MIN CHC 1989-03-08 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

BETHEA: Okay. Thank you. Yes . Would the record show that Mr. Jim Juvik joined in. Yes . CUSHNIE: Mr. Chairman, may I ask several things of Mr. Ono? Okay? BETHEA: Certainly. CUSHNIE: Mr. Ono, do you feel that the chief engineer needs to have a professional degree as a professional engineer? ONO: Yes and no. Okay, it ' s a hedgy answer, but because I 'm a professional engineer and a member of several national and state organizations, we pride ourselves on hav- ing the registration, and it ' s kind of like the doctrine of our organizations that we support wherever possible, engineers as managers . So on that side, I support it . But whether or not the operations of the department and the management of the department require a registered engineer or not may not be necessary in all honesty. CUSHNIE: Thank you. Do you believe that your deputy should have professional degrees in engineering or in appropriate areas? ONO: My answer would be identical. CUSHNIE: Uh-huh. Certainly you've had exposure information about public commissions, for instance, the Police Commission, which is run by a group of public individuals . Do you feel there ' s any application to Public Works to be run this way, to separate you, perhaps, from the mayor ' s office? ONO: No, I don' t. CUSHNIE: In. . .perhaps this will be clarified later, but on. . .quite sensitive -to an inclusion -in the Charter, would you say the deputy and chief engineer are both equally (inaudible) or have some difficulties where, "political (inaudible) are made, " and the chief engineer, or the chief of the department, is unable to appoint somebody of his own choice . Do you feel that would be a problem if you wanted to include a deputy engineer in your charter? ONO: I believe what you' re saying is that it ' s pre- ferred that the chief engineer appoint his or her own deputy and I would strongly concur with that . CUSHNIE: So you' re not asking for an inclusion of deputies to be appointed by the mayor? 131 1