AHCA Meeting Minutes January 13, 2010

Bill Gillen reported that the County is projecting a significant shortfall in the estimated $900 million budget for 2010. The shortfall will be shared half and half between the School Board and the County Board. The County and the School Board will each have to make up a shortfall of about $46 million in 2010. The money has to be made up from the general fund. The direction of the County Board is to take half the money from expenditure cuts and make up the other half by raising taxes. That will amount to about a 9 cent increase in the tax rate (while assessments are going down). This year will be harder than last year to find places to cut because last year the low hanging fruit was already removed from the budget. Each department will take about a 10% reduction. The departments will be looking for synergy, efficiency and reduction of redundancy. Neighbors asked questions and made suggestions:

Newsletter - Cory Giacobbe: Asked for community input for the newsletter. We are looking for articles on local news, activities, events, restaurant reviews, articles on health, finance, home maintenance and other topics of interest to neighbors. Please send ideas for articles or send actual content to Cory at ahca.news@yahoo.com

County staff issued the following recommendation to the County Board on the daycare permit to be decided at the County Board meeting on January 23:

1. Renew the existing use permit for the Center [for 34 children].
2. Approve the reduction in required employee parking [since most employees walk or use public transportation].
3. Defer the request for the increase in children for a few months to allow observation of the capacity of 34. The County staff has gone out to observe pick-up and drop-off when the Center had between 17 - 20 children last month and there were no issues. The Center is now nearing their capacity of 34 and, while staff doesn't anticipate any issues, a few more months of observation at the approved capacity is appropriate before recommending approval of the increase to 50.

There was a motion to send a letter supporting the county position as stated. The motion failed.

Maria Teresa Deseaba told the civic association that the County issued her a permit for 50 children and then it was reduced to 34 children. In the meantime she put a lot of money into construction. Giovanni Saba, Maria Teresa's son, said the County determined that the measurements of the facility qualified it for 84 children. Points were made by attendees:

There was a new motion: "AHCA should write a letter saying the County should expedite and support Maria Teresa's application for 50 kids." The motion passed 19 in favor to 6 opposed.

Discussion: We shouldn't get involved in evaluating quality of care in daycare facilities.

Boo Ha Ha - costs several thousand dollars, money comes from fundraising and local business sponsors. Planning starts in June. A spreadsheet for timing of actions has been done. We need a volunteer to coordinate this year's Boo Ha Ha.

Ideas for 100 Year anniversary of Aurora Highlands:

Miriam Gennari presented a proposal for youth activity center in Aurora Hills. It would be a public-private partnership to provide fun, enriching activities in our neighborhood such as pottery, dance, karate, tutoring and music. It was decided to establish a subcommittee chaired by Miriam to explore and develop the proposal, recruit partners and explore locations.