HomeMy WebLinkAbout7/9/2019 - Special
July 9, 2019
275
Roanoke County Administration Center
5204 Bernard Drive
Roanoke, Virginia 24018
The Board of Supervisors of Roanoke County, Virginia met this day at the
Roanoke County Administration Center, this being a special meeting to hold a joint
meeting with the Roanoke County Public School Board. The audio recording of this
meeting will be held for five (5) years in the office of the Clerk to the Board of Supervisors.
IN RE: CALL TO ORDER
Chairman North called the meeting to order at 3:02 p.m. The roll call was
taken.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Chairman Phil C. North; Supervisors George G. Assaid,
Martha B. Hooker, David F. Radford and P. Jason Peters
MEMBERS ABSENT: None
STAFF PRESENT: Daniel R. O’Donnell, County Administrator; Richard
Caywood, Assistant County Administrator; Rebecca Owens,
Assistant County Administrator, Peter Lubeck, Senior
Assistant County Attorney; Amy Whittaker, Public Information
Officer and Deborah C. Jacks, Chief Deputy Clerk to the
Board
SCHOOL BOARD
MEMBERS PRESENT: Chairman Donald T. Butzer; Board Members Tim Greenway,
David Linden, Jason Moretz and Michael Wray
SCHOOL BOARD
MEMBERS ABSENT: None
SCHOOL STAFF
PRESENT: Dr. Kenneth Nicely, School Superintendent; Susan Peterson,
Director of Finance; Mark Kitta, Director of Facilities and
Operations; Jason Suhr, Director of CTE; Jeff Terry, Director
of Technology; Chuck Lionberger, Public Relations, Angela
Roberson, Clerk to the School Board
Chairman North, Chairman Butzer, Daniel O’Donnell, County Administrator
and Dr. Ken Nicely, School Superintendent all provided opening remarks.
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IN RE: NEW BUSINESS
1. Economic Development – Current and Future Initiatives
Mr. O’Donnell provided the economic development update and turned the
meeting over to Richard Caywood, who provided the transportation update. Mr. O’Donnell
provided the overview for Explore Park. Mr. O’Donnell then outlined the restructure of
Economic and Community Development Departments. He added that the recruiting
process would still be going on for another week. Next, Mr. O’Donnell spoke on the
transition to entrepreneurial/innovation economy. Lastly, he reviewed the apprenticeship
program.
2. Broadband Update
Mr. Bill Hunter, Director of Communications and Information Technology,
provided overview. Ms. Hooker advised there has been a lot of commentary from school
and home value perspectives. Mr. Hunter explained staff is trying to get viable options.
Mr. O’Donnell emphasized there is no funding in our current budget.
Supervisor Hooker stated there has been interest with the private sector.
School Board Member Wray inquired about AEP, Yellow Mountain Road
and Rt. 220 with regard to 5G and how does that fit. Mr. Hunter advised it will improve, if
you have the equipment. Households will need to have the equipment and have the
signal strength. Will be interesting to see how AEP handles this.
3. Public Service Announcement (PSA)
Ms. Whittaker, Public Information Officer provided an overview of the Safe
Firearm Storage Campaign overview.
School Board Chairman Butzer commented this is one of the things that
keep him up at night. There have been 3 very tragic events with unsecured firearms.
4. Shared Services
Ms. Owens provided an overview and commented that she felt there are
other things we can work on together.
Laurie Gearheart, Acting Finance Manager provided the financial shared
services, Bill Hunter reviewed the IT shared services, Mary Bath Nash provided the
County Attorney information, which entails purchasing contract for schools. Next, Chief
Hall provided the Police services.
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School Board Chairman Butzer thanked the Police Department for the
officers and their involvement in the task force. Also noted updating the interoperability
for school and police to coordinate in an emergency.
School Board Member Michael Wray commented on the onsite training, with
Chief Hall responding it is an ongoing process.
Chief Simon provided the overview of shared services for Fire and Rescue
and added information regarding weather conference calls.
Sheriff Orange provided the Sheriff’s office shared services and noted the
community outreach and PTA partnerships as well as Special Olympics.
Doug Blount, Director of Parks, Recreation and Tourism outlined the parks
and recreational information. School Board Chairman Butzer asked if there is anything
schools can do to help make Mr. Blount’s job easier. Mr. Blount advised very few barriers,
developed a relationship and are pleased. He also commented if they can light the fields
more, they can bring in more events; they are beginning to max out especially in girls’
softball.
Shari Henry, Director of Library Services reviewed library services. She
added they look at each community and what see what they need.
At 4:23 p.m., Chairman North recessed for a break. Meeting was called
back into order at 4:34 p.m.
Mr. Caywood reviewed the Economic and Community Development and the
shared services with the schools, i.e. After School for Kids, Athletic Fields, EMT Training
and Registered Apprenticeship.
School Board Chairman Butzer stated we have talked about what we do
today, what about potential to do more. For example, there are support services, i.e. fleet
operations. He suggested that maybe it would be worthwhile to get the County folks and
the School folks working together to see where we might have some synergies that we
might be able to save the tax payers money. We should identify, price and go from there.
Mr. O’Donnell commented it might be a good idea to sit down with General
Services or others that would fit into that.
Chairman North recessed at 4:42 and was back into open session at 5:00
p.m. for a working dinner.
5. Roanoke County and Schools Debt Capital Funding Plan
Ms. Owens provided overview, touted bond ratings.
Chairman Butzer questioned what was the ROI on the $1.8 million from
Economic Development. This information should be on a handout from Jill Loope.
Ms. Owens indicated that the $300,000 stopped in 2014 and in 2015, $1
million was removed and reallocate each side’s capital maintenance programs.
Supervisor Peters inquired why we did not start putting the $300,000 back
into the funding plan with Ms. Owens responding staff looks at as part of our overall
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budget process. Supervisor Peter asked why would we not shore back up. At some
point, the 10-10-10 plan will change and we do not need to start out lagging behind.
Chairman North reemphasized we need to start putting something back in.
School Board Member Jason Moretz commented that Ms. Owens and Ms.
Peterson should work on to see if it is fiscally responsible to do. It would be nice to have
options.
Chairman Butzer commented that we are doing some things differently on
this Board. It has taken and will take some self-discipline. What we decided to do since
the day he came on the Board as he was uncomfortable about how we prioritize and
choose projects to do. Basically, it was up to each one of the Board members to pitch
their projects and as a facility person, it has been his experience that the people who
hired him expected him to make those decisions. So, this Board has agreed to do a
couple of things. We will try, the best we can, to stay out of making any decisions on
where to spend the money. We want to have our experts tell us where we should spend
the capital money. For example, when it comes to renovations, what we decided to do a
couple of months back was ask Dr. Nicely if he is not the person that should decide where
and what should be done in our buildings from an instructional perspective. So, he is
choosing the priorities; we are staying out of it. As you will see, there is a different set of
projects that have been there in the past. We decided to let the chips fall where they
may. Dr. Nicely is going to talk about the priorities based on what he thinks from an
instructional perspective. The other thing they have done is hired an expert facilities
director. We are asking him to make recommendations to us about what should be done,
i.e. new roof, HVAC equipment. There is much more of a discipline in place where we
are leaving it up to the experts – doing things differently.
6. Roanoke County Public Schools
Dr. Nicely provided overview.
Chairman North mentioned conversation with Wayne Strickland, Roanoke
Valley Regional Commission and regarding study they will be doing funded by Go
Virginia. A joint meeting will be held to obtain comments.
Supervisor Hooker stated the study provides standing before the
legislature.
Chairman North would hope getting buy-in from the schools upfront is
important.
7. School Renovation Assessment Report
Dr. Nicely provided this information.
8. Revised CIP Projection
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Mr. Kitta, provided the revised Capital Improvement Project projections. Ms.
Peterson provided overview for estimated CIP Funding.
9. Alternate Construction Contract
Mr. Kitta outlined and explained Loudoun County is currently using; there are
no change orders.
10. School maintenance needs
Both Boards discussed setting a date for a follow-up meeting. It was decided
to wait until after the facilities study is done.
IN RE: ADJOURNMENT
Chairman North and Chairman Butzer adjourned the meeting at 6:38 p.m.
'.ub itted by: Approved by:
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