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in the budget for special council, so by this passing, it wouldn't increase the authority of <br />the Corporation Counsel to increase spending more money in the budget category. <br />The next, Board of Appeals. This was a suggestion that was tied to creating the <br />Division of Permitting, which we're not going forward with, so I think we'll probably <br />eliminate this, as far as moving the Board of Appeals at this time. And then, should that <br />be brought forward in the future, then that could be addressed appropriately at that <br />time. <br />Department Head Qualifications. Just going through and trying to beef up the <br />professional qualifications for the different Department Heads. <br />Police Commission. This taking some language we like - I've been representing in the <br />last few hearings that this is language that came from the Fire Commission, and our <br />counsel reminded me at the last public hearing that, actually, this language is coming <br />out of the Police Commission from the City and County of Honolulu. Not from the Fire <br />Commission. So, we're taking some language we liked from the City and County Police <br />Commission, inserting it in the body of the language for the statement of policy section <br />on the Police Commission. So, basically that's taking some language that we liked in <br />regard to the overall statement of policy from the Police Commission from the City and <br />County, recommending that to go into .the Charter for the Police Commission, and also <br />adding a couple of additions regarding review of department's operations and requiring <br />an annual evaluation of the performance of the Police Chief to be submitted to the <br />• Mayor and the Council. So, those are the two additional suggestions there. <br />Water Commission. The suggestion there is to change the Commission make-up from <br />the nine members tied to six larger geographical districts to the nine Council districts. <br />So the effect of this is you'd have more island -wide geographical representation on the <br />Water Commission than the way it works now. And the way it works now is it allows the <br />Mayor to appoint nine Commission members much more heavily from East Hawaii than <br />West Hawaii. So this would mandate a wider geographic distribution, as is mandated <br />in the Police and Planning Commission. <br />Salary Commission. This would change the way the salaries are set for the <br />Department and the Deputy Department Heads. It would allow an appointed Salary <br />Commission to set these salaries. And this is a process which is very subject to politics. <br />The net effect is it is awfully difficult for an elected body, i.e. the County Council, to <br />offer raises. My experience, and the experience of a number of Commission members, <br />is that you go years and years and years without salaries being increased for the <br />Department Heads, and they tend to get really out of whack, not only with the Civil <br />Service salaries in the departments, but also with the private sector. This was <br />implemented in Maui County, I think in 1994 and it seems to have worked very well, <br />and the net effect hasn't been any wild or inappropriate increase in salaries of the <br />Department and the Deputy Heads. It's just a more responsive way to set these salaries <br />9 <br />