2015-01-08 Cost of Government Commission Agenda

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F. Examine "The Expanding Transportation Opportunities on Hawaii Island" comprehensive report authored by the University of Michigan sponsored by The Kohala Center, April 2014, and implement the reports recommendations in the short, medium and long term as much as possible within budgetary constraints. G. Mass Transit may be able to streamline the Hele On Bus system by identifying redundancies or unnecessary overlap in the current routing and scheduling system. Mountain View, Pahoa and Pahala, are served by one bus route and the very popular Mauna Kea State Park is without service. According to the report, the airports have limited bus service. H. Recommend collaboration with Maui transit officials and look into incorporating some of their innovations that offer the best path forward for Hawaii County mass transit by utilizing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Google Transit to enhance the quality of mass transit. Examine and establish a public - private partnership (P3) with the County for a unique rideshare - vanpool network. Combining and coordinating existing County, business and private person resources, such as the private sector Vride system, with mild additional funding will likely have significant impacts on traffic, drive time, pollution, gasoline consumption and vehicle wear and tear. J. Using current City & County of Honolulu and Maui County ordinances as a guide, explore a similar ordinance for Hawaii County that would require alarm systems to register with the County and provide a mechanism to assess service charges for repeated false alarms. K. Reinstate in 2015 -16 department operating budget, a line item to make phased purchases of "Blue & Whites" to replace current aging fleet. L. Urge County Council to increase the current County fuel tax of 8.8 cents /gallon, to a level commensurate with other Counties, for purpose of increasing funding available to repave roads in a timely manner. M. To promote transparency in County government, recommends that each County department to make public in a user - friendly format on a regular basis the. professional audits, reviews and plans that assess, guide and steer County government debate and course of action. An example is the federally mandated 20 -year transportation plans that do not appear in public debate and those County officials seem unaware of. Likely, officials and the public are unclear or unaware of such research -based plans, reviews and assessments that can support debate and decision making. N. Highlight specific recommendations from the 2010 -2011 Report of the Cost of Government Commission that the County has implemented. O. Recommend the Cost of Government Commission be convened annually as opposed to every four years. 3