HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0193.080 2008-2010
AI Beeman
908 Kumukoa St
Hilo, HI 96720
April 22, 2009
Subject: Testimony suggesting changes to Bill 49
Aloha County Council Members,
I would like to remind everyone that the 2% Land fund set aside only
represents 1 % of the County budget.
I would like to ask the Council to make two amendments to Bill 49:
Amendment 1:
Before any 2% fund contributions can be decreased the County
Administration must conduct a month long citizen's mail-in and Internet
Cost Cutting Suggestions campaign. All suggestions must be posted on the
County Website within 48 hours of receipt and all suggestions must be
reviewed and have their disposition (accepted or declined) and their cost
savings potential posted on the Internet. All suggestion savings
implemented will be used first towards the 2% contribution mandated by
the people.
Amendment 2:
The 2% funds contribution can only be decreased by the dollar amount
actually needed to save currently filled County union jobs.
Here are some suggestion I would like to submit for cutting the budget:
• Eliminate the $ 500,000 spent on the two County Bands. We have
several outstanding school bands that would be more than happy to
perform at County functions.
• Eliminate most County postage and printing expenses.
Comm. No. a g~
:
Ref. To:
Ref. Date APR 2 2 2009
Al Beeman
908 Kumukoa St
Hilo, HI 96720
Most businesses and governments around the world are eliminating paper
printing and printing to Adobe pdf files of to jpeg files. These files can also
be attached to an email or viewed from a website. The council could
immediately require the County to allow citizens to Opt In to paperless
communication and get all of their county generated mail electronically
including water bills, tax bills, tickets and other fun stuff. The savings in
printing and postage will be enormous and this is something every citizen
can do to help improve our county save money and help our environment
at the same time. The county can also deeply restrict paper purchases and
get rid of expensive and un-earth-friendly copying machines by replacing
them with cheap non-polluting document scanners.
• Create a citizens review board to review all final designs of County
projects for cost saving changes before they go out to bid.
Document those project savings.
• Save fuel costs by Quit buying gas hog cars and trucks for the police
force and other county vehicles and where possible switch to hybrids and
electrics which can be charged at night with super cheap extra night-time
geothermal power HELCO refuses to take from the geothermal plant.
• Turn off the street lights or at least most of them. Most of the county
doesn't have them and survives just fine without them. I suspect the
astronomers on Mauna Kea would appreciate the reduction is light
pollution as well.
I am pretty sure these suggestions alone can reduce the County budget by
1
M~e/kka mahalo (Respectfully,)
Al