2011-06-24 Cost of Government Draft Report

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d) Eligible employees agree to a 90-day commitment to the voluntary furlough program, which may be renewed by application at least 20 days prior to expiration (for accounting management needs). Department heads or supervisors may reduce the time off requested or may deny voluntary furlough time, based on personnel needs. 7) Reduce the number of paid holidays for all County employees to be more in line with current business practices. 8) Reduce monthly accrual of vacation or sick leave from 14 hours per month (4.5 weeks per year for each) to 10 hours per month (three weeks per year). 9) Consolidate vacation and sick time into personal time off. Potential impacts would allow employees more flexibility to schedule personal time off, would reduce abuse of sick time. 10) Establish an early retirement incentive plan. b. Reimbursement for Expenses 1) Eliminate on-island meal reimbursements. 2) Replace fixed per diem amounts for meals and lodging with actual expenses, capped at per diem amount. c. Travel Policies 1) Limit attendance at off-island conferences and/or hold off-island conferences via Skype or video conferencing. Hold department and division meetings via video conferencing. Utilize multimedia communication in lieu of face-to-face meetings to reduce on and off-island travel. (See also Executive Summary) 2) Restrict the use of county take home vehicles to those employees who are required to respond to off-hour emergencies. 3) Implement a vehicle pool that would be accessible to all county departments to limit vehicle purchases by individual departments while still providing vehicles to employees who may need use of a vehicle. A vehicle pool would also centralize the purchase and maintenance of vehicles. d. Staff consolidations/eliminations and overtime reduction 1) Consolidate the enforcement responsibilities of the Planning Department, Building Department, Real Property Tax Division, Department of Environmental Management and the Department of Health (as contracted to the county) into an enforcement division. This would help eliminate inspections from multiple departments and help to administer enforcement of remedial actions and fines. (See also Executive Summary) 2) Review and streamline the procedures for disciplining and terminating employees. 3) Cross train employees to perform multiple functions within a department. 12