2019-01-10 (draft) Cost of Government Commission minutes

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Cost of Government Commission January 10, 2019 meeting minutes that it’s…I’m not a mathematician so I am going to try to struggle with that with Pua. In the meantime I think that when we look at the recommendations just having a sense of what might be helpful on page 3, start with the Office of Aging and I want to run this by all of you because I think it would be helpful to us to see if our recommendation to use needs to be tied, again, as was recommended, you know with a cost factor and whether it is going to help with reducing cost or keeping cost at the same level. So here is the first one since the Office of Aging has no budget for senior housing. This office should continue its important role of providing senior family members and their care givers with housing information and referral so it was really kind of interesting because when Pua and I went to meet with Kimo Alameda I think it was really for me the first time that I realized that they had no funding for housing but they had funding for information during referrals and those kind of things. I don’t know if our recommendations we should or could include recommendations that support what they are already doing, in other words, we’re not making a recommendation for a change but a recommendation so this can continue. Because it’s helpful. So maybe we can decide whether we want to include stuff like that or not. Part of my thinking is that for me anyway I tend to look at positive things and want to reinforce that but again if we want to keep it really brief then we target only those things that we think should be considered for change. So any way, last time I am bringing this up because maybe we don’t need to say that. At the same time personally I don’t know this is where the commission has to decide whether we should reinforce what they are doing because, Kimo’s office, they are amazing in terms of putting up information to seniors providing their referral services and those kinds of things. Just keep that thought in your mind. The question that I have is whether we should include positive things and reinforce what they are already doing. Number 2, since nearly 90% of seniors prefer to remain in their homes again you know this would be its not just saying recommend that we have xyz but to say the basis for this recommendation would be say nearly 90% of seniors prefer to remain in their homes, therefore, programs should create service components were students, this is a recommendation where students practice caregiving skills and are paired with seniors who prefer to remain as long as possible in their homes. You hear what I am struggling with. Jones: Yes and what I want to mention right here… Arthurs: I want to give the basis for our recommendation… Jones: Well it is almost like number 2 is your recommendation at least when you go in to programs to create service component and number 3 is your result. So between 2 and 3 this is the whole this is one recommendation of this is what we are recommending and this is the result, which is it costs less for seniors in the county in other words. Than the housing cost that the government or population bears for senior housing becomes less so, to me, the number 2 is the do this and the number 3 is the here is the result, here is the win. So again we always want to try and one thing I want to mention to about number 1 I think it is valid to give positive reinforcement but because we are limited on space and attention span I think it is important to look at, ‘is what they are doing in jeopardy?’. Is someone or some agency or budget line that says 7