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caused a lot of confusion among the public. But the kind of input we're getting from the <br />public is we'd like to see more auditing going on. Why are you eliminating this? Why <br />• don't you go the other direction and create an Auditing Department, or whatever? So it <br />wouldn't change the way things function now. It would just more directly address how <br />this office works. So, there again, I would characterize this as, kind of, being up in the <br />air as far as whether we pursue it or not, so we'll have to see how everybody feels <br />about it. <br />Number 8, the Holdover of Members of Boards and Commissions, is basically just <br />increasing the holdover period from the existing 30 days to 90 days. This was <br />suggested by a number of the Boards and Commissions, just to give more time to get <br />folks in place. So that's what the holdover's about. <br />The Safety Coordinator. There again, this is cleaning up the reality of how things <br />work in the County. The majority of the functions spelled out in the Charter, to be dealt <br />with by a Safety Coordinator, are dealt with internally, and we think quite well, by the <br />separate departments. So, basically the way it's portrayed in the Charter now is not the <br />way it works, so the suggestion is rather than having a separate section here dealing <br />with this, in the Charter, to move the position to the Civil Service Department, and deal <br />with that function under the Civil Service Department, but not have a separate Safety <br />Coordinator position which would be mandated to deal with these functions, which the <br />departments are individually and separating dealing with now. <br />Qualification of Heads of Departments of Public Works and Water Supply. This <br />was based on a discussion which took place last year in regard to the need for the <br />head of these departments being a registered engineer. Our feeling, in discussing this, <br />is that these jobs are more administrative than engineering in nature, and why not <br />remove this barrier so that it would allow a non -registered engineer to be head of these <br />departments. We had an occasion where our Chief Engineer retired and the Deputy <br />Chief Engineer, who most people felt was able and qualified to step in in that position <br />was precluded from doing that. He is an engineer. He has an engineering degree, but <br />is not a registered engineer, and so under the Charter, he wouldn't be allowed to do <br />this. There again, this has come under a lot of flack from public testimony. It seems to <br />be confusing the public that, on one hand we want to raise standards of Departments <br />Heads, and we seem to be going in the other direction in regard to this. So, I'd say this <br />one is up for grabs whether we proceed with this or not. It's not, I don't think, really a <br />big deal one way or the other. But we've received a lot of testimony either in opposition <br />or in concern with how this one goes, so we very well may pull this. <br />Qualifications of Department Heads. We're just trying to raise the standard -- <br />reviewing the whole Charter and raise the standards. And we're going to try to come <br />up with a little more uniform language in terms of the standards for these different <br />Department Heads. But they are very different, and a concern we've had is that, <br />especially in terms of salaries, they've been treated, in the past, pretty much the same, <br />7 <br />