2022 Report of the Cost of Government Commission

Home

To kick off the 2022 Commission, the COGC extended an invite to Mayor Roth and Councilperson Kierkiewicz to speak at the first meeting after organization. The Mayor provided advice and well -wishes while Councilperson Kierkiewicz shared experiences, best practices, and recommendations for COGC to pursue based on her experience serving in the last assembled COGC. Soon after, the Commissioners defined priority areas to focus their attention. With limited resources and time, it was felt that narrowing the scope into high -impact areas would be the best approach for the COGC to pursue. It was determined that the primary focus areas would be 1) permitting / construction / licensing; 2) environmental management / solid waste / wastewater; and 3) information technology / automation / electronic records / digital payments. A secondary focus area of car and vehicle costs / vehicle types / vehicle maintenance was also created. Lastly, within a tertiary focus area, 1) water system efficiency / well and pipe maintenance; 2) public access, open space, and natural resources (PONC) expenditures; 3) roads / transportation / public works; and 4) optimizing number of commissions / boards. As a courtesy to the Council, a communication was sent in April outlining these focus areas. The Finance Committee invited Chairperson Michael J. Konowicz to speak to these focus areas and return to COGC with their additional input and direction on May 3. Throughout the year, COGC invited the directors of each department to share an overview of their department, cost savings and efficiency opportunities within those departments, and answer questions from each commissioner. COGC also invited other county resources, such as the newly appointed County Auditor, to participate in meetings. In April, Vice Chair Neal Herbert attended County budget meetings and reported a summary to COGC. The County Finance department also provided copies of budgets and answered questions of COGC throughout the year. The community also participated with the COGC throughout the year. At several meetings, community members participated in -person, provided written testimony, or appeared before the Commission via the Zoom meeting platform. To streamline the process of getting specific recommendations, the COGC established Permitted Interaction Groups (PIGS) during the summer and used those insights and findings in the Fall to come to conclusions captured within this report. There was insufficient time and resources to evaluate both "water system efficiency and well and pipe maintenance" and "roads, transportation and public works." Thus, those items were dropped from the list of areas of interest to pursue in October 2022. In tandem with the regular business of COGC, the COGC also noticed and held a Special Hearing to update its Rules of Practice and Procedure. The previous rules were adopted on May 30, 2002 and referenced many outdated or irrelevant items. To modernize these rules, the COGC went through the multi -month process to update and gain the necessary approvals to adopt new rules. The new rules became adopted in August of this year and have been used since. 4 2022 Cost of Govemment Commission —County of Hawai'i - Final Report