1999-05-12 Charter Commission Minutes

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HAWAII COUNTY CHARTER COMMISSIONPage 30 of 37 want to have the property surveyed, I’ve got a buyer, and then they find out, well, this house is built in a setback, that kind of situation. So we feel that consolidating the responsibility into one area would more clearly define those responsibilities and make it easier for the people to carry out their roles. We don’t think it entails any major personnel shifts there, but there may be some, which we will have to be working with the union to take care of. But other than that, leave it to your good wisdom and graces. RAY: Okay. YAMASHIRO: Because everything I say is going to be construed as am I trying to change the Charter to take care of something else. Like I’ve already talked to one Green Party candidate, and she asked me, "Am I going to be running against you again?" And I said, "Oh, no, the Charter says I can’t run." She says, "Well, you got a Charter Commission meeting." I’m not asking you to delete the term limits, believe me. I’m very happy with term limits. RAY: Okay. Going around the room, John, any questions? SANTANGELO: I guess just one real quick one, Mr. Mayor. You talked about the Wastewater and Water. What about, has -, will there be anything and has -, have you or your department thought about solid waste and how it could possibly be changed? YAMASHIRO: Solid waste is sort of an entity in itself. We are looking at different methods of handling the solid waste but within the department. SANTANGELO: Departmentalized. YAMASHIRO: Yeah. SANTANGELO: Like with the Water -. YAMASHIRO: We see no place you can put it, you know. With Wastewater and Water seems to be a natural connection because the Water Department sells us water, somebody uses it, then they throw it away. And in the future, that wastewater may be a resource. In Honolulu, they’re already finding uses for irrigation water, and actually, in Kona, it’s getting to be to that point. The problem in Hilo, it’s not going to be to that point because we just got too much water. We feel if you put the responsibility for disposing of the resource -. If I collect -, if a guy collects the money for selling you something, he should bear the expense of processing to dispose of it. What you have right now is a situation where Water sells the water; we get stuck with the Wastewater bill to process the water and dispose of it. Maybe if you put the two together, the cost may come down as a combination. SANTANGELO: Thank you. RAY: Steve. BESS: You know, I know that your focus has been on trying to make government more efficient, and I’m assuming that that means at the lowest possible cost. I’m just wondering, you know, to try to drive down the cost of government, and looking at it from the standpoint of the Charter Commission, is there anything that we can do? YAMASHIRO: You know, unfortunately, the cost of our departments are not driven by the function of the departments. In deference to my friend on my left, I think the Civil Service laws and the question on file://\\coh01\cohweb\council\charter_commission\minutes\minutes 5-12-99.html7/1/2011