Report of the Cost of Government Commission 2010-2011

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I a pay as you throw system. The real property tax bill fee could be adjusted for TMKs that have multiple structures or are zoned as multiple family dwellings. 10. Limit attendance at off-island conferences/meetings and/or hold off-island conferences/meetings via Skype or video conferencing. Hold department and division meetings via video conferencing. Utilize multimedia communication in lieu of face-to-face meetings to reduce on and off-island travel. i Justification: As technology has improved, holding meetings through video conferencing or Skype has become an accepted way to do business. It would be more efficient and save the County money to conduct business using available technologies including web-based meetings venues and video conferencing. The County has the video conferencing capabilities and the IT Department indicated it needs to provide training to more County personnel in the use of this technology. If the County requires that attendance at conferences/meetings be achieved by utilizing technology, considerable time and expense will be saved. As part of our fact finding efforts, the COGC Commissioners queried County departments on the status of efforts to implement department specific recommendations provided by the former Cost of Government Commissions. It was determined that very little follow-through had occurred with regard to implementing the previous commissions' recommendations. As such, this commission is concerned that the many recommendations contained herein may not be implemented or acted upon in a timely manner. Therefore, we have taken the following further steps to support the follow-through. a) The Report of the Cost of Government Commission, County of Hawai'i, 2010-2011 will be conveyed to the Mayor, County Council, and Department Heads before the end of the COGC term in June 2011; b) The final report will be posted online for public view. 1 c) The final report will be submitted to the two major newspapers on the Big Island (Hawai'i Tribune Herald and West Hawai'i Today). d) The COGC requests that the Mayor assign an administrative assistant to track the status of the tasks approved by the Mayor and submit a report on a quarterly basis to him on all actions related to the recommendations. j e) The quarterly reports shall be provided to the next term COGC at their first meeting. Also as part of its investigative efforts, the COGC welcomed a presentation from the County's Green Team. As identified by the Green Team, delivering essential local government services requires significant use of energy and resources. As such the COGC supports the efforts put forth in the Green Team's draft report, Chapter 6; Priorities for Action, that identifies reductions in resources that will lead to cost savings while meeting the sustainability objectives in County operations. I 5 i