060705June 7, 2005
The Randolph County Board of Commissioners met in special budget session at 5:00
p.m. in the Administration Conference Room, County Office Building, 725 McDowell Road,
Asheboro, NC. Commissioners Holmes, Frye, Davis, and Lanier were present. Commissioner
Kemp was absent.
Public Works
David Townsend III, Public Works Director, discussed several areas of his budget:
Scattered Site Housing(SSH) Grant
Two and one-half years ago the Public Works Department applied for and was awarded
an SSH grant of $400,000 to be used to renovate low-income, owner -occupied houses that were
in need of repairs, handicap accessibility, etc. They anticipated that they could complete 8
houses; however, they have completed 9 and have 3 others under contract. Some counties who
received these grants were not able to spend all their grant funds, and Randolph County is
applying for another $100,000 from these unspent funds returned to the State. These grants run
on a 3 -year cycle; in 2006, we will apply for another $400,000 grant.
Braxton -Craven Recycle Site
Mr. Townsend reported that this site is extremely abused; every week they have 1-1'/z
tons of junk and garbage to clean up at this site that people have illegally dumped out. The
County has to pay to have it hauled off He said he has tried repeatedly to get help from the City
of Trinity with cleanup and with monitoring of this site, but he has had no success. He said this
site needs to be closed.
Commissioner Frye said closing this site is not an option. The Board discussed making
this recycle site a convenience site so that it can be controlled.
Land Clearing and Inert Debris (LCID) Landfill
Mr. Townsend presented bid tabulations from 5 companies who had bid on operating an
LCID at the County's Solid Waste Facility. These proposals did not include the cost of
monitoring the site, only the cost for pushing back the debris and covering it. The low bid was
$157,500 for the first year (FY 05-06). When the County operated an LCID in the past, the
tipping fee was $25/ton. The County would have to heavily subsidize this program if we
accepted one of these bids because tipping fees for these kinds of loads would generate only
$30,000 to $40,000 per year at most.
Mr. Townsend stated that the one private LCID in the County (Al Morton's) received
only 117 loads in the last 6 months, compared to 544 for the same time period a year prior to
that. The volume of business is just not there. Some are grinding their wood waste on site rather
than paying to haul it to a landfill; others are illegally dumping LCID materials into ditches and
gullies so that they don't have to pay to dispose of it.
After lengthy discussion, the Board instructed Mr. Townsend to talk with Mr. Morton
about partnering with him and to report back to them as soon as he can.
FY 2005-06 Budget
Mr. Townsend stated that the County's transfer station contract with BFI would reflect a
CPI increase in the next budget year. Therefore, he would like to increase the tipping fee.
However, the County Manager did not approve an increase in his proposed budget. Therefore,
that budget shows an increase of $70,000 in general County revenues needed to balance the
Public Works budget. Mr. Townsend said we would definitely need to increase the transfer
station tipping fee for FY 2006-07.
Social Services
Martha Sheriff, Social Services Director, introduced Social Services Board Chairman
Rev. Scott Wagoner and staff members Lisa Royal and Gerry Britt.
Ms. Sheriff talked about the big increase in her budget for Medicaid. The County's share
for Medicaid expense estimated for the coming year will be $7,125,963, a 25% increase over this
year. She provided a chart that showed budgeted Medicaid expenditures for all 100 counties by
federal share, state share, and county share.
She also mentioned that she had requested $60,000 for new computers and a new
technical support position, but these items were not in the proposed budget. Their agency has
150 computers, with one person maintaining them. The requested position is to help him. The
County's portion of the new salary would be $21,000.
Ms. Sheriff reminded the Board that in February she had asked for 3 new positions in
Food Stamps and had received 2. She said the Food Stamps caseload continues to go up, and she
needs the third new position, which also was not included in the proposed budget. She stated
that of the 2 positions requested but not approved, the Food Stamp position is the more critical.
She noted that 52% of eligible citizens (125% of poverty level) in Randolph County are on food
stamps. The caseload has increased by 429 from April 2004 to April 2005. The total value of
food stamps issued in the last year in Randolph County is $11,813,000.
The agency is trying to go paperless. They have bought scanning and electronic forms
software. They will begin producing electronic forms now and not create any new paper forms.
If they have time, they may scan some of the paper documents they already have. They will
begin this new system in the Food Stamp Unit and then Children's Medicaid; they will then
phase in all the other units.
The Child Care and Family Services budget has gone up over $1,000,000. The County's
share of benefits in Medicaid and Special Assistance to Adults is $8,433,032. The County's
share of the Social Services budget is $11,717,027.
Social Services Board Chairman Wagoner commended the Social Services staff for all
the good work that they do.
Governing Body
County Manager Frank Willis stated that all the population -driven dues (Institute of
Government, Piedmont Triad Council of Governments, and NC Association of County
Commissioners) have gone up as population has grown, and the per -capita amount for the
Institute of Government dues has gone up. In addition, Commissioners' travel increased.
Administration
Mr. Willis itemized the increases in this budget: insurance and bonds, $203,249; audit,
$20,000; County Attorney, $17,500; Employee Assistance Program, $12,500; reclassification of
Purchasing Technician to Purchasing Agent, $8,305; merit increases, $25,000.
Kim Newsom, Personnel Director, provided further information on the request for
additional funds in merit raises. The County has about 700 employees, and 75-80% of them are
at standard job rate. Employees must be at standard job rate for one year to be eligible for a
merit increase. We have had $50,000 allocated for merit raises for the last 5 years. More money
is requested so that the better employees can be rewarded with merit increases, and we can
minimize turnover. He said that out of a $22,000,000 payroll, $75,000 is not much—it is only
about 1/3%.
Debt Service
Mr. Willis said that in the next year the County would make its final payment on the
Randolph County Office Building and the Jail. However, those funds will be used to pay debt
service on school projects, so the overall debt service amount will not be reduced.
J. Harold Holmes, Chairman
Robert B. Davis
Alice D. Dawson, Clerk to the Board
Darrell L. Frye
Arnold Lanier