2006-08-03 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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the employees and bring it all into one center. This would be more efficient and provide better services, and there would be a larger pool to do the job. Mr. Sakaguchi asked if Dispatch could be a separate department from the Police, as its function is to receive and redirect calls. Deputy Chief Kubojiri said it did not have to be with the Police and involves public safety. Mr. Joseph asked if there has been dialog between the Police and Fire departments about this, and Deputy Chief Kubojiri said yes and that Chief Oliveira of the Fire Department concurs, as well as the Mayor's Office. Everyone is receptive to the idea, but the logistics of getting it done is something they need to work on. They are hopeful this will be accomplished. +Deputy Chief Kubojiri said the next idea has to do with the Abandoned/ Derelict Vehicle Program. They would like to see this be streamlined and come under the Department of Motor Vehicles or the Department of Environmental Management, like Oahu. The ordinance is written such that a vehicle needs to be marked and determined to have not moved for 24 hours for it to be considered abandoned. Then it gets cited. He said that an abandoned vehicle and derelict vehicle are two different things. A derelict vehicle cannot drive on its own power. An abandoned vehicle may have its plates removed, making it hard to find the last registered owner. When a citation is put on the windshield of an abandoned vehicle, it becomes a derelict vehicle because there are passersby who damage the vehicle and strip it of parts. Then the officer has to go back and make a report of a derelict vehicle. The report is transmitted to the DEM, which contracts out the towing of vehicles. However, a complete report on the vehicle is needed. So the officer dictates a report, it gets typed by the word processing center, and there is about a two -week turnaround time. The report goes to the towing service, which does what it has to do to get someone to pick up the vehicle. So there is a substantial amount of time the car is left on the road. The Department would like to cut this time, get the vehicle off the road sooner, and not have to go through all these layers of government work. Mr. Joseph said he did not totally understand the process, and Deputy Chief Kubojiri said the idea is to take the police out of the process. Mr. Joseph asked who would identify the vehicle as being abandoned or derelict, and Deputy Chief Kubojiri said there is a proposal to make a form available to the public, similar to the one for unruly drivers. The form would include the description of the vehicle, its location and other information, and could be submitted anonymously. What they are trying to do is eliminate the Department's task of writing a report and the time it takes to generate the report. They have not identified all the areas where the forms could be dropped off. The form would have all the essential information that the DEM would need to hook up the vehicle. They would be cutting out the delay of having an officer dictate a report, have it typed by word processing, proofreading it, having the officer sign it, having it go to Records, and then finally shooting it to the DEM. 7