HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022 Final Report Cover Letter
Michael Konowicz, Chair
Neal Herbert, Vice Chair
Lee E. Lord
Matthias Kusch
ManagingDirector
Mitchell D. Roth
Chantee Shiroma
Madeline Greene
Mayor
Shannon Matson
Kenneth Obenski
Daniel Malakie III
Karie Wakat
Cost of Government Commission
25 Aupuni Street, Suite 2603, (808) 961-8211
74-,Kailua-(808) 323-4444
October2, 2022
Honorable Mitch Roth, Mayor Honorable Lee Lord,Managing DirectorHonorable Maile Medeiros David, Chair
Hawaii County Council
County of
25 Aupuni Street, Suite 215
25 Aupuni Street, Suite 215
Hilo, HI 96720 Hilo, HI 96720Kailua-Kona, HI 96740
Dear Mayor Roth, Mr. Lord, and Chair David:
The HawaiiCounty Cost of Government Commission has completed its review of various County
departments, boards, and commissions and hereby submits its report pursuant to Article V, Chapter 2, of the Hawaii
County Charter.
Throughout this calendar year, we held atleast two meetings a month with aquorumto conduct
Commission business. Along the way, we invited different leaders within the County to come before us, share their
insights, and answer our questions. We also received community input, with written, virtual, and in-person
testimony provided by others across the Countythroughout the year. To become more efficient in our process, and
to be compliant with state Sunshine Law, we also broke into Permitted Interaction Groups to do a deeper dive into
areas deemed to be priority areas by the Commission.
In addition to preparing this report for you, we are also setting the stage for success for future Cost of
Government Commissions. Beyond our commission-specific recommendations provided in this report, we
conducted a Special Public Hearing to updateand modernizeour Rules
2003.
Following thorough consideration of the responses we received from County employees, members of the
public, surveys we deployed, and meetings we had, the Commission has outlined its recommendations in the
enclosed report.
We want to thank the County of Hawaii for allowing us to take part in our government. TheCounty of
Hawaiidoes an amazing job in spite of external constraints, such as isolationandstateand federal mandates. The
County of Hawaii has a small town (200,629 population) budget with state size (4,028square miles) responsibility
and a continent size variety of conditions.The Commission respectfully requests your consideration of the
recommendations in this report.
Sincerely,
Michael J. Konowicz, Chair
Cost of Government Commission