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minutes 10-27-99Page 9 of 48
<br />soon. But, Honolulu does the same thing. Honolulu Board of Water Supply does the billing for the
<br />Sewer Department, and I’ve checked with people in the actual billing section on Oahu, and they said it
<br />seems to be working great whereby they bill for the Sewer Department, and they use their leverage of
<br />water shut off as an incentive, and it is working great, and they have no problems with it. I think they
<br />have some sort of arrangement where the Sewer Department pays the Board of Water Supply to do that
<br />function for them.
<br />Mr. Sumada mentioned total resources, the whole gamut of the water industry. The thing that needs to
<br />be realized, and looked at, is the department is in a business of providing domestic water. Our function
<br />is domestic water. We do provide irrigation water where we have water available, and we do that at the
<br />risk of domestic users, especially during droughts. You know we have a hard time during droughts. So,
<br />whether or not it’s better to have one entity take the whole gamut, or to have people specialize in a
<br />certain thing, that’s something you need to decide because each comes with its own rules, regulations
<br />and mandates from the Federal Environmental Protection Agency.
<br />The other comment was to have it run like a Commission, the Water Supply, which I personally think is
<br />the efficient way to do it. But there’s nothing precluding the Sewer Department to pursue that angle.
<br />Instead of making a drastic transfer, go into an enterprise type system where they can have their own
<br />Commission that can set their own rates. You don’t need to combine Wastewater with Water to do that.
<br />You can do that, as something you want to do, or you can pursue it. And then you’ll have a body of
<br />Commissioners without any political concerns that can set realistic rates. But, at this point in time, with
<br />5,000 people, I don’t think there’s anybody that’s going to set a realistic rate for those 5,000 people to
<br />pay for the operations because that realistic rate is going to be absurd, so something has to be done. I
<br />can’t read the rest of my writing so I’ll stop.
<br />RAY: Peter, do you want to make some comments? Mr. Boucher, from the Wastewater Division.
<br />BOUCHER: I made some copies of this. Good afternoon. From the Wastewater Division’s perspective,
<br />I’ve assembled a list of advantages and disadvantages, and for the most part, my advantages and
<br />disadvantages, likewise, also closely track Milton’s. Well, first of all, I think one of the fundamental
<br />reasons even the Administration is pushing this forward is because of just all the services being provided
<br />by the Department of Public Works is expanded, and it’s just quite a big plate to handle by the Chief
<br />Engineer and the Deputy, and part of that responsibility may want to be divided off. Beyond that, it’s
<br />correct. Milton and I have been discussing, for a long time, the possibilities of combining the billing,
<br />and also using the water shut off as an option. And I think it is workable. It’s a matter of going through
<br />the steps and getting there.
<br />Just running down the list of my other advantages here. Potential cross training of employees:
<br />Employees could have dual licenses and if that’s the case, there could be some advantages to staffing on
<br />a seven day schedule. Right now, it’s a problem.
<br />And again, with the shared laboratory and facilities: That goes to Jiro’s issue about potentially there
<br />could be some efficiency savings here.
<br />RAY: In regard to Mr. Pavao’s comments that that would be somewhat of a burden to share laboratory
<br />expenses, do you know if when the City and County combined, at some point, did they have shared
<br />laboratory? Do we know anything about that? They combined and then separated again. I just wondered.
<br />BOUCHER: Presumably, they were together for several years, so I have to imagine they shared
<br />facilities. But when I talk about sharing laboratory facilities, I don’t necessarily mean that we’d have one
<br />lab worker working here, testing wastewater and another working here, testing potable water. We still
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