2014-09-04 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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look at the public transportation system as it stands and they could get a sense of what the services are like for the West side and what the recommendations were in terms of increasing bus routes, number of buses and how to fund the system. Ms. Kelly asked what is the growth anticipated for the need of buses with the upcoming university on the West side. Ms. Kierkiewicz replied they did not discuss that. She said Ms. Kai is working on creating more direct routes that would cut down on ride time and people can get to where they need to go a lot faster. Ms. Kelly is thinking why reinvent the wheel; can’t this County copy Oahu, which is ahead of the other islands in the efficiency of the bus system. Ms. Kierkiewicz said she didn’t know but just thinking about how dense the population is on Oahu and how compact that island is compared to Hawai‘i Island where we have a lot of people to serve but more geography to cover. She thinks Mass Transit is doing a great job and definitely has their eye towards the future and looking at growing the public transportation system. Ms. Maddox noted Mr. Jacobs did refer to connecting with Mark Wong who is Honolulu’s Rapid Transit. Ms. Kelly asked what is the most important thing or need that Mass Transit should focus on. Ms. Kierkiewicz replied the payment system and getting the information out to the public. Updating their website was definitely a priority as well. 7. DISCUSSION/ACTION REGARDING FORMAT AND CONTENTS OF FINAL REPORT Ms. Maddox shared a Preliminary Working Draft Framework for Cost of Government Commission Report for the Commission to review and discuss. This draft was distributed to all Commissioners. Mr. Mitchell addressed the issue in regards to the timeline and when the Commission would like to wrap up the report. He is concerned it will be during the Christmas holidays. Mr. Mitchell noted this Commission meets only once every four years and he would like to think they are going to work hard until the very last moment and submit the best document they can. He personally thinks that at this point, the group needs to realize they are not going to have the report done by Christmas. Mr. Perry stated he will be off island for New Year’s. Ms. Garson said the final report is due January 20, 2015. Ms. Kierkiewicz said is it ambitious to say they want to try and get a draft together by November and map out what needs to happen between now and getting a draft put together because Mr. Matsuda’s departments still needs to be interviewed. Ms. Kelly has two departments with Mr. Matsuda. Ms. Kierkiewicz said the group still needs to talk about what recommendations to include. 25