives from the judicial system
have adopted a progressive solution to address these issues. These agencies comprise the Durham Directors.
In 2002, the Durham Directors developed
a Memorandum of Agreement that builds on a history of coordination and lays the
groundwork for a system of care,
which is a comprehensive, integrated community network of services and
resources supported by collaboration among families, professionals, and the
community. Durham’s system of care links
education, juvenile justice, health, mental health, child welfare, and other
agencies to families, further supporting their work to ensure that children and
their families have access to services and supports they need to succeed.
These efforts have resulted in an
increased number of Durham’s
children being served in their own community.
This is demonstrated by the significant decrease of court-ordered,
county-financed out-of-county care.
Listed below is the history of expenditures for the court-ordered care
budget over the past five years:
Court-Ordered Care
Budget
Year Budgeted
Amount Expended
2000 $1,892,153 $762,302
2001 $2,576,284 $407,551
2002 $1,819,726 $133,073
2003 $ 750,000 $ 41,250
2004 $ 508,590 $ 7,125
District
Court judges have the authority to order the county to pay for treatment
services for children when they determine the services are needed and funding
is not available. This option was rarely
used until the mid 1990s when it was used frequently for both DSS child custody
cases and delinquency cases. By 1999,
the County had orders that required spending over $2 million to fund services
for
90 children, half of whom were in DSS custody and the other half adjudicated
delinquent.
A task force was established by then
County Manager David Thompson and chaired by Deputy County Manager Carolyn Titus. The task force met for a year and included
representatives from DSS, The Durham Center, the courts, and Durham Public Schools. Through developed and implemented plans and
protocols, the need for court-ordered placements has been virtually eliminated. In addition, the same protocols are currently
being used to review plans for all residential treatment services.
In 1999, DSS had 45 children placed in
residential facilities out of the county; today, the number is 11. In November 1999 when the final report of
this committee was presented to the Board of County Commissioners, the plan was
to reinvest court-ordered care funds to develop a continuum of care in Durham County. The reinvestment never occurred because of a FY
2000-01 budget shortfall.
The community is making progress, and
our efforts are gaining widespread recognition.
However, key problems and gaps exist in our system of services and
supports. To implement fully this
integrated system of services and resources, we must provide training; support
coordination between providers, agency staff, and families; develop new
protocols for integrated policies and procedures; and provide education and
support to families and temporary staff to facilitate this transition
period. Thus, the Durham Directors
requests the following resources:
|
Resource
|
Need
|
Amount (annualized)
|
Comments
|
|
A. Staff Support
|
Half-time
(0.5 FTE) includes benefits
|
$ 25,000
|
Temporary staff to support interagency implementation work
group
|
|
B. Facilitators
|
Contracted
|
$ 25,000
|
To support child-specific interagency planning and service
delivery
|
|
C. Paraprofessional Support
|
2 FTEs
|
$ 76,000
|
To provide logistical support to child-specific
interagency planning and service delivery
|
|
|
1 FTE
|
$ 60,000
|
To provide family-to-family education and support
|
|
|
Cab and
bus
fares
|
$ 14,000
|
To help children and families better access services and
supports
|
|
F. Community
Meeting space
|
Fees for
use
|
$ 10,000
|
To help bring services and supports to where children and
families need them
|
|
Total
|
|
$210,000
|
|
RESOURCE
PERSON(S): Dan Hudgins, Social Services Director; Brian Letourneau, Health
Director; Ellen Holliman, Director,
The Durham Center; Adele Spitz-Roth and Martha Kaufman, Durham Family
Initiative Center for Child and Family Policy, Duke University; and Wendell M.
Davis, Deputy County Manager
COUNTY MANAGER’S
RECOMMENDATION: The Manager’s recommendation is that the Board receive the presentation and put forward questions related
to the item. Given that this request is
to reduce the court-ordered care budget, the Manager further recommends that
the Board consider this matter during FY 2004-05 budget deliberations.
5. Annual Report of the Durham Planning Commission
20
min.
RESOURCE PERSON(S): Jackie Brown, Chairperson of the Durham
City-County Planning Commission
6. Amendment
of the Durham County Animal Ordinance
30
min.
8. Facility
Options for Welcome Baby Program
10
min.
9. Synthetic Fixed-Rate Refinancing
60
min.
The Finance Department has been
entertaining a proposal from Rice Financial Products for the County to enter
into a Synthetic Fixed-Rate Refinancing Agreement. This agreement is projected to save the
County almost $10,000,000 over a ten-year period in debt service. Durham
County engaged Public
Financial Management, a recognized expert in the area of synthetic fixed-rate
refinancing, to analyze the proposal and make a recommendation to the Board.
As such, it is requested that approximately
60 minutes be set aside for Rice Financial Products to present its proposal and
Public Financial Management to analyze the proposal for the Board and entertain
questions.
RESOURCE PERSON(S): George K.
Quick, Finance Director
COUNTY
MANAGER’S RECOMMENDATION: The County Manager
recommends that the BOCC receive the presentations. (The County Manager
and Finance Director will be seeking input from the Local Government Commission
and the County’s financial advisors before making a recommendation to the
Board. Those recommendations have not
yet been received.)
10. Closed
Session*
The Board of Commissioners is requested
to adjourn to closed session to prevent the disclosure of information that is
privileged or confidential pursuant to G.S. § 143-318.10(e) pursuant to G.S. §
143-318.11(a)(1).
*NOTE: The Closed Session will be held during lunch break between 12:15
and 1:15 p.m.
