2011-04-27 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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piece what we’ve cut along the way. Just this past year we cut consulting contracts by 48%, just the past year for save a total of $6 million. We cut overtime spending by 18% for an additional savings of $2 million. Virtually eliminated out of state travel, reduced our golf subsidies, halt buying new equipment, eliminating funding, park ranger program, reduce soil conservation district, cut out the police cadet program, reduce funding for Humane Society Animal Control program, reduce hours at solid waste transfer stations, cancel the VA vehicle purchase, cut mileage payments, delay replacement of computers, cut advertising budget, cut software, defer or eliminate employee training, cut Corporation Counsel’s law clerks, expert witnesses and depositions. We’ll get sued in a little while. Better to be lucky than good sometimes. It’s a constant review. And yet I hand a budget over, and I get a press conference, and somebody found $17 million. Really? How did that miracle happen? How do you find $17 million? And I still haven’t received a single memo, a single letter, a single specific proposal suggesting how we can amend and cut the budget. It’s been out there for a couple of months. So, our job is to make sure that we’re fulfilling our responsibilities by getting stuff done. Getting projects done on time on budget. No excuses. Not, oh we’re short staffed. We’ve cut spending, we cut delayed equipment purchases. We got to do it on time on budget. No excuses allowed. We’re not allowed to make excuses, neither are you. Look when we had Hurricane Felicia. We had an 8.8 earthquake in Chile last year that had a tsunami bearing down on us for over 12 hours. And an earthquake in Japan last month. All of you should be so proud of your entire county response team. When I got an earthquake in Chile, I was coming back from a talk at Waimea New Hope. Talked to the youth group out there. Crossed the singing bridge at 9:30 p.m. I look on my phone, Quince Mento. I know I get a call from Quince Mento at 9:30 p.m., it’s not a quick call. I just pick up. I go, what’s up Quince? He goes 8.8 earthquake in Chile. I’ll be right there. Cut out, go straight to the EOC. I walk in, not two minutes later Chief Harry Kubojiri comes in, t-shirt, jeans. Darryl Oliveira walks in, our Fire Chief. No need to make a call. Our emergency operation center fills up. Why? Because every employee is told. Every leadership position, the entire cabinet, when something happens, don’t call or check if you’re needed. Don’t clog up the phone lines. Get down there. If you’re not needed, we’ll send you home. But report. And you can see the entire state, and other states are still filling in, making calls. Our entire EOC is ready to go. Parks and Recreation evacuated every shoreline and park on this island. We flew helicopters in, evacuated people in Waipio and Waimanu. Public Works filled up every truck, every equipment, not just for the response, but for the recovery if needed. Police and Fire. When I first took office, my first month people said we had the first island wide tsunami exercise. And I was criticized. Why are you inconveniencing the public? Why are you generating overtime? What? Why? Because at 42 years old, I’ve never seen a tsunami. The last one was in 1960. What, we don’t expect one? You know, when we see one in Samoa, we see the gulf get hit every year, Florida get hit. We’re sitting in the middle of the ocean. But what that did was we put all of our personnel on the street and when it really did happen, everybody knew where they were supposed to be. Everybody knew what they were supposed to be doing. And it was phenomenal. Because people know what to do, there is a calmness to our response. And it was disaster preparedness, disaster response, disaster recovery. I’m not sure we’ll always be so lucky. We’ve been very, very blessed for a long period of time. But I do know that everybody is prepared. And it’s easy to say, why don’t you just cut overtime? Well 8