2006-11-20 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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with her if they skipped Parks, and the Chair indicated that it was also fine with him to skip Parks. It was decided to delete Parks and Recreation from the list of priorities, leaving Research and Development (R &D) as the final department to give a presentation. Ms. Garson asked whether there was any background to give R &D, other than grant writing issues, and the Chair said no. Mr. Joseph asked whether he would need to recuse himself, as he had written and received grants from R &D, as he did not want there to be any question about the propriety of his being there. Ms. Nicholson said that she, too, had dealt with R &D. Ms. Garson said that their being grant recipients did not mean they needed to recuse themselves. If there is a specific issue, it can be disclosed at that time. The topics for R &D should be general in nature. She suggested that the commissioners get through as many agenda items as possible at this meeting so the secretary can start plugging their recommendations into their report. The Chair directed the meeting back to agenda item 9(h). 9. DISCUSSION ON FINAL DRAFT OF REPORT AND THE FOLLOWING RECOMMENDATIONS: h. Department of Environmental Management (or all departments): Recommend consolidating personnel forms (e.g., vacation, sick leave, etc) into one form. Ms. Garson pointed out that this issue would be for the Finance Department. Motion: Ms. Nicholson moved that they recommend that the Finance Department look at consolidating personnel forms, and leave it at that. Ms. Stremski seconded the motion. Discussion: Ms. Nicholson said they should actually look at consolidating and standardizing the personnel forms. Ms. Garson asked whether the examples were being left out, and Ms. Nicholson said yes. Ms. Garson said that some forms, such as vacation /sick leave forms, would probably be part of the Finance Department. Other forms, such as personnel forms, would be Civil Service Department forms. The Chair said that when the recommendation first came out, it was specific as to vacation and sick leave, as there was a separate form for each. The Environmental Management Department had different forms for each type of leave, and they wanted it to be consolidated onto one form. Ms. Garson had samples from Environmental Management of the forms they were using. One form had both sick leave and vacation on it. 19