COM 0111.000 2010-2012 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Honorable Members of the Hawaii County Council March 1, 2011 Page 3 The Department of Parks & Recreation cut funding for roof and gutter repairs, playground resurfacing projects and building fumigation. The Department of Information Technology deferred computer server upgrades, and the Office of Housing and Community Development delayed repairs and maintenance. These are just a few examples of cuts and deferred spending in county government over this three -year period. Reducing the Size of Government Tight restrictions on hiring and reductions in staffing have saved the county many millions of dollars. We now have 141 fewer people working for the county than at the beginning of my administration because we have steadily, carefully cut the size of government by attrition. Many county employees who retired or left their jobs during this administration have not been replaced, which has reduced the number of employees on the county payroll today. Each time the county delays hiring a worker or eliminates funding for a vacant position, the county saves the money that would have been paid out as the salary or wages for that position. This has proven to be another effective way to reduce county spending, although it pressures county departments to continually accomplish more work with smaller staffs. Cutting funding for vacant positions must be done in a thoughtful, strategic way to ensure adequate staff is in place to provide essential services. Some positions such as sewer treatment plant operators or police recruits must be filled to protect public health and safety. Others, such as clerical staff, laborers or maintenance workers, must be unfunded. These are unavoidable sacrifices that are necessary in this difficult period to reduce spending and shrink the size of county government. In 2009 -10, we cut funding for 55 vacant positions, and in 2010 -11 we unfunded an additional 70 positions. This budget proposes to cut funding for an additional 100 vacancies, for an unprecedented three -year total of 225 vacant positions that have been unfunded since the start of this administration in 2008. Unfunding these vacant positions is saving the county $7.1 million over three years. Furloughs We began the furlough program with my staff and myself in the Office of the Mayor, the first furloughs in the history of our county government. I have asked all county employees to do more with less, and it is entirely appropriate that my own office demonstrate that same willingness to cut spending and sacrifice in this challenging time. Those first furloughs in 2009 were the beginning of a larger, three -year effort to reduce spending in the Mayor's Office. We have successfully cut spending in the Office of the Mayor from $2,207,824 when I took office in 2008 -09 to $1,393,811 in the budget for the coming year.