Report of the Cost of Government Commission 2014-2015

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COST OF GOVERNMENT COMMISSION c/o Office of the Corporation Counsel, 101 Aupuni Street, Suite 325, Hilo, Hawaii 96720 March 12, 2014 BJ Leithead Todd Department of Environmental Management 345 Kek0ana6'a Street, Suite 41 Hilo, Hawaii 96720 Aloha, As required by law, the Cost of Government Commission has recently been reconvened. The Commission, currently comprised of seven (7) volunteers from your community, is charged to "study and investigate the organizations and methods of operations of all department, commissions, boards, offices and other instrumentalities of all branches of the county government, and determine what changes, if any, may be desirable to accomplish the County's policy to promote economy, efficiency and improve service in the transaction of the public business in the legislative and executive branches of the County by: 1) limiting expenditures to the lowest amount consistent with the efficient performance of essential services, activities and functions; 2) eliminating duplication and overlapping of services, activities and functions; 3) consolidating services, activities and functions of a similar nature; and 4) abolishing services, activities and functions not necessary to the efficient conduct of government." We have only 11 months to fulfill our mandate and provide a written report of findings and recommendations to the Mayor, the Managing Director and the Council. In your daily work, you are in the best position to help inform our work. We would greatly appreciate receiving your feedback on the above four matters. We would also like to know whether the following specific recommendations from the 2010-11 Commission report have been implemented; if so, what is the impact; if not, the reasons for not implementing. Recommendations: Implement software solutions to coordinate collection of tipping fees at the scale house and insure accounting systems are able to read the data. Regulate septic and grease haulers and increase the annual fee for registration commensurate with fees of other counties in Hawai `i. Increase the annual renewal fee for solid waste haulers and require all haulers to be current on solid waste bills to reduce delinquencies. COMM NO. 2014-007