2018-12-27 (draft) Cost of Government Commission minutes

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Cost of Government Commission December 27, 2018 meeting minutes Culture and Recreation Commissioners previously reviewed information provided by the subcommittee. Health, Education and Welfare Subcommittee Members Arthurs and Woo met with Kimo Alameda from the Office of Aging and Neil Gyotoku from the Office of Housing. One principle identified is that the County has some responsibilities to ensure seniors have proper housing. A summary of recommendations being considered: 1) Housing office continue work to update its federal grants. 90% of budget comes from federal Housing & Urban Development funds. The County office has a good team of grant writers. 2) Housing and Aging offices work together to inform community of seniors, caregivers and family members of housing options. 3) Planning Department work to allow easier access for permits of affordable housing for seniors and facilitate ohana structures. 4) Increase percentage of affordable housing for seniors. Explore whenever a developer seeks an affordable housing project, some portion should be for seniors. Public Safety and Miscellaneous The Subcommittee continues to explore data on the possibility to move to police cruisers for all officers. An idea may be to change to police fleet for 40% of vehicles so not every officer has a county cruiser. Possible savings could be over $1 million a year but the subcommittee will look deeper into the numbers. If a suspect is severely inebriated, he or she will not be transported in an officer’s personal vehicle. They wait until the “paddy wagon” is called, adding a cost that may not be avoidable, though savings on that would be incidental. The Subcommittee will also consider safety factors for officers while developing its recommendation, such as securing more safety feature-equipped or armored vehicles. It was noted that a shortage of police officer issue may not be a topic for this specific Commission to look deeply into. 2