2011-01-28 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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MS. LAUER: I don’t mind. I’m Nancy Cook Lauer. I’m with West Hawai‘i Today. MS. CASTBERG: I’m Joan Castberg from the Legislative Auditor’s office. DISCUSSION REGARDING CONSOLIDATION OF BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS: MS. NICHOLSON: Thank you. Okay, if we’re in agreement, then we’re going to jump to Agenda item 9 and then we’ll go back to Agenda item 7. So we’re on to Discussion Regarding Consolidation of Boards and Commissions. And we did have a list of those that was provided to us, mailed out to us. MS. WONG: That list was without comment from our committee, but if I may, I did a handwritten summary of what we had discussed in our committee meeting. Not that we’re recommending; I just want to relay what we had discussed in group. On the list that you have, a group that is possibly combining Ag and Arborist. Possibly combining Aging and Disability. Possibly combining Bicycle, Highway and Transportation. Possibly combining Appeals and Fire. Possibly deleting Cost of Government, Family and Veterans. Possibly looking at Energy working with the Green Team. On some of these that I’ve marked and asked Bill, can these be even grouped together or not? And some of them he said, that won’t work, that won’t work, these are possibilities to look at. And as we were ending our meeting, we talked about, if they all continue, just to give or ask the committees, commissions and boards to look at their schedule of meetings. And those that are meeting monthly, could they possibly find it more feasible to meet quarterly instead of monthly. And those meeting quarterly, do they need to meet monthly or semi-annually. Just to look at their schedule to see what works for them to function properly. So there were basically two things that we did: Look at possibilities of consolidating boards and commissions, and secondly, to consider asking them to look at their schedule. Those are the two things that we discussed on this matter. Any questions? MS. NICHOLSON: I have a question. So did you look at the descriptions of each of these committees to see what they’re charge was to see if they might be similar? MS. WONG: I looked on line. As a committee, we did not look at it. As we met with departments, I would ask, who do you oversee on these boards and commissions? And I would ask if might this work or might that work, and they commented or did not comment, just said that we oversee that particular commission or board. So I did, but the committee as a whole did not. MS. PROVALENKO: I have a question. Isn’t Cost of Government a commission by the Charter? MS. WONG: Yes. MS. PROVALENKO: Okay, so how would you combine? MS. WONG: All of these are just, we just went with the concept of asking to delete or not delete or combine or not combine or not. I’m assuming all of them were by Charter. 4