2011-01-28 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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MS. NICHOLSON: Somebody said, you know, we don’t need to meet as often as we meet, or that kind of idea. MS. PROVALENKO: We have no business to perform. You know, there were several of them that said that. MS. NICHOLSON: I share Kathy’s concern is that I’m not sure how they would respond. If I was on the Fire Commission and got a request like that, I would go, I don’t even know what the Board of Appeals does, and you’re asking me as a volunteer then to get together with a volunteer who heads another commission and the staff from the whatever departments those are assigned to, and try to thrash out a response in 30days or whatever. MS. WONG: Would you prefer then that we not even address the combination of boards and commissions like a, b, c’s, and just address the scheduling of the meetings and the planning? MS. NICHOLSON: Well, in some cases we might suggest, would it make sense for the Bicycle Committee to also combine with the Highway and Transportation Committee? We could ask them if that would be a logical thing for them to consider, and just find out what their response is, but that would be a custom letter for every one of these. I don’t want to seem adversarial but I think our point is we’re looking for cost savings, we’re looking to maximize their time as community citizens and their effectiveness, and there seems to be perhaps some redundancy and we’re looking for ways to do this more efficiently. But it seems to me it’s almost like we need to look at the list and, because I don’t know what all these boards and commissions do, we could either suggest some things to them or just get their feedback about meeting times, meeting dates, is there another committee that you think your duties in some way overlap or mesh with, that you think you could combine? And ask them for suggestions about combination? MR. ARMOUR: I agree with your suggestion. A letter like you just outlined. MS. WONG: Would Kathy be preparing that letter? MS. NICHOLSON: Well, it would be up to us to decide. MS. GARSON: Another thing is you did already send the letter to all of the boards and commissions, and part of the question was about consolidation. I thought there were some responses about meeting times and dates that they already came up with. So, is this letter going to be more specific than that? I would think that you would not want to be asking, you would want to give them some direction and yet there is this problem with then we’ll have to give them all the information about what you’re considering. I almost would think that you basically need to come up with the recommendation and have Mr. Takaba look at what you proposed and you can ask council members and see if they see it as something that’s a viable alternative or a good suggestion. I’m having a difficult time trying to figure out how you’re going to get the feedback from one board and asking them to combine with another board. I think maybe you have to get the feedback from somebody else, and then get their feedback when you’ve already made a recommendation. 11