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Business Meeting

Orange County · Board of County Commissioners
Tuesday, November 19, 2024

Regular meeting Budget and appropriationsPublic facilitiesElections and districtsGrants and outside fundingIntergovernmental agreementsSchools and educationAppointments and personnelComprehensive planContracts and procurementEnvironment and sustainabilityFaith and cultural communitiesFire and EMSHousing and affordabilityParks and recreationPolice and public safetyRoads and transportationState legislative agendaTransit

Agenda document Minutes Watch Meeting recap

What was decided

  1. Approved 4.aResolution of Commendation for Commissioner Anna Richards Adopted unanimously
  2. Approved 6.aTransportation Multimodal Plan Approved unanimously

Another 1 item passed on the consent agenda, which is a single motion covering routine business. See the list.

Read from the agenda's recorded outcomes. Where the board published minutes, those are the record — this is a pointer to them.

What's on this agenda

Orange County commissioners received an independent assessment of the detention center on November 19, 2024, commissioned after a petition from Commissioner Anna Richards, whom the board honored the same night as she left office. They also adopted the county's Transportation Multimodal Plan and held a public hearing on the annual report of federal housing spending.

Summarized from the published agenda. Read the agenda itself before acting on it.

Meeting recap

What happened, drawn from the records published after the meeting. Minutes

Matrix Consulting Group's detention center review returned six findings and 38 recommendations, and only one of them adds a position. The consultants found robust written policies that staff do not know well, no detainee programs or in-person visitation, no formalized minimum staffing levels, and limited staff understanding of booking and release. They recommended the sheriff's office finish moving to a supervision model suited to the new podular facility rather than the linear indirect model the old jail used. The single new post is a business officer to handle purchasing, accounting and budgeting so command staff can run the jail, raising authorized positions from 58 to 59 and payable from vacancies elsewhere in the sheriff's office. Two detention officer posts convert to a corporal and a transport officer.

Several recommendations were already moving. In-person visitation begins in December, Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m., and the budget office is working with the sheriff to break the detention center out as its own budget division for FY 2025-26. Commissioners asked about programming models from other states, and the chair petitioned the manager to price a body scanner and look for money in the current year. One speaker, from Orange County Justice Project NC, thanked Richards for raising the issue and backed both in-person visitation and more programming.

The Transportation Multimodal Plan, written by WSP, covers the unincorporated county and folds every approved transportation plan, project and program into one document with a county-specific scoring method for ranking them. Bicycle and pedestrian projects score on density, access to schools, points of interest, recreation and bus stops and on connecting disjointed pieces; transit on local and regional service, access to jobs, schools and hospitals; highway projects on connectivity, congestion and freight. Environmental justice, safety and cost weigh across all three. It passed unanimously.

At the housing hearing nobody signed up to speak. Staff reported that in the year to June 30, 2024 the county had $442,802.32 in HOME funds plus $96,636.28 matched by Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough and the county, and spent $137,096.90 of it, all on tenant-based rental assistance. A commissioner noted that construction the board had funded in earlier years did not recur. The consent agenda renewed the Hollow Rock Nature Park agreement with Durham County and Chapel Hill, bought a second phase of bi-directional antenna systems for K-12 schools from Motorola, replaced fire and EMS paging radio infrastructure, and awarded the Sportsplex ice rink chiller and cooling tower replacement to Brady Services.

How the votes went

All votes unanimous: the resolution of commendation, opening and closing the housing public hearing, the Transportation Multimodal Plan, the consent agenda, entering and leaving closed session.

From the published minutes.

Who spoke

1 member of the public spoke.

  1. A representative of Orange County Justice Project NC thanked the commissioner who petitioned for the study, welcomed the return of in-person visitation and urged more detainee programming, saying services inside the jail set people on a better path whatever their case's outcome.

Nobody signed up for general public comment or for the housing hearing. One person spoke during the detention center report, on behalf of a criminal justice advocacy group.

Read from the records the government published after the meeting. Members of the public are private residents and are not named or indexed.

Speaking at this meeting

Orange County's own rules for public comment — check them before you rely on anything here.

Agenda items (11)

Staff or committee report · 4Procedural · 2Resolution · 2Public hearing · 1Consent agenda · 1Closed session · 1
  1. 2 Public Comments
    Procedural
    No one signed up to speak.
  2. 4.a Resolution of Commendation for Commissioner Anna Richards
    Resolution
    A resolution thanking Commissioner Anna Richards for her service as she leaves the board.
    Adopted unanimously
  3. 5.a Public Hearing on 2023 Consolidated Annual Performance Report (CAPER) for the HOME Investment Partnerships Program
    Public hearing Grants and outside fundingHousing and affordabilityIntergovernmental agreements
    The annual report to HUD on what the county did with HOME money between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024. The county had $442,802.32 in HOME funds and $96,636.28 in matching money from Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough and the county, and spent $137,096.90, all on tenant-based rental assistance. Written comments were open through November 23. No one spoke. A commissioner noted that rental construction the board funded in an earlier year did not recur this year, and staff agreed such projects need lead time.
    Hearing opened and closed, both unanimous
  4. 6.a Transportation Multimodal Plan
    Resolution Comprehensive planParks and recreationRoads and transportationSchools and educationTransit
    The board adopted the Orange County Transportation Multimodal Plan, written by WSP for the unincorporated county. It consolidates every approved transportation plan, project and program into one document and applies a county-specific prioritization method that honors the two metropolitan and three comprehensive transportation plans covering Orange County along with the county strategic plan and access management plans. Bicycle and pedestrian projects score on residential and employment density, access to schools, points of interest, recreation and bus stops, and on connecting disjointed segments. Transit projects score on local and regional service, access to jobs, schools and hospitals, an…
    Approved unanimously
  5. 7.a Report on Detention Center Operational and Staffing Assessment
    Staff or committee report Budget and appropriationsPolice and public safetyPublic facilities
    Matrix Consulting Group's independent staffing and efficiency analysis of the Orange County Detention Center, commissioned on a commissioner's petition. Six findings: the sheriff's office should finish moving to a supervision model matched to the new podular facility rather than the linear indirect model used in the old one; written policies are strong but staff awareness of them is not; no detainee programs or in-person visitation are offered; tablets do allow video visitation; the facility has no formalized minimum staffing levels; and staff understanding of booking and release is limited. Of 38 recommendations, the staffing analysis adds one position, a business officer for purchasing, a…
  1. 9 County Manager's Report
    Staff or committee report Budget and appropriationsElections and districts
    The manager noted a possible recount in the state supreme court race and said he would bring the board a budget amendment for it.
  2. 10 County Attorney's Report
    Staff or committee report Elections and districtsState legislative agenda
    A protest filed with the Board of Elections came in after the deadline and goes to the State Board for review. The General Assembly overturned one of the Governor's vetoes and was expected to take up more the following day.
  3. 12 Information Items
    Staff or committee report Budget and appropriationsEnvironment and sustainabilityGrants and outside fundingPublic facilities
    A memorandum on the UNC cogeneration facility and its air quality permit modification, and the first quarter FY 2024-25 American Rescue Plan update and financial report.
  4. 13 Closed Session
    Closed session Public facilities
    The board went into closed session at 8:39 p.m. under NCGS 143-318.11(a)(5) to instruct the manager and attorney on negotiating terms of a contract to purchase real property, and to approve closed session minutes. It reconvened at 9:11 p.m.
    Entered and reconvened unanimously
  5. 14 Adjournment
    Procedural
    Adjourned at 9:11 p.m.

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