2006-07-06 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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Ms. Stremski noted on page 2 the recommendation to establish a two -week lag in payroll. She believed they had earlier discussed that a five -day lag would be efficient. Ms. Nicholson said that would be one of their Civil Service items. Ms. Garson said that the Finance Department was who initially brought up the payroll lag and that the COGC would need to discuss it with Civil Service. There are federal laws that require payment of wages to be done in a certain time frame and other issues that Civil Service would be more equipped to address. The Chair said that the COGC did have the pay lag as a recommendation previously, and he believed it was a one -week lag. However, the degree of the lag could be reviewed later. Mr. Sakaguchi stated that the State has a two -week lag. The Chair said they had recommended one week, because otherwise everybody would have to go two weeks without a pay check to establish the lag. Ms. Garson said the lag could be almost four weeks for a brand new employee. Motion: Ms. Nicholson moved to accept and include in the COGC's recommendations the recommendation in the DEM's letter that payroll forms be reviewed for possible consolidation. The Chair said he thought they already had that as a recommendation. Ms. Garson requested that the secretary from now on keep a running list of recommendations that can be passed out at each meeting. The Chair said that for today they would go ahead with the motion. Ms. Stremski seconded the motion. Vote: The Chair called for a vote, and all members voted aye. Ms. Nicholson questioned whether at an earlier meeting they had made a recommendation regarding an additional engineer. The Chair said their motion was to explore the position and at the same time have a long -term plan to fund it, because the problem was they did not have an established budget and did not know if they could fund an engineer in the long term. The COGC wanted the DEM to have a long -term plan so they could justify and establish that position. Ms. Garson stated she had a list of their recommendations as of April 6, 2006: Stop having automatic payment water bills come with return envelopes; the Finance Department is to expedite sale of County -owned lands; combine the water and sewer bills into one bill; have water turn -off for overdue sewer bill customers; training on legal issues for all departmental management; and creating an incentive program for employees. Ms. Nicholson said she thought they had included the Computerized Maintenance Management System in their recommendations. The Chair said he believed Mr. Sakaguchi had made a motion on that, but they could do it now, just in case. Motion and Vote: Ms. Nicholson moved to include in their report a recommendation that the DEM acquire the Computerized Maintenance Management System, Mr. Sakaguchi seconded the motion, and all members voted aye. Motion and Vote: Ms. Nicholson moved to file the communication, Ms. Stremski seconded the motion, and all members voted aye. 7