2010-11-03 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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MS. WONG: Deanna, we’ll be discussing later after you folks leave, the meetings that we had with you and Nancy. Part of what I recall is that I asked if there was one recommendation that you folks might think. And you said IT for matters be it Laserfiche, or along that line. Could you elaborate a little bit more on that? MS. SAKO: I think people get frustrated when they cannot do their jobs quickly. And so, Stan, speak to it more, having been in Kona before they got the fiber optic cable connection but when you can’t do your job quickly and you’re constantly waiting for the computer to feedback data to you whether it’s a county records or other information then it’s lost time. MS. WONG: Is it mostly hardware or software, or both? MS. SAKO: I think some of it is the hardware, but not necessarily the pcs themselves, but the connections and networking. And Data Systems is aware of it, and they are working at trying to speed that up. MR. TAKABA: Will the new building be more efficient? MS. SAKO: In West Hawai‘i? MR. TAKABA: Yes. MS. SAKO: That’s my understanding. MR. TAKABA: Is that going to solve your problem? MS. SAKO: That may solve parts of it, but you still have to communicate between Hilo and Kona. MS. NICHOLSON: Okay, shall we go to our last presenter? MR. TORIGOE: Just to give you an overview of what Environmental Management does. Basically people look at the Environmental Management Department and think of it as a relatively simple thing where you throw away your trash in the dump. Or you’re flushing your toilet. If you’re environmentally conscious you go to some recycling events. On the surface that’s what it is but underneath it’s really a very highly technical department. When you go to the dump you go to an engineer waste disposal facility. And it’s highly regulated by the state and EPA. Similarly when you flush your toilet all that stuff has to go through our wastewater treatment plants which again are highly technical. We have engineers that run these facilities. And again highly regulated by EPA and Department of Health. So it is really a very complex operation one which requires 24/7 attention, 365 days a year. As far as Wastewater Division, it’s approximately 90 miles of sewers that are maintained.There are four wastewater treatment plants and about 54 positions that take care of all of this. This past couple of years you may be aware of the EPA large capacity cesspool closure requirements. Basically Wastewater Division has had a lot of their resources siphoned off closing the various large capacity cesspools that the county is either directly responsible for. During the past few months they’ve finishing Komohana Heights. They finished doing 17