2006-05-18 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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print out proposals or bids. Mr. Sakaguchi commented that meant starting from scratch, and Mr. Dworsky agreed that contracts are not necessarily existing contracts. Mr. Sakaguchi said that the functions are not new, but continuing ones. Mr. Dworsky stated that as he understands the procurement law, it requires them to do proposals, not bids. With proposals, they need to advertise, and so bids are faster. They have a meeting set up in early June with the Finance Department to talk about these issues to see if there is a better way to do these things within the existing procurement rules. They want to see if there is flexibility in the way they are interpreting the rules. Mr. Sakaguchi asked if Mr. Dworsky ever talks to his colleagues about the problems, and Mr. Dworsky said that there is a group of Solid Waste people who get together every couple of months to discuss issues. Some of the issues he sees, from the Solid Waste perspective, should possibly be state - coordinated. The Hilo side of the island generates 200 tons of solid waste per day, which is not very much. Maui and Kauai have the same problem, and they are also looking at waste -to- energy possibilities. There is not much state coordination on this issue —each County is doing this on its own. Because Hawaii is a small group of islands in the middle of the Pacific, he feels more coordination between them would help. Mr. Dworsky explained that waste -to- energy plants have the same components, whether they are processing 200 or 2,000 tons per day. West Hawaii generates more than 400 tons per day. The DEM would prefer not to truck the rubbish through Waimea. Maui was actually interested in Hilo's garbage, which they wanted to add to their own stock so they could have a bigger power plant. Each county is trying to solve its own solid waste problems, so there is no smooth coordination between them. Ms. Nicholson asked Mr. Dworsky why he thought a bid process would be more effective than requests for proposals, as she felt more innovative ideas would surface through the RFP process. Mr. Dworsky agreed that initially there may be value in the continuity of it and that it might be better to keep it going for five years on a renewable bid basis and then every five years put it up for proposal. But every year seems like a short-term contract for a long -term process. In some cases proposals are better, but when they know exactly what they want, the bid process may be more efficient. It needs to be looked at on a case -by -case basis, however. Mr. Sakaguchi asked what the likelihood is of the State taking over the waste management function from the counties, and Mr. Dworsky said he does not see that happening unless the Department of Health puts themselves in the position of being the EPA. They are the regulators, and if it was a state function, they would be regulating themselves. He has never heard of the State looking along those lines. Mr. Sakaguchi said the basis of the COGC is to look at other ways of doing things, new solutions, when the current practice does not work well. He felt a change of venue to State control might be appropriate, as the State has deeper pockets. He said that he has never understood why the Big Island can't have a power plant. Mr. Dworsky said that many technologies are out there, but it comes down to the cost and what the County would pay. If the State took it over, they would probably replicate what the County is doing now. The State does have a lot more resources, however. 5