2006-03-16 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

Home

Ms. Cushnie asked if any of the prior recommendations were filtered by the Mayor before going to the departments, and Ms. Kaetsu said no, that there was nothing political about it. Recommendations were submitted directly to the departments, and it was up to them to do what they could. Motion and Vote: Mr. Joseph moved to accept and file the responses received from the departments. Mr. Sakaguchi seconded the motion, and all commissioners voted in favor of accepting and filing the responses. 7. DISCUSSION /ACTION REGARDING APPROACH TO TAKE TO TIMELY ACCOMPLISH MANDATE OF THE COST OF GOVERNMENT COMMISSION The Chair suggested the commissioners have an informal discussion and that a motion could be entertained as they went along. Mr. Sakaguchi said there were two kinds of recommendations they could make: a broad - brush recommendation going across the departments, and then specific recommendations looking at particular departments. He said he spoke to some friends for broad -brush ideas. Suggestions they made included leasing or selling all vacant County lands; another was giving computerization for all departments a high priority; and another was leasing all County vehicles instead of purchasing them. He said that leasing vehicles would benefit the County by providing the subject employees with new cars every three years or so; and depreciation costs, per a car dealer, could be passed on as savings. The Chair said the discussion is to make recommendations on how they are to approach their task, and whether certain departments were to be targeted. Mr. Sakaguchi explained that his suggestion is to do a broad -brush recommendation and then look at a few departments. Mr. Joseph stated that he wanted to focus on what the Mayor had told them, which was to look at two to three high - profile departments and do a thorough job on those departments. The Chair said that he wanted to actually target a department and get moving and that Solid Waste was his pick to start with. Ms. Garson explained that Solid Waste is part of the Department of Environmental Management. The Chair reiterated that he wants to target that department, as there is a real concern if the island has to truck all its waste. However the waste issue is decided, it is going to be a major cost. He said that since the issue will not be resolved before the end of their term, their input will be taken into consideration in how the waste issue is decided. Ms. Cushme asked whether the commissioners were allowed to specify departments, and Ms. Garson said that though the Charter says "all" departments, the Mayor had said that would be a daunting task. She said that in order to comply in good faith with the mandate of the Charter, she would prefer that the commissioners prioritize so at the end 10