2006-07-20 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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4. Can privatization help the County? If so, in what ways? Mr. Kajikawa said that currently, only the cleaning of facilities is hired out. People come at night to do the cleaning, sweeping, vacuuming, and dumping of rubbish. There are two persons in charge of this, but their primary duty is delivery of mail and other things. If they had to do their own janitorial work, they would need a way bigger staff and it would be a headache. His Division also does the shampooing and polishing of floors, as well as window cleaning. These could be privatized. As far as inspections and permit processing, this should remain with the County, as he needs control there. S. Can you suggest any modernization projects that might streamline your operations in lieu of privatizing functions? Mr. Kajikawa said they had tried to streamline operations by going to a new computer system. However, the system has so many problems and can't do certain things. They are trying to iron out the bugs in the system. 6 Do you have any other ideas on how you can make your operations more efficient? Mr. Kajikawa responded, "Get rid of the union." He explained that a lot of employees fall back on the union and take advantage of the County. They might have come to the County with good intentions, but some go to the dark side. When that happens, there is a hard task in front of County. The JPR's start going downhill. He does not know if it is a County mentality that causes this, but it makes you shake your head. Mr. Joseph asked how much income the permit process generates for the County, and Mr. Kajikawa said about $2 million, and that it goes into the General Fund. Mr. Joseph asked whether the cost of having inspectors balances out with the revenue generated from the permits, and Mr. Kajikawa said they actually collect more. Ms. Provalenko asked whether it would behoove them, since they have budgeted $108,000 for overtime, to hire more people versus paying overtime. Mr. Kajikawa said it is good to hire more people, but then what do you do with them during the slow periods? He feels it is better to be able to pay overtime than to have too much staff to try to keep busy during slow times. He said that right now it is pretty comfortable. Ms. Provalenko asked if they would be all right even with added projects coming up, and Mr. Kajikawa said that with the additional personnel they have received, they should do okay. Ms. Provalenko asked whether the Building Division was always responsible for paying other departments' electricity, and Mr. Kajikawa said yes, as well as the rents. This includes all the County buildings, all the baseyards, all the facilities. Only Parks & Recreation takes care of its own. 10