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MR. FUJIMOTO: Well, that has been the problem of lot a of the commissions. The way we interpret it is that we are part of the government. Our commission is appointed by the Mayor, approved by the Council and it' s always been that way. Then the commission appoints his staff, manager and deputy. But our salary. is kind of regulated by the Mayor. They don' t set our salary, and our staff who comes under the personnel department, we have to go through the personnel department. So really, we are not fully auto- nomous but we conform to a lot of the laws, the rules and regulations of the county. MRS. KOBAYASHI: Where are you autonomous, then? MR. FUJIMOTO: The part in the budget. We're just like- 'a business organization. MRS. KOBAYASHI: So the monies that you collect for water, you keep? MR. FUJIMOTO: Its ' used to operate our department. We donl' t come under the County' s budget. Our commission, we' re just like, a .business. Our commissioners are just like your board of directors. We' re the employees, appointed by the commissioners. Our stockholders are our customers. So the commission works for the interest of the stockholders who are our customers. So, in other words, our budget comes through the revenues that we collect, on how we operate. MRS. KOBAYASHI: Are your employees under government? Are your employees members of the union? You have retirement system? You' re represented by a government union? MR. FUJIMOTO: Well, we' re not, but our employees are. MRS. KOBAYASHI: So, they would fallunder the various collective bargaining units. And is this the way the other counties are set up? MR. FUJIMOTO: Yes, most of the other counties are like this. 'I think only Maui, right now, comes directly under the Mayor. Honolulu is semiautonomous CHAIRMAN S_;AKATA: Going back to that section that we' re just taking about, are you referring to section 8-5, on this Administrative Supervision? MR. FUJIMOTO: Well, this is one of that, Adminis- trative Supervision, but we've been interpreting this as, since . the Mayor is the overall representative of the County, he' s the one that really coordinates the program. He sets the directionof where_ the county goes, and all the rest of us should follow where we're going. That' s how we interpret it, Of course, he' s the boss of my commission. I come right under the commission. I think 'there is a good interpretation ofwhat it means. But this hasn' t been causing us that much problem as far as our department is concerned, but it' s good to have clarified what they mean by administrative. ' - 30 -