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MS. JARMAN: They only have 11 months to get together, and if you have a group of people who don't know a lot about the County and then you only give them 11 months to write a report, and you assume it takes them a couple of months to get the report written, do you think- -you were also the head of Finance - -it is a worthwhile group to keep in the Charter? And if it is, should we amend it to make it more effective? MR. TAKABA: If they had more time to do their work, and they actually got down to the departmental level, then - - -I know there's a Legislative Auditor function that does program reviews, and there's auditing that they do. If the Commission had people that could gather information for them and report back to them. Aside from that, what I've seen them do is, they would meet with departments on a more formal basis, like questions and answers back and forth across the table, and not so much going to their departments and actually go into their records or look at their functions and compare that with their budget, and so forth. If they had more time and more staff to do that, it would be more effective. I'm not sure, because a lot of it depends on the members and how aggressive they are in trying to do their work. They're not precluded from going into the departments and getting more information, but what I've seen was more in meetings and across the table talk and not so much the research. MS. JARMAN: I doubt they have time, given the schedule. MR. TAKABA: It is difficult for them. MS. JARMAN: Do you think it would be more helpful, assuming there was one and we gave them enough time, to have them appointed at the end of one Mayor's term and then serve through into the next Mayor's term, so they are there for a transition? MR. TAKABA: Yes, the continuity might be hard if you are going through two different administrations. Is that what you are referring to? MS. JARMAN: Yes, they would serve, for instance, a year with one Mayor and then another year with the other Mayor, so there would be some overlap. MR. TAKABA: That might work. The department heads change, so they would be working with different people, and it might be brand new department heads that know very little about the operations, and they're the people who would go out and talk to them MS. JARMAN: The Cost of Government Commission would know something, so they could actually be a resource for the incoming department heads as well as potentially a resource for the council members. I have no idea; I'm just throwing these things out because when I read it, it seemed to be designed for failure. MR. TAKABA: The idea is good, but if they don't have the resources, and the time to do their work, then it's very frustrating for them. 12