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Page 5 • Mr. Ikeda expressed concern because overtime is used when we are short on persomiel. Unfunding positions will lead to more overtime and if it is cut, are we going to have enough money? o He said he would support this only if the Department Heads gave the okay. • Mr. Hoffmann said the Police Chief had already indicated support, but he will go back and check. o For example, there's a recruit class coming on board January 2010 and 20 positions are budgeted. From July 1 -December 31, those 20 positions will be unfunded. o Fire and Police are aware of this, and probably most other department heads. o The savings he calculated for only certain departments is $2.5 - $2.7 million. o Total savings of $5.7 million Mr. Hoffmann noted the Administration reduced property taxes based on people challenging their assessments, not on the collectable capabilities. Mr. Hoffmann asked to consider the possibility of taking some of the GASB45 money ($63 million), a small amount ($1-2 million) now; and with the value of the dollar (2009) worth somewhat less due to inflation 7-10 years down the road, we can pay it back without penalties somewhere down the road. It may be smarter to take a few million dollars from the $63 million fund now, rather than fund the entire and see the value of those dollars decrease before they're used. o Mr. Onishi noted that in the last meeting, Finance said the penalty will be greater in the long run. o Mr. Hoffmann said the penalty will not be as great as the inflation rate or the loss in value of our purchasing power of that dollar. The fourth meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee relating to the 2009-2010 Fiscal Year Budget was held via telephone on May 13, 2009 in the Hilo Conference Room and Waimea Office. Council members attending in Hilo were Donald Ikeda, and Dennis "Fresh" Onishi. Pete Hoffmann, Chair of the Committee and Dominic Yagong attended via telephone from Waimea. Also present was Kathy Kosaka, Council Legislative Assistant. EIamakua Lands • Mr. Yagong provided a current line by line report of all the funded vacant positions. The total is 211 positions and $9.2 million. • Mr. Yagong said there are 100's of people willing to lease the Hamakua lands (including the BioFuel people, UH and 140 people on the Hamakua Ag Co-op) but the previous Yamashiro and Harry Kim administrations have not been supportive of that. • Mr. Hoffmann agreed that the County has never been open to leasing the lands. • Mr. Yagong expressed his concern of an $8.2 million shortfall if the land does not sell. • Mr. Hoffmann said he only thing the County can do six months into the fiscal year is to cut jobs. He said he spoke to Ms. Crawford & Ms. Sako. o Some of the salaries from the vacant positions are being used by people in lower paying positions who are doing the work of the higher positions. And Ms. Crawford advised they must go to each different department to find out what is there. Therefore all those vacant positions may be unfunded for the period of time the department head thinks they will remain vacant.