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administrative help would be a big help for us. So anything the Commission can do is <br />appreciated. <br /> <br />Chair Adams said she and the Council are supportive of the positions that are open, but the <br />problem is the Department does not have anybody who wants to take the positions. She was <br />impressed by the Director’s pitch to the Council about personnel being a huge issue for him. A <br />lot of that was jaw-dropping seeing how littlethe pay is. And it’s a State issue regarding civil <br />service. If you get good people you have to pay for them. It’s expensive living here. But she <br />considers it a reasonable request. Is there something additional that we should write up to send <br />to the Department and the Council? <br /> <br />Commissioner Robinson liked Chair Adams’ writeup. We should look more into the potential for <br />cost recovery. What is the potential revenue to use the material for other buyers? What could <br />the county recover from that? We talk a lot about costs, and in the report there is a lot of <br />information about what the outflow of money is, but what could the potential inflows be? <br /> <br />Chair Adams asked about the half-million dollars cost for scrap metal. Are we getting paid for <br />it? <br /> <br />Staff did not have an answer for that. Commissioner Olson said the scrap metal prices depend <br />on supply and demand. We are not handling this like it’s a valuable commodity. That’s nuts, he <br />said. <br /> <br />That was the concept of recycling market development centers, Chair Adams said. <br /> <br />Commissioner Olson said he made the abandoned vehicles in Puna disappear and it did not cost <br />the County or the State a dime. The price of scrap metal was up, and the buyer picked them up <br />in the 1990s. <br /> <br />Chair Adams said we have to get our mindset back to looking at things as resources, and how <br />do we move resources and get value and recognize the value in them, and quit burying them? <br />Maybe what we do is supporting give DEM money to hire a consultant to work through how <br />best to make our solid waste effort one that’s more resource management-based. <br /> <br />Chair Adams again asked what are the next steps – do we write a letter, or do we leave it as <br />collecting comments to share with the Department informally? <br /> <br />Commissioner Robinson said that the Commission is is not positioned yet to make solid <br />recommendations to the Department, and she would like the conversation to continue. <br /> <br />Commissioner Olson supported having a discussion with the County Council, and we all need to <br />be involved in it. <br /> <br />9 <br /> <br /> <br />