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08231973MINUTES OF SPECIAL MEETING FOR AUGUST 23, 1973. A special meeting was called for August 22, 1973, at 4:00 p.m. The following Board members were presen : C. E. McLamb, W. J. Cotton, Jr., Bob Etheridge and Chairman Brock. H. D. Carson, Clerk to the Board wa present. The purpose of the meeting was to talk about the new county office building. Bill Gwinn, Architect, an Mr. Pleasant, General Contractor, with Ed Bain his attorney were present. Plans were made to begin conslt- uction immediately. The meeting adjourned shortly thereafter. MINUTES OF SPECIAL MEETING FOR AUGUST 28, 1973. A joint meeting was held on August 28, 1973, 7:30 p.m. between Harnett County Board of Commissioners anlql" Harnett County Board of Education, and was convened in the Superior Courtroom. All members of the Boar were present, also Edward McCormick, County Attorney. The following proposal was presented by Hoke Smith, Chairman of the Board of Education: "We recommend that a Study Commission be selected to appraise the total educational program in Harnetu County and report back to a,'joint meeting of the two Boardson or before January 15, 1974. We recommend that the committee be composed in the following manner: 1. That three professional school administrators of state -wide renoun be appointed by the State Superintendent. 2. That the Chairman of the Harnett County Board of Education and the Chairma of the Harnett County Board of Commissioners jointly appoint five non - political Harnett County Aay Leaders. TO IMPLEMENT ACTION OF THE COMMITTEE WE RECOMMEND THAT: 1. The eight -man committee be convened as quickly as possible and elect a chairman from among the members. 2. All Harnett County personnel, records, and reports be made available to assist members of the committee. 3. The Chairman of the Harnett County Board of Education and the Chairman of the Harnett County Board of Commissioners jointly develop a budget for committee ex1 penses to be administered by the County Auditor and charge the committee with the following rest ponsibilities• a. To investigate all phases of the public school operation in Harnett County professional and non - professional staffing, budget and budget administration, maintenance, tran - portation, special programs, etc. b.. To study the school building needs and make recommend- ations for immediate and long -range plans. c. To make recommendations on school organization and budgetary needs as directly related to the instructional program." The Board of County Commissioners presented the following statement: "At the outset, we want to express our hope that this meeting will lay to rest any impression that ou two separate boards have different goals for education in Harnett County. Both boards, we feel, want to provide the best education possible for our young people. Also, we recognize that the public is not on one mind and that there are forces who are pro -educ ation and forces who are anti - education. We further recognize that your Board is more likely to hear from the strong pro - education forces than we are. We also recognize that there are a great many res- ponsible citizens who do not approach either of us and express their opinion. But they vote. Out challenge, yours and ours, is to sense the needs, wants, and desires of these citizens. This has been, and is, a major concern of our board and we feel sure that you likewise share this concern. The anti - education people differ with each other in many ways but they are usually unanimous in their position in opposition to school administrations and what these administrations seek to do for the people, An., Likewise, there are many different ways to be "for" education. However, those who are for education do not always vote for a particular plan. This is especially so if they feel, righ ly or wrongly, that their voice has not been heard and that nobody listens to what they have to say. And this is the main point we want to bring to this meeting. And we do not restrict it to educ- ation. We,ire as public officials in this day and age, are having to learn to listen. The people elected us to primarily hear them and not people in Raleigh or anywhere else. There is, we feel, an obligation on our part to shoulder part of the burden you bear. It is un- fortunate that you apparently hear mainly from pro- education people; it is likewise unfortunate that we hear from many people who do not seem to want the best for our children. We recognize this. But be- tween our two boards, we together have supporters sufficient in size to move Harnett County into the last half of the twentieth century. The plain truth is this, Many of the pro-educational forces look to us on the county board for a ;ublic forum because they disagree, in good faith, with the three schcol plansthat has three times gone down in defeat. They feel they are not being heard. All areas of government are coming under attack from various segments of the community. As Comm, issioners, we are trying to review and up date if necessary county policies that have existed for mane years. Some of the criticism directed at us involves areas for which we are not primarily responsible. For example, we are under fire from some citizens about education. For that reason, we passed along to you at the time we adopted the budget smme of the criticisms that reached our ears. We chose at that time not to second guess your judgment and insist on a budge cut. We did this for basically two reasons: (1) We felt that we did not at that time have sufficient information to insist on our opinion in the face of your administrations insistence on the need for these funds: (2) We felt that you -would give the people a fair hearing on the matter and respond in a appropriate manner. In response to the travel matter, you have decided to use the County travel policy that has been in effect for many years. Ironically, we are under attack for this policy and hope that your board will join with ours to review it. You recognized that a lump sum annual travel payment ranging around $2,000.00 for a numbe1 of persons, regardless of actual travel, offended many responsible business minded people in the County. For this you are to be commended. Your quick response to this travel policy and federal pay increase guidelines confirmed our con- fidence in you. . But, in all candor, we must hold to the recommendations as originally presented and say that we would appreciate a position paper from you with respect to these items so that we can have the bene- fit of a written detailed presentation to supplement any previous information given by you and of which (Continued on page number 177)