2011-01-14 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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in trying to meet this particular economic problem. I’d go back, quite frankly, and try to identify all those jobs and tasks that are mandated by state and federal governments as well as those by our own Charter. And if it doesn’t fall within one of those mandates, I have a very, very strong motive to see whether it’s possible that we shouldn’t eliminate it. Not because it’s not good to have, please don’t get me wrong, but because we can’t afford them. I’d go back and look at responsibilities of jobs, particularly in things like Department of Environmental Management, sorry Eileen, as well as other departments. They’re doing good work. Please don’t get me wrong. But maybe, maybe for a period of time, we can’t continue down that same road. I can offer some suggestions and ideas on that as well. We can continue to follow the idea of we’ve always done it this way and expect to make the type of cuts and efficiencies that this county government demands. And again, I allude to exactly what the mayor said –we found ourselves in a situation now in which we can’t perhaps afford the government we have. Tough decisions have to be made. And although I certainly don’t want to see it, those tough decisions may be reductions of staff. I don’t want that to happen. I’ve argued again. I’m being a little bit facetious so please don’t take this too much at heart. We’re all furloughed for two days a month. I don’t know. I’ve looked around and while there have been, I think, some hardships on the different departments, and maybe even some hardships on the residents of the island in finding the services they were accustomed to find, this county government has not lost too much of it’s effectiveness because of the two day layoff. And I wonder whether we shouldn’t go to four-day work week, not in hours but simply four days. And yeah, as a councilman, I’m willing to take that cut. I know it’s an inconvenience on others, and it’s a much more economic hardship then I’d like to admit maybe for some people, but the jobs are still in place. And the benefits which I think are almost as important for many of our families, our younger families, today, would still be intact. Would we loose much effectiveness and service? We might have to cut some jobs. We might not be able to do everything we’re accustomed to doing. But wouldn’t that be better than seeing people being laid off? And wouldn’t that perhaps even make us do our work just a little better to make sure that department heads and middle management, more carefully and more effectively, scrutinize the efforts of their employees and the expenditures associated with their departments. I raise that as a suggestion, not as something that I necessarily have figures and everything to pursue, although we did some of that work even last year. Again, as a final statement I guess, I look at this as I say, from two different perspectives. One is a change of attitude that needs to be done. And I don’t know that I can quantify that for you, but over an extended period of time, I think we’ll see much more effective results. And the second one for course is the budget crunching numbers. The tough decisions need to be made. Are we willing to do that? Personally I don’t think the council or the mayor’s, at least in a couple of the administrations, have made those types of tough decisions that need to be made in this context. I’m hoping for much better cooperation this year as we move ahead. Thank you Madam Chair. I appreciate it. And that’s why I probably couldn’t synthesize all that in an e-mail. MS. NICHOLSON: All right. Do we have any questions or comments? MS. O’HARA: Many. Thank you, Mr. Hoffmann for that presentation. I wanted to explain where this commission has gone with our approach this year to look into the cost of government and how we might be able to reduce those costs and increase revenues. What you had to say about –we have always done it that way –the 8