2010-07-30 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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grew, became available, the federal government started to define how services would be delivered and what kind of services they’re going to fund. So, they said the counties must set up this certain type of system in order to get the funds through the counties. And if you don’t, then we’re not going to give you any federal funds. That was like either you restructure or you lose the federal funds. And that’s the kind of questions that we’re going to be faced with as a commission to decide. There’s a huge amount of resources from the county that’s been put into these programs that service matching funds for federal programs. The question you can ask is should we be dedicating so much of our resources to match the federal funds that come down, but shouldn’t be the county’s responsibility to provide? That’s just some fundamental questions, is it worth putting up all, because if you look, Deanna talked about how much goes into Aging. From my experience we had like one-third federal, one-third state, and one-third county. So we put in just about the same amount as the two other branches of government. These are philosophical questions. Aging is not in the Charter. It’s created by County Code. Did the framers of the Charter have that in mind? MS. GARSON: Mass Transit also is Code, right? MR. TAKABA: Mass Transit is also a Code. MS. WONG: The two reports that were done before, can we get a summary of what was acted upon and their recommendations, or if anything was acted upon or it was just submitted? MR. TAKABA: It was submitted. MS. GARSON: I think that in 2007, that you did go back and ask all the departments on what the recommendation was, which were implemented. MS. NICHOLSON: From the prior report. MR. TAKABA: The reports came up. I think we have to look at the timing of the reports. Remember when the reports came out, the county was flushed with money. We had a lot of money to spend. So, the priority at that time was not so much what we’re gong to cut, but more like what we’re going to fund. I think we’re in a different period right now. There’s going to be a lot of attention given to report that comes out of this commission because I, myself, would be curious too, as we face another shortfall next year, what the commission recommends because that’s going to be very important. What kind of programs to abolish. It’s not going to get any better next year that we see this year. We’re looking at actually having to go in there and possibly cut programs. And that’s why this question that I bring up is very important to you because as we look into next year’s budget, and when I say next year I mean next fiscal year. When we propose next fiscal year’s budget we’ll probably face looking at what kind of programs that we eliminate. And that’s why this is important. That’s going to come up. MS. NICHOLSON: Yes? MS. O’HARA: Regarding the difference between agency and being in the County Charter, for instance take the Office of Aging, could some of the functions of that, could 16