2011-01-14 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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should be looked at. But they’re rooted as we understand it anyway, in concrete, unless there is a change at the state level with all the mayors working together with the governor. I’d love to see some adjustments made. But we all would at this time. I think where I was disappointed in the fact that we had an opportunity last year to forego with at least a contract and raise in the SHOPO contract. And I know there was some talk certainly in our level to please beg the union not to ahead with this. And they did. And the cost to the county of course were increased. I’m sorry they didn’t consider that in a slightly different way, although they had every right to proceed in the manner in which they did. But that goes back to my question on trying to get additional furlough days. MS. NICHOLSON: Do you think there would be some will on the part of the county to try to negotiate these contracts on it’s own versus this statewide collective bargaining? MR. HOFFMANN: I think most council members, my guess would be, would look at that as we should at least try to see what we can do along that way. Yeah, and I think you would get pretty much general support on the part of the residents in each one of the districts overall. If you’d put that question on the ballot, would you want to see this happen or not? Yeah, I think you would. To what extent or degree, I don’t know. I don’t know how the mayor or the administration would look at such an issue. But in a way it’s saying is it time to change the perception, the attitude I mentioned and you mentioned before, we’ve always done it this way. We have to change that type of thinking. So, yeah, I would think that there would be support for that. Resolution might work. We thought about that even last year when we were doing it. You know resolutions are nice to have. In a political year or an election year, that smacks, at least in my estimation, too much posturing. And that doesn’t help anybody. MS. NICHOLSON: You just brought up another thing –you were talking about things happening in election year. And I think that one of the suggestions that we got from someone was to have the council terms be longer. MS. O’HARA: Back to four years. MS. NICHOLSON: Yeah, back to four years rather than two years. And we haven’t really discussed that or considered that, but since you brought up, in an election year a couple of times… MR. HOFFMANN: Well, I’m a victim of four elections every two years. I certainly see the advantage of going to longer terms. But then I look at our Congress and if our Congress can do it every two years, I wonder why us, at local level, can’t. On the other hand, I’m sure there’d be a lot of residents who would look at us and say, boy, I don’t want that yo yo there for another two years. Maybe it’s good to have that type of a review. Regardless of how individual council members look at, I look at it as a report card. And the assessment of the people in my district anyway, is important to me. I’m not opposed to a two-year term. Although as I say, I can see the advantages, that there are some advantages. If you want people, certainly in this county, to enhance their credibility for the county government to have some general support for the issues that their representatives are pushing, and the administration is pushing, I think a two-year term is not unusual, and not the wrong way to go at the moment. I want to make sure in one way shape or form that we get the maximum participation in government. I’m not 14