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minutes 12-08-99Page 5 of 31
<br />work, possibly program reviews.
<br />IRVINE: I was just amazed when I read Connie’s letter to us, that at the Legislative Auditor’s Office, they actually do a lot of
<br />constituent work. To me that should be entirely over at the County Clerk’s side, where the Council people are, and the Office
<br />of the Auditor should be actually auditing programs to see how things should be legislated.
<br />TAKAHASHI: I think that’s a reflection of evolution because when I served as the Auditor, I don’t think my staff did much
<br />of the constituency work. We did do a lot of research work, bill drafting. We followed some of the State prepared testimony
<br />on behalf of Council members to State Boards, Commissions. We did a few program reviews.
<br />IRVINE: To me, that follows from doing an audit because when you do the audit, you see how the program works, and then
<br />you know how to write the legislation, but writing letters to constituents has nothing to do with that, and there shouldn’t be
<br />patronage jobs over there, but if it’s a question of either patronage or Civil Service, maybe we should just have a few people
<br />in the Legislative Auditor’s Office and hire independent auditors to look at our performance within the County. How does
<br />that sound?
<br />TAKAHASHI: That would be very costly, very costly.
<br />IRVINE: Well, we’d eliminate quite a few jobs in the Legislative Auditor’s Office.
<br />TAKAHASHI: True. Because, I think, even some of the other jurisdictions, much of the more substantial work is done by
<br />contract with professional auditors.
<br />IRVINE: Well, yes.
<br />RAY: John, you have something?
<br />SANTANGELO: Sure. At the risk of totally stepping all over it, Sue. One of the things I would share, I think, is a lot of times
<br />we look at how government is performing, and it doesn’t make sense, but we’ve really got to look at the different dynamics,
<br />and one of them is constituency demand. And then patronage government. I think a lot of the aberrations that go on, a lot of
<br />the things we don’t feel comfortable about, are brought on by constituents also; what they demand and how a politician who
<br />gets elected and has to get re-elected - And that’s what we do as a public. And, a lot of times the public is just as responsible
<br />as the political office. I agree with you 100%. I was there and this patronage is used as a hammer, and it is a leverage for use
<br />as an individual to get work done and to work with your constituency. Again, I hadn’t thought of the Civil Service side of it,
<br />because, again, like when we did certain meetings, and we would go out and do our research, we’d have to do that at night,
<br />or, in a case like this lava land, trying to research that to say how could we get the Finance Director off the hook, and all this
<br />kind of stuff we were doing. We needed to look at that. We needed to take a broad spectrum and focus attention on it, and a
<br />lot of times, when we’d look at audits, then the individual Council member is looking for reports, and looking for other
<br />things, and they conflict. And in patronage, and the way it is right now, you don’t have a leader. It is patchwork and it doesn’t
<br />serve the public well. But then, I don’t know how, with collective bargaining, if you can take that and somehow allow the
<br />cross technology, because people in the Leg. Auditor’s Office are separate from Civil Service, can then be very flexible in
<br />how they work, when they work, and what they do.
<br />RAY: John, excuse me. I want to wrap this up. We need to get into the Police Commission. I don’t want to have the
<br />discussion, actually, this evening. If you’ve got any more questions for Harry, and I think he came up with some good
<br />suggestions - Okay. Thanks.
<br />Sharon, could you come up, and I don’t know who else, Jo-Anna. We’ve had a number of discussions, and participation, and
<br />testimony, in regard to the role of the Police Commission. Unfortunately, you folks haven’t been here, and we weren’t here at
<br />the last meeting, which was pretty embarrassing. But anyway, thank you for coming this evening. I know this is, kind of, a
<br />queer time with everything going on in the Courts right now, and I’m sure you folks feel an awful lot of pressure in terms of,
<br />kind of, what happened, and what was your oversight, if any, and how come you didn’t do more, this or that. Would you like
<br />to make some comments to the Commission tonight in terms of the role of the Police Commission? Anything you’d like to
<br />share with us? We’re searching for -
<br />SCHEELE: We’re searching too. The public has the perception that the Police Commission oversees the Police Department,
<br />and that is definitely not the case. We may have the authority. We do have the authority, according to this Charter, to hire and
<br />fire the Police Chief, but it’s very difficult for the Commission to get information from the Department. Now, whether this is
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