2006-03-02 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

Home

Mr. Miyasato said he is the island representative with the Operating Engineers' Union, and he said he basically oversees the industry. 3. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC There were no members of the public present. However, Mayor Kim was present and asked to address the Commission. Mayor Kim stated the following: He wanted the Commission to believe and understand why he was here. He works every single day with the goal of gaining peoples' trust. There will be no interference when it comes to the Commission doing its job. The only interference to come would be from him should he learn the Commission was doing something illegal. He doesn't approve of many things the government is projecting to the world. He knows that everything a person does will lead to either trust or distrust. The Board's assignment, as per the Charter, is an impossible mission. To do the job thoroughly would require years of work. If he could change the Charter, he would change it to instruct the Commission to identify the high priority departments it would like to spend the 11 months evaluating. The Commission should start with the concept that it is not going to be able to finish evaluating all the County's departments. He would prefer the Commission start with the large departments that were not addressed in the last report. He would like the Commission to address those departments that are in the public eye. The Commission is a neutral party and no matter what he says, people will look at the Commission as part of the government. He receives a -mails from people who insult him and criticize County workers, and the reason he gets these is because of the basic mistrust people have. The Mayor requested that the Commission particularly look at three departments which were not addressed in the last report: 1. the Solid Waste Division of the Environmental Management Department — the amount and type of information going out to the public has most people confused about what the truth is. People also don't know what they're supposed to do by law. 2. the Police Department. 3. the Department of Public Works. If he could change the Charter, he would do so to identify these three departments as priorities. However, the Commission's attorney may tell them otherwise. He knows the Commission will be meeting a couple of times a month, and he recognizes the difficulty of what they're being asked to do. He wishes the commissioners were being paid for their time. He would be very happy if the Commission prioritized certain departments and evaluated only those departments, but he knows counsel may 2