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The public employees in my union aze a vaned lot who aze hard workers, we serve the public, carry out the laws, and do it for little glory and personal gain. We take pride in our work and want to do a good job. We're no different than any other working Americans. Our members are front line workers and our jobs aze to translate the goals of public policy into actual services that you, I and the rest of the people of the Big Island depend on. We don't make the laws. We do not choose the senior administrators and executives referred to in Mr. McLay's paper. Our role is to carry out the public will. And to do it as best as we can given the resources that aze available. Members of our union monitor 911 calls and direct emergency response teams. We read books to your kids. We clean your bed pans when you're sick. We repair the roads. We give comfort to people with AIDS. We Gaze for the mentally ill. And we risk our lives everyday to keep rapists and murderers in jail. Members of my union, work very hazd at the state and local government levels. We do it at a time of shrinking budgets -and with multiplying demands of poverty, health raze, crime and unemployment. Without public employees quietly doing their jobs, persevering day aRer day, our society would not function. If you see only the stereotype -the faceless bureaucrat whose only interest is protecting his job -its understandable why you'd downsize government and contract out. It's easy to carry on a waz against government if you demonize and dehumanize government workers. But if you see us as we are -front line workers -public servants dealing with countless social problems and shrinking resources, you'd understand that government cannot be reinvented without our active participation. When government doesn't work, we're as fed up with government as any other taxpayer. You might not think so when you're waiting for a plan approval, or in line for a license renewal, or trying to get a job through the employment service. But remember, we didn't design the process. Public employees aze frustrated because we know from personal experience why government doesn't work and how it could be made better. We have tried and will continue to say: Listen to us, we deal with the public, we know what's wrong, we want to work with you to fix it. We want to provide greater worker involvement in designing and developing public services. We believe that our collective bargaining law calls for worker's sharing and participating in the decision making process thereby making government better.