STOKES COUNTY GOVERNMENT
COUNTY OF STOKES DANBURY, NORTH CAROLINA
JUNE 18, 2008
The Board of
Commissioners of the County of Stokes, State of North Carolina, met
for a recessed Budget Work Session (recessed from June 17th in the Commissioners’
Chambers of the Ronald Wilson Reagan Memorial Building (Administrative
Building located
in Danbury, North Carolina on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 11:00 am with
the following
members present:
Chairman J. Leon
Inman
Vice-Chairman
Jimmy Walker
Commissioner Ron
Carroll
Commissioner
Ernest Lankford
Commissioner
Stanley Smith
County
Personnel in Attendance:
County
Manager K. Bryan Steen- entered session at 11:45 am
Clerk
to the Board Darlene Bullins
Finance
Director Julia Edwards
DSS
Director Jan Spencer
Social
Work Supervisor Stacey Elmes
Chairman J. Leon Inman called the Budget Work
Session to order.
Commissioner Lankford delivered the
invocation.
Chairman Inman opened
the meeting by inviting the citizens in attendance to
join the Board with the Pledge of Allegiance.
GENERAL
GOVERNMENT – GOVERNING BODY – BUDGET WORK SESSION
Social
Services
The Board discussed
the proposed DSS Budget with DSS Director Jan Spencer and
Social Work Supervisor Stacey Elmes.
Commissioner Carroll
requested Director Spencer to briefly discuss the positions
requested in the proposed budget and to also prioritize the positions.
Director Spencer noted
the following positions requested were prioritized when
the budget was submitted:
¨ Processing
Assistant III – Child Welfare Unit
¨ Processing
Assistant III – 50% position for Danbury and Southwest Service Center
¨ Income Maintenance
Caseworker II/Adult Medicaid
¨ Income Maintenance
Caseworker II/Family and Children’s Medicaid
¨ Social Worker
III/Foster Care/Adoption/LINKS
Director Spencer presented the Board with
graphs, which detailed the caseload activity
in the following areas:
¨ Adult Medicaid
¨ Family and
Children’s Medicaid
¨ Food and Nutrition
Director Spencer noted
the following:
¨ DSS Administrative
staff and supervisors met to determine what would be the best investment from
the positions requested and trying to save the County funding at the same time
¨ Processing Assistant III position was the
top priority; position would provide clerical support to the Child Welfare
Unit. Unit is currently seeing an increase in child abuse cases, which can be a
reflection from a poor economy. County
funding would be approximately $9,253.00.
¨ Processing Assistant III – 50% position
to work in the Southwest Service Center and the Danbury office. The position would do clerical work; one
specific task would be to compare a DSS financial report with individuals in
current caseloads. The financial report
matches bank accounts and social security numbers, some of which maybe matched
back to individuals receiving assistance who did not report the income. County
funding would be approximately $3,906.00.
¨ Income Maintenance Caseworker II/Adult
Medicaid position is needed to help eliminate heavy caseloads for workers. Adult Medicaid can be very costly if errors occur. Adult Medicaid accounts for about 75% of the
Medicaid dollars. Caseloads are very large and constantly increasing. Takes
approximately 6 months to train an Adult Medicaid Caseworker. County funding
would be approximately $11,326.00.
¨ Income Maintenance Caseworker II/Family and
Children’s Medicaid position is needed for the fastest growing
caseload. DSS receives an estimated 100
new applications a month. Workers have
an average of 600 cases in their caseload; a manageable caseload is around 400
cases. County funding would be approximately $11,326.00.
¨ Social Worker III/Foster Care/Adoption/Links
position
is not only for foster care and adoption, but also for the LINKS program. The Links program is for children who age out
of foster care. Agency has approximately
60 kids who would qualify for the Links program, but workers only have time to
assist those who contact the agency. The
agency does not have a social worker dedicated solely to adoption; adoptions
are done by the Director, Social Work Supervisor and Social Workers who do
Foster Care. County funding would be
approximately $13,949.00.
¨ Social Worker –CAP/DA is a position
discussed when the proposed budget was reviewed with the County Manager. CAP Services are currently being contracted
with a staff social worker. Director
Spencer feels that the County would not come out as good if a new position is
approved. No county funding.
¨ DSS lost eleven
positions in 2002-03, department is still two positions below the number of
positions in 2002 with caseloads continually growing
¨ Supervisors have
taken on more responsibility to lessen the load for caseworkers
¨ Private employers
are not providing insurance and now DSS helps to provide insurance to the
working poor who do not have benefits (NC Health Care
¨ Stokes County
caseworkers do all functions of the job, whereas most counties have caseworkers
who only work in specialized areas such as intake/applications, process new
applications, or application reviews
¨ Have requested the
Fraud Investigator position every year with no success, did not feel it was
worth requesting it again this year, agency is seeing more desperate actions
probably due to the economy
¨ Suspect workers
will be leaving to go to other counties that have specialized areas, carrying
large caseloads is very stressful
¨ Foster Care
Standard Board Rate is expected to increase, county will pay foster care
expenses in full and then be reimbursed by the State/Federal
¨ Adoption
Assistance is also expected to increase
¨ Portion of
Medicaid will continue to decrease
¨ DSS uses a
template provided by the State to predict revenues
¨ Priorities for the
positions remain the same
The Board discussed the following:
¨ Number of DSS
staff
¨ Average caseloads
¨ Some caseloads
have tripled in the last ten years
¨ Lack of fraud investigator
¨ Federal and state
funding for the five requested positions
¨ County funding for
the five requested positions = approximately $49,760
¨ Federal and state
revenue sources
Commissioner Smith noted that sometimes you
have “to spend money to make money”.
DSS Director Spencer
expressed her appreciation to the Board for allowing her to
discuss her requests with the Board and reiterated that $49,760 would
give the County five
additional positions that would provide more accurate caseloads, be
able to undercover fraud,
relieve worker burnout, reduce agency turnover, and do reviews on a
timely manner, thus
saving the County dollars.
County Manager Bryan
Steen reiterated possible funding that could be added to the
proposed budget without changing the manager’s recommendation:
¨ $55,000 -
additional Hold Harmless funding
¨ $6,500 – moving
purchase of zero turn lawn mover to current fiscal year
¨ $1,700 – moving
purchase of Sheriff’s Department/Jail radios to current fiscal year
¨ $6,078 – Health
Department position
¨ Total = $69,278
The Board discussed the county funding
($24,485 needed if the top three
requested
DSS positions were added to the proposed budget.
Commissioner Carroll
noted that Finance Director Edwards stated that there was
$51,485 in the proposed budget for the purchase of non-capital
equipment. Commissioner
Carroll suggested that the Board identify those non capital items and
transfer $51,485 from the
current budget’s contingency to Capital Reserve to pay for those items,
therefore freeing up
$51,485 in the proposed budget.
This would allow the Board to have access to additional
funding in the amount of $120,763 without changing the Manager’s
recommendation.
The Board discussed current contingency balance.
The Board discussed
cost estimates for an EMS facility.
Manager Steen stated that in
2006, Peterson/Gordon Architects estimated total building cost at
$325,025. Currently, there
is $115,000 in Capital Reserve for an EMS facility with an
appropriation of $50,000 in the
proposed budget.
Commissioner Carroll
noted that if $219,000 is being proposed to be borrowed for an
EMS facility along with other capital items and/or improvements, there
is no need for an
additional $50,000 in the proposed 2008-09 budget, which would free up
another $50,000 in
the proposed budget.
Chairman Inman
recently spoke to Local Government Commission (LGC regarding
the County borrowing approximately $1 million this year for capital
projects and the impact it
would have on future debt. LGC
noted that the current 14.5-15% fund balance is what LGC
expects counties the size of Stokes to maintain, along with continuing
to build the fund balance.
LGC noted that with debt coming off, the borrowing of $1 million would
not impact future
debt.
Finance Director
Edwards stated the following payment schedule for borrowing $1
million for capital projects (paving, roofs, etc :
¨ 5 years = $222,674
per year
¨ 10 years =
$122,005 per year
Manager Steen noted that the purchase of
Sheriff’s vehicles and ambulances would be
done first.
Commissioner Smith
stated that Sheriff’s vehicles and ambulances should be
financed for only 5 years; roofs, paving, and construction of an EMS
facility could be
financed for 5 or 10 years.
Chairman Inman
reiterated the immediate need for a new EMS facility.
Commissioner Carroll
noted that information from Senate Appropriations yesterday
indicates that salary increases for teachers would probably be 3% and
for everyone else, it will
probably be 2.75% or $1100.00 whichever is greater.
The Board discussed
possible options for the proposed budget:
Commissioner Carroll
suggested the following for consideration:
¨ Schools –current
expense – an additional $92,000
¨ DSS – an
additional $24,485 for three top positions (2.5 positions
¨ One additional
position for Sheriff’s Department – no additional county funding
Commissioner Lankford suggested the following
for consideration:
¨ Concerns with
adding additional positions to any department due to other departments
requesting positions that were cut by the manager
¨ Schools – current
expense – an additional $88,000
Vice Chairman Walker
suggested the following for consideration:
¨ Schools – current
expense – up to an additional $100,000 if possible
¨ DSS – an
additional $24,485 for three top positions (2.5 positions
¨ One additional
position for Sheriff’s Department – no additional county funding
Commissioner Smith suggested the following for
consideration:
¨ Schools – current
expense – an additional $100,000
¨ DSS – an additional
$49,760 for the five requested positions (4.5 positions along with possibly a Fraud Investigator
¨ One additional
position for Sheriff’s Department – no additional county funding
¨ Three remounts for
EMS ambulances
Chairman Inman suggested the following for
consideration:
¨ Two remounts for
EMS ambulances with 2 for next year (a rotation schedule
¨ One additional
position for Sheriff’s Department – no additional county funding
¨ DSS – an
additional $24,485 for three top positions (2.5 positions
¨ Schools –current
expense – an additional $88,000 - $100,000
The Board discussed options for salary
increases for county employees.
Commissioner Lankford suggested a 2-step
increase for permanent part/full time county
employees, which would get those who are currently frozen closer to
being unfrozen along with
a $150 bonus in December.
Commissioner Carroll
suggested to increase the salary schedule by 1% along with a
$375.00 bonus to permanent part/full time county employees in December,
this would give
those who are frozen a larger bonus.
(Bonus would be calculated similar to the bonus given in
December 2007 and longevity steps for employees for fiscal year 2008-09
are already
included in the proposed 2008-09 budget
The Board discussed
the two options suggested by Commissioner Lankford and
Commissioner Carroll and adding a 1% salary adjustment to the part time
schedule.
The Board discussed
the need for the market salary study.
The Board discussed
recessing the meeting until Thursday for further deliberations with
hopefully adopting a budget.
Adjournment
There being no further business to come before
the Board, Chairman Inman
entertained a motion to recess the Budget Work Session until Thursday,
June 19th at 9:00 am.
Commissioner Smith moved to recess the Budget
Work Session until Thursday,
June 19th at 9:00 am.
Commissioner Lankford seconded and the motion carried unanimously.
________________________
_____________________________
Darlene M.
Bullins
J. Leon Inman
Clerk to the
Board Chairman