Board Committees
The Board discussed the make-up of Board committees. Committees are comprised of Board members that meet to vet issues that will come before the full board. Appointments to the committees and selection of committee chairmen are made by the chairman of the BOCC.
Commissioner Leake – I’m not sure we need committees.
Commissioner Clarke – I’m not sure we need committees – vet matters at public policy workshops.
Commissioner James – Audit Review Committee serves a purpose but others don’t. The process is outdated. When there are committee meetings, they should be live or recorded so all commissioners can review the committee’s discussion before a full board meeting.
Commissioner Dunlap – I can go either way.
Commissioner Roberts – We can study most issues without committee work by using public policy meetings.
Commissioner Cooksey – We sometimes hold committee meetings just because the Board meets on Tuesdays and commissioners are available. We could use technology to conduct meetings to enable commissioners to use teleconference to be part of meetings.
Commissioner Cogdell – I prefer ad hoc committees.
Manager Jones prefers using Public Policy Workshops to flesh out critical issues. He says staff will have a recommendation for the Board at March 6 BOCC meeting.
Revaluation
Staff recommends to Board to budget for revaluation assuming a four year cycle. Recommends doing revaluation when triggers are met. Recommended triggers – if assessed value to sales ratio (assessed value/sales price) falls below 92% or climbs above 108%. State statute required counties to set aside $500,000 a year to pay for revaluation.
Pro: Reduces amount of revenue loss. Eliminates wide swings in value
Con: Cost of revaluation. Cost per year doing it every 8 years is lower than doing it every four years.
Commissioner James argues that the County needs to include foreclosures and other bank-owned properties when calculating the trigger. That would require a change in state statute.
Board will consider a formal policy at a future BOCC meeting.
Legislative Update
Legislative Liaison Brian Francis briefed the Board on the short session of the General Assembly and federal legislation impacting counties.
Board Issues
Hyong Yi presented a combined list of all the commissioners’ issues of concern. They include:
- Review of CMS spending for the past ten years
- Review of CMS 10 year Capital Plan
- Random Drug testing for DSS clients
- Impact of Health Care contract
- Impact of Federal budget cuts on the County
- Capital budgeting process
- Drug Court funding
- Discussion about holding the tax rate at current level or possible reduction of tax rate
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