2010-07-30 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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MR. TAKABA: When I was there they had seven. Now I think it’s grown to about 10. MS. O’HARA: Would it be possible to have an agency that handles simply grants for different purposes? Would we still be able to receive federal funding for instance if we didn’t have an Office of Aging, if it was allocated to the same activities? MR. TAKABA: The way that the Older Americans Act is set up – see, they have this network throughout the nation, about 700 agencies like the ARC doing the same thing. But some of them are not in county government. Some are privately run with a non-profit and they do the same thing as the Office of Aging does. So that is something that could be considered. MS. NICHOLSON: I think rather than getting sort of focused on one department, I think our main task is to figure out how we are going to proceed, and then we can get into specific departments of which your question I think will apply about the federal funds. I think we sort of have a suggestion on the table that we, rather than look at individual departments, we sort of focus on core departments that are listed in the County Charter. I feel a little uncomfortable discussing them without knowing what those departments are that are in the County Charter. Is it easy to get? Could we take a quick break and get a copy of what those are unless someone knows right of the bat which ones – Oh you got it. MS. GARSON: Sure. I have my Charter here. As far as departments are concerned. MS. NICHOLSON: Or core functions. MS. GARSON: It doesn’t really read that way as far as setting up core functions. This is like the constitution for the county. So, it would set up the County Council as the legislative branch. The Office of the Mayor, Office of the Managing Director. Say as an example there is the County Reapportionment Commission. Are you only interested in the departments as opposed to commission? MS. NICHOLSON: I’m more, giving a little bit more to the point about what Mr. Takaba said about health, education, transportation are not MR. TAKABA: They are not listed. There’s no county agency in the county that does health programs. MS. NICHOLSON: So, when you say listed are you talking about something that is specifically in the Charter or kind of get MR. TAKABA: Well, I think we should look at what’s listed as departments. MS. GARSON: Okay. So we have a Data Systems department. That’s in the Charter. Department of Public Works, Department of Parks and Recreation, Fire Department, Corporation Counsel, Department of Finance, Planning Department, Department of Research and Development, Department of Environmental Management, Department of Human Resourses, Police Department, Department of Liquor Control, Department of Water Supply, Prosecuting Attorney. And that’s all. And Emarie just pointed out, let me 18