HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010-10-08 Cost of Government Commission Minutes
COST OF GOVERNMENT COMMISSION
c/o Office of the Corporation Counsel, 101 Aupuni Street,
Suite 325, Hilo, Hawai‘i 96720
MINUTES – As Amended
Friday, October 8, 2010 – 10:00 a.m.
Department of Liquor Control Conference Room
101 Aupuni Street, Suite 230
Hilo, Hawai`i 96720
CALL TO ORDER
MS. WONG:
The meeting will now come to order. It’s 10:09.
Present:Excused:
Kenneth Armour Marilyn Nicholson
Glen Matsuda
Eileen O’Hara
Patricia Provalenko
Gloria Wong
William Takaba, ex-officio
Also present:
Kathy Garson
Emarie Carvalho
Sandy Arriola
Colleen Schrandt
STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC:
MS. WONG:
Any statements from the public? None.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
MS. WONG:
Is there an approval for the minutes?
MR. MATSUDA:
So moved.
MS. PROVALENKO:
Second.
Hawai‘i County is an Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer
MS. WONG:
Any discussion? Actually I had a discussion. On page 20, just a word
correction. It says bucket. And that’s something that I said. And what I said was buck
atinstead of bucket. Any other discussion?
MS. PROVALENKO:
I have some. One notation, my name is spelled wrong. It’s ko
instead of co.
MS. GARSON:
Your name?
MS. PROVALENKO:
Yes.
MS. WONG:
Anything else?
MS. GARSON:
Okay, so we’ll just take those as amendments to the minutes.
MS. WONG:
Is there a motion for the amendments to the corrections?
MOTION:MR. MATSUDA:
Move to amend.
MR. ARMOUR:
Second.
MS. WONG
: Minutes are approved as amended.
MS. GARSON:
Move to amend. Second by Kenneth, and then you take a vote, that
amendment is in, then we vote on the amended minutes.
MS. WONG:
Let’s take a vote.
ACTION ON MOTION: All: Aye.
MS. WONG:
All those opposed? (None). It is approved as
amended.
MS. GARSON:
Okay, that was the approval of the amendment, now you’re going to
vote on the minutes. So it would be all those in favor of adopting the minutes as
amended.
MS. WONG:
All those in favor of approval of the minutes as amended say aye.
ACTION ON MOTION: All: Aye.
MS. WONG:
All those opposed? (None). It is so moved.
CORRESPONDENCE
MS. WONG:
The fourth item on the agenda is the Correspondence. And just to check
your agenda, because I have two sets of agenda, one marked Friday, October 8. We
have correspondence from A to AF. Is there a motion to receive the correspondence in
total?
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MS. GARSON:
It’s up to you to receive and file all of them. And then once that motion
is pending on the table then you can go and discuss anyone. That might be easier than
moving for each one.
MS. WONG:
Is there a motion?
MOTION:MR. MATSUDA:
So moved.
MS. PROVALENKO:
Second.
MS. GARSON:
So, there’s a motion on the floor to accept and file the communications,
so now will there be any discussion. And maybe you want to go down from the top.
MS. WONG:
Discussion starting from A. I would just like to comment that our
committee, Glen, myself and Bill, met with Ron Takahashi. We both will be meeting
with Ron Takahashi, I’m sorry. Item B, any comments from that? Item C, any
comments on that? I’d like to comment that we’ll be meeting with Nancy Crawford on
the twelfth. Item D, any comments on that? Item E, any comments from that? Items F
from anonymous, any comments on that? Item G, Kelly Greenwell, any comments for
that? Item H from Ken Goodenow, any comments from that? Item I, from Qince Mento,
any comments from that? Item J from anonymous, any comments from that? Item K
from Lincoln Ashida, any comments from that? Items L through N from Anonymous,
any comments from that? Item O from Scott Leonard, any comments from that?
MR. MATSUDA:
I will be discussing our discussion with Scott Leonard in my report.
MS. WONG:
Item P from Bradley Westervelt, any comments for that? I’d like to make
comment in, I believe it was that response, he had mentioned a research from
Mr. Yagong and we would like to, I think there has been a request to get information on
the findings from Mr. Yagong’s survey of the county employees to receive, when we
were asked . . .
MS. GARSON:
Maybe I can help. In communication 2010-106, Mr. Westervelt made
reference to, Mr. Yagong spent a great deal of energy and letterhead polling all county
employees for suggestions on how to save money. More than one board member had
asked for that report, for me to get the report. What I told the members was that to
bring it up at this meeting, and make sure that that request was okay with all of the
commission members and if it was, that we would send a communication on
commission letterhead to Councilman Yagong requesting that information. I was a little
hesitant to send a request to a councilmember just because a couple of people wanted
it since the letter would be coming from the commission in general. So, what the vice
chair is asking is basically for approval to send that communication to Mr. Yagong
asking for the results of that poll.
MR. MATSUDA:
Do we make a motion at this time?
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MS. GARSON:
I don’t think it’s something that really warrants a motion. It’s just that is
it the consensus give the authority to go ahead and send that communication on behalf
of the commission to Councilman Yagong requesting that information.
MR. MATSUDA:
I agree.
MS. O’HARA:
I concur. It makes sense.
MS. GARSON:
Okay. Thank you.
MS. WONG:
Moving on to Item Q, Lori Enomoto. Any comments from that? Item R,
Anonymous, any comments from that? Item S from Stephen Arnett, any comments for
that? Item T, Anonymous, any comments on that? Item U, Anonymous, any comment
on that? Item V, Concerned Firefighters, County of Hawaii, any comments on that?
Item W, from Anonymous, any comments on that? Item X Correspondence to
Departments?
MS. GARSON:
We gave those communication numbers. I believe that’s the
correspondence that the commission sent out requesting follow up information from that
department.
MS. WONG:
Item Y, response from Burt Tsuchiya, any comments for that? Response
from Randall Kurohara?
MR. MATSUDA:
I will also be making a report on our discussion we had with Randy
Kurohara.
MS. WONG:
Item AA from Margaret Horwatt, any comment from that? Item AB from
Milton Pavao, any comment from that? Item AC from Steven Pavao, any comments
from that? Item AD, Penny Fox, any comment from that? Item AE from Fred Housel,
any comment for that? Item AF from Frank DeMarco, any comment for that?
MS. GARSON:
Okay, so given that, there would be a motion on the floor to accept and
file these communications and you ask to vote on the motion because there is a
pending motion to accept and file.
MS. WONG:
All in favor of accepting and taking them to file all the correspondence
responses as commented on.
ACTION ON MOTIONAll: Aye.
:
MS. WONG:
All those oppose? (None) It is so moved.
MR. TAKABA:
Do we have any outstanding departments?
MS. CARVALHO
: Yes we do.
MR. TAKABA:
Who would that be?
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MS. CARVALHO:
I have to get the list from upstairs. I don’t have the list with me right
now. I have to get it.
MR. TAKABA:
Can you email it to me?
MS. CARVALHO:
Yes.
MS. O’HARA:
Are you talking about the response to the initial letter?
MR. TAKABA:
Yeah. We sent to the departments that questionnaire, and I just
wanted to know who didn’t submit it yet so that I can email them to let them know that
we still need it. I think Office of Aging was one of them.
MS. WONG:
Bobby Jean, I think did not respond yet.
MR. TAKABA:
Planning? I’ll wait for her to give me the full list. The other thing is you
said you were going to meet with Finance, the committee. As they come in, I’ve been
sharing the responses with Finance including the anonymous ones because this is
public record, right?
MS. GARSON:
Yes.
MR. TAKABA:
So, I’ve been sharing it with them because they are in the budget
process right now. And there may do things in there that they may want to look at from
the departments because if we can implement certain things now rather than next year
that would help.
MS. GARSON:
When we get to number six you can talk about it.
MR. TAKABA:
Okay.
REPORTS FROM SUBCOMMITTEES
A.Operations, Budget, Policy and Consolidation (G. Wong, G. Matsuda)
MS. WONG:
Moving on to Item 5, Report first from Operations, Budget, Policy and
Consolidation. Glen and I are in that committee. Glen will be making the report, oral
report.
MS. GARSON:
And just a reminder that what this is, is the report, so there’s not going
to be any discussion at this meeting of all of the things contained in the report. We will
agendize for the next meeting, discussion and possible action on report given on 10/8.
So this is just a presentation.
MR. MATSUDA:
We discussed with Mr. Kurohara. We had a meeting with him on
September 28 at the office of Bill Takaba, which had very good surroundings. Thank
you, Bill. The discussions basically were regarding his letter and comments and
recommendations that were made, and what I think that I got of it mostly was regarding
the use of the laser fische, which I think maybe all departments should be having
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whether it be scanning, storing files to help preserve the critical documents and the
various meetings held. From the gist of it, I got that this will basically streamline any or
all departments’ operations including the director of R&D, Research and Development.
Now, it was to my understanding that the Corporation Counsel office currently uses this
method. Apparently there is a cost to having such a system set up whether it be a
program fee or an annual fee. I have no idea. But because the Corporation Counsel
currently uses it, I think that there are individuals in that office that can help and train the
individuals involved in utilizing this particular process. So with that alone, that’s a big
hurdle that I think that is resolved in a sense that now we have somebody already
familiar with it, let’s utilize the individuals involved. How specific it will be, how difficult it
would be, I have no idea. This was one of the ideas that was given by Randy. Other
was to have maybe monthly staff meetings. Meetings via the VCC which is available. I
don’t know where it’s available in the county, video conferencing, conference calling,
etc., telephone call. This was also discussed. Because I think they need to have out of
district meetings because since most of their staff are involved with multitude of various
types of projects. So to have everybody meet all in one place, it’s very hard to do. So,
the VCC, the telephone conferencing will assist them.
Now one area which I was not necessarily surprised, but was interesting to me was that
the department of Research and Development currently does not write their own grants,
the grant writing for various projects and programs. Instead they have a grant specialist
which informs the public of possible funding sources. But for the purposes of R&D, I
think they need to seek and write grants specific to their upcoming needs even if it
means training one or two, well one person to write grants or having someone seek and
write grants for them. And even contracting a grant writer because I see that as these
funds are in essence free monies that the county does not have to provide, the county
doesn’t have to provide any money but the county will reap the benefits in the future to
come from these grant monies. So therefore I think by even having someone do this
and utilizing and look for the monies, I think it’s going to be a win-win situation.
Health care and educational industries were also discussed. Because as it seems now,
these industries, they have a significant potential for any kind of economic gain or
whether it be through grant writing, additional funding for the County of Hawai‘i, and this
is where I think maybe the County of Hawai‘i should start focusing on. This was just a
tip of the iceberg but this is what was discussed in regards to that. I can go on and on
and on regarding that but I’m going to cut it at that.
Regarding our discussion with Scott Leonard, who is an employee of the Planning
Department. I don’t know if I mentioned, but Randy Kurohara is the Director of R&D.
Scott Leonard is an employee of the Planning Department. Scott too, supports the
immediate implementation of the laser fische, the VCC, in lieu of face-to-face meetings
where and when practical. What was very interesting in our discussions in addition to
his long three or four page letter recommendations, was that he recommended that
there be, to assist in monies a one time salvage fee of $150 that can be assessed at
any point or at the point of purchase of a new car or when registering your own vehicle
annually. This was discussed and very briefly. It seemed like a good idea but we’ll see
how it comes out. Another discussion which Scott unveiled a desire to promote a
proper construction of homes. I think this is a very good idea. Whether it’s going to be
implemented is another question. But he called it a type two home construction. His
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responses were very specific to his recommendations. This in itself will increase
property taxes by encouraging individuals to obtain building permits if you can have
such a type two building permit. But it will also start eventually resulting in revenues to
the county in the form of real property tax. Now Scott had many ideas if you have seen
and read his recommendations. I did want to discuss that he be invited to a commission
meeting to further discuss his recommendations and elaborate on his
recommendations. He did agree to present to our committee and recommend that he
was giving recommendation for our committee or to the body, the commission, at our
next commission meeting. When, I do not know. This body can decide if so and when,
and I believe we can do that, Kathy, correct? Invite him to a commission meeting.
MS. GARSON:
Items to be placed on the next agenda.
MR. MATSUDA:
Okay, so on the next agenda. But he agreed to come and speak at
our commission meeting and he’d be glad to speak at the commission meeting. He’s a
very good speaker. I believe it would be very good for the commission to hear him, as
I’m sure the commission members will have a lot of questions. If there’s anything I
missed, Gloria, please say so at this time. I just put together what my thoughts were.
MS. WONG:
Well, I want to make sure that everyone received the committee written
report. If you have any questions or comments on that at this time.
MS. GARSON:
Actually, so you passed out the report, again, the next agenda it will be
the discussion of that report.
MS. WONG:
Bill, do you have any comments on the meetings?
MR. TAKABA:
No. I think you did a good job on the report. And Glen too. It’s fine.
MS. WONG:
Let’s move on to the next committee report, Revenue Enhancement.
Before we move on, I don’t remember in categories of our committee, it says
operations, budget, policy and consolidation. I don’t remember, although it is in the
minutes, that policy was part of it. And it seems like a lot to have four different
categories although they’re intertwined.
MS. GARSON:
When you get to six and your discussion of approach, if you want to
tweak the committee, we’ll discuss it.
MS. WONG:
Okay, thank you.
B.Revenue Enhancement and Collections (K. Armour, P. Provalenko)
MS. WONG:
The next committee report, Revenue Enhancement and Collections, Ken
and Patricia.
MR. ARMOUR:
We did not have an opportunity to meet so therefore we don’t have a
report for today’s meeting. We’re scheduled to meet right after this meeting.
C.Technology Recommendations and Adoption (E. O’Hara, M. Nicholson)
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MS. WONG:
Third committee is Technology Recommendations and Adoption, Eileen
and Marilyn. Marilyn is not here.
MS. O’HARA:
Marilyn and I were not able to meet this time either. We did
communicate by email. I had made a recommendation about developing a matrix so
that we could analyze the comments that we’ve received so far from department heads
and other individuals in the county. And I’m working on doing that myself just to
demonstrate what the concept is. We have some recommendations on meetings. I’m
not really sure what her schedule is at this point and when she’ll be available again. But
we need to schedule a couple of meetings.
MS. GARSON:
Do you want to report, she has, you have meetings with people within
the county scheduled?
MS. O’HARA:
Yes.
MS. GARSON:
Okay.
MS. O’HARA:
She had suggested that we meet with the head of Data Systems. That
was where she wanted to start.
DISCUSSION REGARDING APPROACH TO TAKE TO TIMELY ACCOMPLISH
MANDATE OF THE COST OF GOVERNMENT COMMISSION
MS. WONG:
So moving on to item six, Discussions Regarding Approach To Take To
Timely Accomplish Mandate of the Cost of Government Commission. Comments on
that? I’ll start. One of the reasons on our committee report that I put who we’re meeting
with so that we’re not asking to meet, different committees asking to meet with the same
person. If the other committees would like to maybe participate when we meet with
people on the 12th.
MS. GARSON:
And that would be a problem.
MS. O’HARA:
That would be a problem?
MS. GARSON:
If you want more than your committee to be at the meeting, you have to
do it then invite them to the commission meeting so that everybody can discuss it.
MS. WONG:
Okay, thank you for clarifying it.
MS. GARSON:
But that’s something that you should discuss now.If there is any
particular department or department head that you want to come to or employee that
you want to all ask questions, then to invite them to be at one of these meetings would
be the proper thing to do.
MS. WONG:
Are there any other department heads or any of the responses that came
in that you would like to ask to speak besides Scott Leonard’s?
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MS. PROVALENKO:
I think that our committee, we have to get together and figure out
what we’re doing first before we do that because even inviting a department, I mean
we’re all in charge of different portions. We’re not ready to ask any questions. I think
it’s premature to ask that.
MS. WONG:
We were sent the calendar. I think that maybe at this point we can look at
the calendar. Friday seems to be not an easy day to have the commission meetings.
But that’s what we had set on at the first meeting.
MS. GARSON:
Do you want to discuss anything else on six or are you moving on?
Subcommittee progress, problems, did you want to take policy out of your committee?
MS. WONG:
I just kind of think what about our approach can we do better to
accomplish what we’re doing here.
MS. O’HARA:
I think you might be going to like establishing a timeline. Is that why you
were considering the meeting dates? I think that’s a good thing. We all work better with
deadlines for the subcommittees. Perhaps we should establish a deadline for us to do
our initial investigation cause that will set the stage for who we want to invite to the full
commission for further information. So, I think that’s a good idea to look at a timeline.
MS. WONG:
When would be a good deadline?
MS. O’HARA:
Perhaps the end of November? That gives us – do we have two
meetings in November?
MS. PROVALENKO:
That was part of why we look at meeting dates.
MR. ARMOUR:
The next one is the day after Thanksgiving.
MS. O’HARA:
We have a meeting the day after Thanksgiving? I’m not here.
MS. GARSON:
Actually that’s why Item 7 is on there. Marilyn asked that we put
Discussion of Future Meeting Dates on there because especially she was looking at the
holidays and thinking that that wasn’t going to work anyway. And again your
commission only has the six people. I haven’t heard of anybody else being suggested
yet. So, if you know now you’re not going to be present perhaps we should just
reschedule and set a tentative date for the meeting.
MS. O’HARA:
Well, how about the first meeting in December as the deadline?
MS. WONG:
The deadline for the committee reports?
MS. O’HARA:
Deadline for what the committee’s doing, the investigation, initial
investigation so you know whatever report you may want to bring to the full commission.
MS. WONG:
First meeting in December?
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MS. O’HARA:
It’s tentatively scheduled for December 10. So, question for Kathy – for
us to discuss the subcommittee reports, they have to be provided at the meeting before
the action taken?
MS. GARSON:
Yes.
MS. O’HARA:
So that means we wouldn’t be able to take action till January according
to our schedule.
MS. GARSON:
Right.
MS. O’HARA:
That’s a little tight. Maybe we should up it to the first week in November,
the first meeting in November. November 12?
MR. MATSUDA:
But because you haven’t met yet, would it be problem?
MS. O’HARA:
We’re just going to have to work hard in the next month.
MS. PROVALENKO:
You’ve got the departments that you want to look to. I think that’s
pushing it a little soon.
MS. O’HARA:
Cause if we don’t make decisions on these recommendations from the
subcommittees till January, and then decide who we want to bring in for the full
commission meetings, well I guess we can do that. We’re good until June? We have to
have our report by June.
MS. GARSON:
The committees were established to make things easier so you could
meet on your own outside of a meeting but don’t forget that an option is just to have
them come to the meeting and do your discussion. And that’s not a problem because
the person is here, you’ve agendized that they’re coming here to discuss it. You can
have your open discussion right then and there. You do not have to wait.
MS. WONG:
But you know when you meet separately and the minutes are not being
taken and it’s not been taken verbatim, there’s more flexibility for people to respond.
MS. GARSON:
Yeah. I mean it’s just a suggestion on how the timing works for you.
MS. O’HARA:
Well also like Gloria’s committee has already provided a report that we
can take action on at the next meeting so if we decide for instance to invite Scott
Leonard, that could occur sooner rather than waiting till January. So as the committees
take action and provide reports on their actions we can take action on that.
MS. GARSON:
Right. And with the report, it mentions items that might be appropriate
to have Data come to that meeting cause there were two issues – the laser fische issue
and the video conferencing issue, which I assume would be also related to Data.
MS. O’HARA:
It is.
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nd
MS. GARSON:
So, if you were going to have a quorum on the 22 that might be a
possibility for you to invite the head of Data or someone from that department that day.
MS. O’HARA:
Sounds good to me. Cause that kind of crosses over basically all three
categories so it might be a good place to start.
MS. WONG:
On our committee, getting back to the four items on our title, I’m a little bit
more comfortable taking policy off of our category. Is there any discussion or comments
on that? If not, I’d like to.
MOTION:MR. MATSUDA:
So moved.
MS. PROVALENKO:
Second.
MS. WONG:
It has been moved and seconded to amend the committee title as
Operations, Budget and Consolidation. All those in favor?
MS. GARSON:
Any discussion.
MS. WONG:
Any discussion? All those in favor say aye.
ACTION ON MOTION: All: Aye.
MS. WONG:
All those oppose say nay. (None) It is so moved
to amend the committee to Operations, Budget and
Consolidation.
MS. GARSON:
Okay, so before you move on off of 6A, is there anything our office can
do to provide further information? Or do you want requests to go out for any further
information from the commission to anyone?
MS. WONG:
I think Bill will be contacting those that have not responded so far.
MR. TAKABA:
Yes.
MS. WONG:
Are there any comments to the
MR. TAKABA:
Did anybody submit subsequent to the last meeting. Because I kind of
recall, Public Works is not on this but I thought I saw Public Works come through.
MS. ARRIOLA:
There’s a few more that turned in.
MR. TAKABA:
But some did turn in.
MS. ARRIOLA:
We have about five or six more.
MS. CARVALHO:
She’s going to email you an update, cause I don’t have copies of
who else turned in.
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MR. TAKABA:
Yeah, so there may be some on this list that actually submitted.
Because I don’t want to bug them if they did.
MS. CARVALHO:
Yeah.
MS. GARSON:
So what we can do is we’ll communicate with you after this meeting
and let you know who we haven’t received responses from.
MR. TAKABA:
And you know, Immigration, maybe you should scratch that because it
comes under the Mayor’s Office and so when we did the report for the Mayor’s Office,
we brought them in to our response.
MS. GARSON:
Okay.
MS. O’HARA:
I have a question too about responses when we send out the second
request for information to those who had received Cost of Government Commission
recommendations last time, are we logging how much response, that went out to what
about, was it seven or eleven?
MR. TAKABA:
Yeah, quite a few.
MS. CARVALHO:
Eight.
MS. O’HARA:
Eight departments, and I know we’ve gotten one back from Department
of Environmental Management. Have we gotten another response?
MS. CARVALHO:
One from Water and there’s going to be some on the next agenda.
So, I can keep a log of who responded.
MS. O’HARA:
Yeah, those are kind of important pieces of information that would be
helpful.
MS. WONG:
The letter that is going out to Mr. Yagong, if he wants to come and make a
statement to the commission, can he just request that? Instead of providing a written
response, can he just request to speak at the meeting?
MS. GARSON:
He could just come. Do you want the letter to say provide us or
attend?
MS. WONG:
Does anyone want to suggest that he attend? My feeling is that
sometimes when you get a whole lot of data and you have to put it into summary, you
miss some of the flavor of the responses. And I don’t know how much of data he
received but it seems to have been remembered.
MR. TAKABA:
I think at a minimum we should at least get the results or copies of
whatever he received.
MS. WONG:
A letter has been
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MS. O’HARA:
I guess what you’re asking is should we ask if he or someone from his
office can attend to clarify what’s in his submittal.
MS. PROVALENKO:
But could we like get the information first, review it and then
request explanation?
MS. WONG:
The letter asks for
MS. GARSON:
The letter just asks for information.
MS. PROVALENKO:
Right, and after we get the information then we can decide.
MS. WONG:
Okay. Another comment, I went online and found the years of minutes
from previous commissions. A lot of reading but it was very interesting to me to see that
things that we’re going through, discussions, it’s been discussed, been there, done that.
Some hurdles that they had to get over and it’s online. Our minutes are online.
Anything else that anyone might consider something useful to help our committees
move along or accomplishing the mandate?
MS. O’HARA:
I have one thing, and I’m not really sure how to bring this up so it fits
within the discussion. We have the subcommittee approach that we’re taking and we
also are looking at the overall duties or obligations of government to provide services.
And one thing that kind of arches over all of this is the manner in which we carry out our
government procurement process. The contracting end of things. I’m just wondering as
a separate subject if that can be kind of looked at because it impacts cost of
government at all different levels. And we are bound to state laws in terms of
procurement process, but there still may be ways to improve the internal process of
contracting within the county, not only the actual contracting process but also the
administering of the contract, the oversight of the contract, etc., that could potentially
save the county lots of money. So I just throw that out as a big item.
MS. WONG:
Perhaps that will be included in some of the investigations with the first
two committees.
MS. O’HARA:
I think it needs kind of it’s own focus because I think it’s big item and
we’re talking big dollar amounts. It can impact the cost of the county government.
MS. WONG:
So, are you suggesting another committee?
MS. O’HARA:
Oh heavens.
MR TAKABA:
Policy.
MS. GARSON:
Well, another thing you can do is invite someone from Purchasing or
Finance to your next meeting to give you an overview of government procurement and
contracting. And that might give you other ideas, cause I don’t know if all of the
members are familiar with the government’s contract data and procurement laws. You
worked for county and state so you understand, but maybe one of the first thing is what
the laws are and how the county deals with the contracts, might be helpful.
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MS. O’HARA:
And I got to say, what Bill said, it’s really about policy. I mean there is
the law and we have to follow the law. But there is also the framework that we have
devised as a county to pursue contracts. And it can be exceedingly cumbersome. But
that’s just the acquiring the contracts side. Then there is the administering the contract
and there’s just not a real coherent system within the county.It certainly is not flawless,
let’s put it that way. And because of that, we do incur substantial additional cost in our
contracting. And so perhaps it is a policy discussion. I’m not really sure.
MR. TAKABA:
Well, one thing we could do is, I think you’re starting to identify areas
that you want to focus on. One was like technology. You wanted Data Systems to
come in and explain how Data Systems or technology can be improved in the county.
And maybe another one would be procurement and contracting. That would be another
topic. There may be others and we could possibly dedicate one meeting to having
people come in and just explain how government operates in these areas. And then
whatever committee has to follow up with will do their follow up. But it seems like we’re
talking about, like if it’s procurement, it would be more like operations. It would fall
under the Operations, Budgeting Committee.
MR. MATSUDA:
If we’re having the individuals like you mentioned, coming to the
commission, maybe the committee should be the whole commission – everybody.
MR. TAKABA:
Yeah.
MS. O’HARA:
Oh yeah.
MR. TAKABA:
They could make presentations to the group as opposed to doing it
department by department. If you took functional areas and, if this commission would
identify areas that you want to learn more about from whoever deals with it, then that
could be a good start. And you could do it, depending on how many topics you have,
you could do it in one meeting and just devote that meeting to listening to these areas of
concern.
MS. WONG:
Let me ask, you’ve worked with the county, you’ve worked with state, I’ve
worked with the state and federal. I think the majority does have an understanding of
procurement contracting in local government.
MS. O’HARA:
And I think that that’s a good start. Our knowledge may be real specific
to our experiences there. I don’t know how things are done today in 2010.
MR. TAKABA:
Same.
MS. O’HARA:
I left the county in 2006, and so policy may have changed a little bit. But
I also worked for businesses that are under contract with the county and so I’ve seen
that side of it too. Things are not always done in a timely manner. And there are a lot
issues. And so is there an overall policy about how the county handles contracts? Is
DPW on a different track then the other departments still in terms of procurement? How
that all works, I mean, hearing the presentation is important from the procurement
department to get an understanding, but it’s also a good idea to get the feedback from
14
the various departments cause some find this process easier than others. And for
whatever reasons we need to identify what those reasons are. But there is some
tightening up that has to be done to improve the quality of services that we get under
contract. Like I said, the contracting process is one thing. But then ensuring that we
get the quality of services that we’ve contracted for is another. And who is providing
that oversight cause that then falls into the operations side of things. It’s something that
needs to be looked at overall as a policy issue for the county I would think, to make it a
little tighter and improve our cost savings.
MS. GARSON:
If there is somebody here you can ask them questions.
MS. O’HARA:
I guess it’s identifying who all we need.
MR. TAKABA:
You can look at, take Finance Department. It’s a staff agency. It
services the county. Even like HR would service the county. That’s another staff
agency. If you take these departments within the department, you would see like you
mentioned procurement, the revenue generating committee might want to look at Real
Property Tax Division and ask questions about that. How can we improve our revenue
collections? Are the delinquencies too high? Things like that. There’s also other, like
HR, you might want to have them discuss could the hiring process be improved?
Things like that. Do we have to spend so much on advertising or whatever. But I think
if you focus on a lot of the staff departments that serve the county, you could get several
areas of discussion going. So, it’s up to the commission what they want to see and
what kind of concerns you have. What you want to see explained better maybe.
MS. O’HARA:
Well, for the idea of looking at how the county’s contracting process
goes from beginning to end. The entities involved would be Procurement on the front
end.
MR. TAKABA:
And you mentioned contracting too, so that will involve maybe an
attorney.
MS. O’HARA:
Is there an attorney that specific for the procurement?
MS. GARSON:
We all review contracts. The attorney for the Purchasing Division is
Craig Masuda who is also an attorney for Public Works who does a lot of construction
contracts.
MR. TAKABA:
Maybe two attorneys, one construction and the other one for, I don’t
know who from your, is there somebody that really specializes in it?
MS. GARSON:
It’s primarily Craig Masuda.
MR. TAKABA:
Craig. Because he’s Purchasing. So procurement and contracting
would be one. We already talked about technology. And that would be Data Systems.
Corporation Counsel is heavily into laser fische. Maybe somebody who is most familiar
with laser fische can explain what he or she feels.
15
MS. O’HARA:
And that’s a question I have. I mean we have Data System as a staffing
or service entity within the county, but within each department I would expect that the
larger departments that there is a dedicated employee that interacts with Data. I mean
whether it be the deputy director, whoever it is in each department that puts together
their department’s technology plans that they have that interaction. Is that the case?
That there is kind of somebody appointed in each department?
MR. TAKABA:
Yeah, but each department operates a little differently. A small
department may do it through their accountant. A bigger department may do it with a
professionally trained person in that area. Depending on the department and the size of
the department. When I was at Office of Aging we had program people in each area
doing contracts so no one person would do the contracts. Each person would do their
own contracts. But I think that if you had like Craig and maybe Gilbert from Purchasing.
We should ask Nancy too if we’re going to bring in Real Property Tax because that’s
two of her divisions. So you want Real Property Tax too as the biggest revenue source
of the county?
MR. ARMOUR:
Sure. And that was one of the things we were going to talk about in
our committee.
MS. O’HARA:
And who is the head of Data?
MR. TAKABA:
Data Systems would be Burt Tsuchiya.
MS. O’HARA:
Okay.
MS. WONG:
When will these people be asked to attend? For the next meeting?
MR. TAKABA:
It’s up to the committee. If you want to have it all on one day to kick off
the work of the committees of the commission then that’s possible. It’s up to you, the
commission how they want to do this.
MS. WONG:
How many names do we have so far?
MS. GARSON:
Nancy Crawford and Gilbert Benevides who is the Purchasing Division
Head, Craig Masuda who is the attorney for Purchasing, Real Property Tax
Administrator and Burt Tsuchiya who is Data Systems Division Head.
MS. WONG:
So five.
MS. O’HARA:
Yet those extend different focuses. Like the contracting focus would be
Purchasing and Craig Masuda?
MR. TAKABA:
So you want to know how we invest our money, we could have the
Treasurer come over and talk to us for the revenue side.
MS. O’HARA:
So revenue would be more Nancy Crawford through the Real Property
MR. TAKABA:
No, the Treasurer would be Mike Okumoto.
16
MS. O’HARA:
But I mean together kind of focusing on the revenue enhancement side.
MR. TAKABA:
Yes.
MS. O’HARA:
So those two people could be invited together. And then, what was the
other one – technology, the head of Data Systems? Anybody else?
MR. TAKABA:
HR. If you want HR to come in. We’re kind of going through the
agencies that service the county itself not the public, but more county.
MS. O’HARA:
So but for the Data, if we were to have a discussion strictly on acquiring
technology and data systems and things, other then the head of Data, who else would
we want to invite?
MR. TAKABA:
Depends on what kind of technology we’re looking at. Is it computers?
Is it doing websites?
MS. WONG:
Did you have a suggestion?
MS. SCHRANDT:
I was just thinking in response to her question if you look at the
major systems you also have the police system and some major systems that are
actually quite separate within the county. So rather than just Burt from Data Systems
you might want to invite representatives from the departments that have separate major
systems.
MS. GARSON:
I think that would be Police, Prosecutors and the Office of Housing
have independent data system.
MS. O’HARA:
Office of Housing?
MR. TAKABA:
Yes. It really depends. If you’re talking about computers that’s one
thing. Then there are other departments. But if we’re talking about copy machines, I
know that came out in the reports, they talked about copy machines.
MS. O’HARA:
Does Data put together a comprehensive plan for the county or they just
do those departments that aren’t independent?
MR. TAKABA:
There are times that they do. The Council would ask for reports or
plans. It’s not like a regular thing.
MS. O’HARA:
Yeah, this is my concern that we’re not going to really hit it by just
bringing in Data Systems cause they deal more with the software, computers, printers.
MS. GARSON:
And Water Supply also has their own independent system. You could
devote a meeting to Data and then have a representative from each of the other
independent systems.
17
MS. O’HARA:
Yeah. It would be nice if the county had an over arching technology
plan that would pull all this together. Civil Defense probably has their own system as
well. I mean they probably aren’t served by Data Systems are they?
MR. TAKABA:
I’m not sure.
MS. O’HARA:
So yeah, if we want to talk about the technology plan for the county and
how that could save them money, I think we have to invite these different individuals to
see how it all plays together. Or maybe that would be a focus for our meeting.
MS. WONG:
So Kathy, you’ll arrange that?
MR. TAKABA:
So we devote one meeting to technology?
MS. O’HARA:
One meeting to contracts. One meeting to technology.
MR. TAKABA:
Well contracts I think you can maybe have two
MS. O’HARA:
Two topics?
MR. TAKABA:
Yeah, two topics. I don’t see contracts and procurement as being a
really long discussion.
MS. GARSON:
It depends on the questions that the commission have.
MR. TAKABA:
Yeah. If you feel like a burning desire to ask a lot of questions then we
can spend more time. It doesn’t matter. It’s up to the commission how much time you
want to devote.
MS. O’HARA:
Right. And what I’m seeing shape up is if we have a discussion whether
it’s the whole meeting or we have more than one discussion at the meeting, on
contracts it kind of aids and abets the subcommittee one, Operations, Budget and
Consolidations a lot because these outside contracts are critical to operations. And if
we had another meeting where we looked at the technology over arching technology
plan of the county, that would coincide with subcommittee three’s mission. And the
other one was revenue enhancements and this recommendation was to invite Nancy,
and the Treasurer.
MR. TAKABA:
The Treasurer, the Real Property Tax Director.
MS. O’HARA:
And that would help with that subcommittee’s mission. Maybe that’s
something that we could decide to do over the calendar that we have.
MR. TAKABA:
The other thing is then on the other side, you got delinquencies. I don’t
want to point to any one department but it’s come up before where there are some
concerns like Environmental Management where you have uncollected landfill and
wastewater charges. You may want to call in Environmental Management to talk about,
and I think they’re working with, who’s working with them from Corporation Counsel?
18
MS. GARSON:
Molly Lugo.
MR. TAKABA:
Molly. They may have some insight on – that always comes up. I’ve
seen it a lot of times in council. They bring it up and reports come out. Maybe Colleen
would say something about it.
MS. SCHRANDT
: No.
MR. TAKABA:
But that’s an area that there’s been some concern. Real Property Tax
has delinquencies too. After three years they foreclose, automatic, but they may need
to explain what they do in collections. I would think that Real Property and
Environmental Management may have the most to say in that area.
MS. O’HARA:
And Environmental Management might have something to say on the
contracts piece too.
MR. TAKABA:
Yeah.
MS. O’HARA:
Because I don’t think they have the same green light as DPW in
construction contracts, yet they do construction. So, you might get some feedback from
them on that as well.
MR. ARMOUR:
After we have our discussion today can our meeting committee email
you our request which ones we want to come in as far as Finance? Two or three of
them that Bill’s talking about.
MR. TAKABA:
Yeah. So whoever you want scheduled, let me know and I’ll have my
secretary make the arrangement.
MR. ARMOUR:
A couple of the ones you suggested were ones that we emailed back
and forth about.
MR. TAKABA:
What was that?
MR. ARMOUR:
The Tax Division, Sewer and Water.
MR. TAKABA:
Okay. That’s for sure?
MR. ARMOUR:
Yeah.
MS. PROVALENKO:
So, you think it will be Nancy?
MR. TAKABA:
Yeah. What I’ll do rather than trying to figure out who should come, if
you tell me what you want discussed, then I’ll find people that are appropriate, unless
there is somebody specific that you want.
MS. O’HARA:
Okay. Well delinquencies is kind of the flip side of revenue
enhancement.
19
MR. TAKABA:
Yeah but it’s cost.
MS. O’HARA:
Yeah, it is but we are looking at that too.
MS. WONG:
When the committees make a report, are we going to have three separate
reports to send to the Mayor or are we going to have one report, and who will be writing
the report? Will it come from us or do we send a draft and someone else compile it?
MS. GARSON:
You basically determine what is in the report. And actually at the last
Cost of Government the wording was worked out at meetings. We’ll provide clerical
support and if you want all of the suggestions in the back, we’ll compile it, but the actual
drafting is done by the entire commission.
MS. PROVALENKO:
It’s actually at the meeting.
MS. GARSON:
You decide on the structure which you want it to look like. How you
want things broken up then we compile it for you.
MS. O’HARA:
Just one more thing before we move on. On the delinquency issue, I
just want to ask Bill what his knowledge is of fair share contributions. Is this system up
to date, and do we have delinquencies there?
MR. TAKABA:
That needs a lot of work. There’s two sides of it.One is the legality
has always been questioned. So there’s some hesitation, but it’s been used. The
money that’s there, about four and a half million, the money that’s there has been used,
but it’s divided by geographic areas and within the geographic areas you got Police, Fire
and all these different services. So by the time you look at say what Parks has
available in a particular district, it’s not enough to do a real big project.
MS. O’HARA:
Well is that because we haven’t been assessing enough or because
we’re not receiving the assessments?
MR. TAKABA:
No, no. As far receiving it, we’ve been charging the developers.
MS. O’HARA:
So there aren’t a lot of delinquencies there currently?
MR. TAKABA:
No, no. It’s not. They don’t get their permits unless they pay up front.
MS. GARSON:
You’re saying that, back to sort of the big picture, when you deal with
revenue enhancements you also want to talk about fair share.
MR. TAKABA:
Yeah. Then I can ask Planning Department.
MS. GARSON:
From Planning to discuss fair share.
MS. O’HARA:
Yeah. Cause I know we made a run at having an actual impact fee put
into place and that didn’t fly.
MR. TAKABA:
Right.
20
MS. WONG:
Are we done with any further comments on Item 6?
MR. ARMOUR:
I have one comment and it doesn’t concern our committee but we
talked a lot about laser fische. Wouldn’t that be more under technology committee? I
know that things overlap but it seems to be more technology.I don’t know how to
address it, I’m just making a comment.
MS. WONG:
I think we’ll find that the committees will overlap in several things. I sort of
looked at it as an operational thing.
MS. GARSON:
So that would be a situation we probably would bring in Data Systems
and a user to talk about the system if that’s something that the commission wants to
learn more about.
MS. O’HARA:
Yeah. For instance the delinquency that we discussed with Department
of Environmental Management – landfill fees and sewer fees. It’s really into technology
too. The technology that the interface that they have at the landfill, and being able to
accurately assess and track all these accounts. So that’s a technology issue too.
MR. TAKABA:
You may even look at the revenue side where you got fees. A lot of
departments collect fees. Is it appropriate if it’s compared statewide, is it too high, too
low, just right?
MS. WONG:
We’ve just discussed who we’d like to have from the county, but we’ve
talked in the past about inviting the public. And I know that they are invited, but is there
a way that we could invite the public more of an outreach to participate whether by
email or by mail? Any discussion on that? Do we want to more strongly encourage the
public at this time?
MR. TAKABA:
If you look at the questions that were asked of the departments, like
question three, specifically asks them to identify revenue and revenue collections in
their departments that they’re applicable. Maybe the committee would want to look at
that and if there’s any department that stands out or that makes a good suggestion that
you might want to follow up on, we can invite those departments just to talk about fees.
So maybe at your meeting after this, you’re going to meet after this?
MR. ARMOUR:
Yes.
MR. TAKABA:
You can talk about it. And I know you’re not going to be ready actually
select the departments but you may want to discuss that.
DISCUSSION REGARDING FUTURE MEETING DATES
MS. WONG:
Moving on to Item 7, Discussion Regarding Future Meetings. Will
nd
everyone be here for the 22? Seems like everyone will be here hopefully. So
November, two of the meetings are the days after holidays. Do we want to change
that? One person is nodding yes so far.
21
thth
MR. ARMOUR:
For me the 12 is okay, the 26 I’d like that changed.
MS. PROVALENKO:
Me too.
MS. O’HARA:
Would it be advisable to shift both days up a week and then we’d still
have two.
MS. GARSON:
Then just shift them to the Thursday because the Fridays are Furlough
Fridays. You can move them up a week but move it to a different day other than Friday.
th
MS. WONG:
So you’re saying the fourth and 18?
th
MS. GARSON:
The fifth and the 19 are Furlough days.
th
MR. ARMOUR:
The 18 doesn’t work for me.
th
MS. WONG:
The 18 does not work for you?
MR. ARMOUR:
No.
MS. O’HARA:
Which one?
MR. ARMOUR:
Fourth.
MS. O’HARA:
The fourth one you can’t make?
ndth
MS. WONG:
How about the 2 and 16?
MS. O’HARA:
That’s election.
th
MS. WONG:
Is that a holiday too? Third and 17?
K. ARMOUR:
Yeah.
th
MR. TAKABA:
The 16 is holiday? What holiday is that?
MS. GARSON:
No, the second. Okay, so we’re looking at November 3.
th
MS. WONG:
Third and 17. How about December?
MR. TAKABA:
Okay, so it’s 11/3 and 11/17? Is that what it is?
MS. WONG:
11/3 and 11/17. Same time, 10:00. December 10 and 24. Twenty-four is
Christmas eve. There has been a request for a break. We’ll take a break for five
minutes.
BREAK: 11:25-11:30
MR. TAKABA LEFT AT 11:30.
22
MS. WONG:
The meeting will reconvene. It’s 11:30. We were on Item 7, Discussion
Regarding Future Meeting Date. December 10 and 24.
MS. GARSON:
Do you want to just not, we can just not have the second meeting and
th
you can discuss it later. You probably are going to be okay just for the 10 in
December and not have two meetings that month. Just based on experience.
December is hard.
MS. O’HARA:
Sounds good.
th
MS. WONG
: Just the 10?
MS. PROVALENKO:
Yeah.
thth
MS. WONG:
January is 14 and 28. It seems to be still good.
MS. GARSON:
How about we do this. We can have that as a standing agenda item,
Future Meeting Dates. We will have that as a standard agenda item so at each meeting
you can poll us and see if anyone has a problem. Because we already have had issues
twice with not being able to get a quorum for our regular scheduled meeting because
things come up. So, I know that Marilyn wanted this on the agenda because it was the
holidays. So as long as we’ve taken care of the holiday season. January is not until the
th
14 anyway so you kind of get through the holiday season and then you can revisit the
issue.
MR. ARMOUR:
Just talking about January, I have a trip to the mainland and I think the
th
14 I won’t be here, but I have to double check the dates.
MS. GARSON:
And that’s also the Friday before the holiday weekend.
MS. WONG:
So do you want to talk about that, January at this meeting?
MS. O’HARA:
Something to discuss at every meeting.
ITEMS TO BE PLACED ON NEXT AGENDA
MS. WONG:
Moving on to Item 8, Items to be Placed on Next Agenda. One is the
calendar.
MS. GARSON:
So, I’ll have the discussion on the report that was presented today.I
need a little bit of a clearer idea of who exactly, or what exactly you want on the next
agenda. Bill and I were discussing that perhaps you would be okay with purchasing and
contracts issue. So we would invite Nancy, Gilbert and an attorney from our office. And
there’s also a contract specialist in Department of Public Works who we could invite.
And again, depending on the interaction from the commission, that could take you
awhile. And then if you want to just maybe we have just Burt Tsuchiya who is the head
of Data Systems, come in and just talk about what his knowledge is of the Data System,
give you that general idea. And then if you then want to invite the other people from the
23
other departments with independent systems, and we can make the decision at that
time rather than have five people come in. Or you can just stick to the contracts, but I
probably would suggest that you would stagger the meeting time because you are
dealing with department heads that we would say 10:00 you would have the contract
people come in. And if you wanted somebody else to come in, and you say that’s
11:00.
MS. O’HARA:
Yeah, definitely. One other thing I’d like to recommend, when we’re
looking at contracts it’s one thing to get the input from Procurement and the attorneys.
It’s another thing to hear from the departments and the issues they’re having with
getting actions contracted, getting out their RFP, IFB, and the oversight that they’re
providing once the contract is in place in terms of collecting documentation. So it would
be nice to hear both sides. And we’ll only basically hear one by inviting Procurement,
and we’ll understand the process. But we also need to understand what the issues are
with that process. So, it may take more than one meeting to address this.
MS. GARSON:
Oh yeah. That’s fine.
MS. WONG:
So the next two meetings will be four groups.
MS. GARSON:
Please tell me so, the next meeting you want to discuss the contracting
people? Procurement. And so we’ll invite the representative from the Department of
Public Works too, who is the contract person. And in a way she’s a little bit on a user
end too.
MS. O’HARA:
They have a different process.
MS. GARSON:
So Nancy Crawford, Gilbert Benevides who is the head of the
Purchasing Division, and an attorney from our office to talk about contracting
procedures.
MS. O’HARA:
All on the same topic?
MS. GARSON:
Yes. And if you want somebody else on a different topic you let me
know.
MS. O’HARA:
So, can we then identify as a commission what it is we need to know so
they can have better direction on preparing.
MS. GARSON:
Yes.
MS. WONG:
I’m sorry?
MS. GARSON:
What you do you want them to speak about.
MS. O’HARA:
Yeah. What we need to know from these folks that we’re inviting so
they can develop a presentation.
MS. WONG:
The process of procurement, isn’t it?
24
MS. O’HARA:
We want to understand the process? Do we need to know what
services are contracted, outside contracts? The types of services?
MS. WONG:
You want specific kinds of contracts?
MS. O’HARA:
There’s all kinds of contracts. There’s construction contracts and
service contracts, and how much of the work that the county has done through outside
contractors. It’s some knowledge that we need to understand in terms of the Cost of
Government. A lot of services are done by outside contractors.So in terms of the
volume, dollar amount, those kinds of things. What the process is for a multi-year
contract. What the process is for professional services. These are all different
processes under Procurement so it’s good if the commission has a general
understanding of how that all works.
MR. MATSUDA:
Kathy, based on this, what would you say on the, you requested of
the individual who got this procurement process. Like okay, we just need you to appear
at the commission meeting and to discuss these items. You have to tell the person
what it’s going to be about.
MS. GARSON:
Right. If you were asking for an attorney from my office to be here, I
would say, present an overview of the procurement law and the various different things.
Make it 15 minutes just so that everybody has an understanding of what we do. We can
also describe what our office does in reviewing contracts.I do think that Ms. O’Hara’s
suggestions the kind of services that are contracted out it’s going to be something that’s
important to you that would have to be something that Purchasing Division can come up
with.
MS. O’HARA:
Another question is how are addendums to contracts handled? Are they
handled by the department or are they handled by Finance, the Purchasing Division?
Who initiates those actions? These are some
MS. GARSON:
Amendments to contracts?
MS. O’HARA:
A contract is let and it will state that it can be extended. And so those
contract extensions are generally called addendums. And what happens some times is
they fall into the void. Nobody is really dealing with it in terms of those extensions. Is it
the departments responsibility to initiate? Is it Procurement’s responsibility? I know
from my perspective as representing a company that does contracts with the county,
those things don’t always fall out in a reasonable manner. Again it’s a policy issue as
Bill brought up about how these things are handled. I think if we go and get this
information first, what the process is, and then consult with some of the departments on
their experience and their issues with contracts, we’ll begin to see what isn’t working
well.
MS. GARSON:
I would say then, generally that’s contract administration for various
different types of contracts that we would like information on.
25
MS. O’HARA:
Right. And we would like to know their explanation of who is
responsible for that and to help contracting. So knowing the types of services and how
it’s administered.
MS. WONG:
Then it might be helpful for people that are asked to come to the
commission that we have three different subcommittees so that they would be alerted to
what kind of topics each committee would be addressing.
MS. O’HARA:
So getting back to what you said originally, Kathy, was whether we
should do this and Data at the next meeting? That sounds like a lot to.
MS. GARSON:
Too much?
MS. O’HARA:
Yeah.
MS. GARSON:
Okay. So the agenda item will probably be something like,Discussion
and question and answer session with Purchasing Division, Public Works and
Corporation Counsel regarding current processing of contracts and contract
administration.
MS. O’HARA:
Okay.
MS. GARSON:
And that’s broad enough to maybe ask, have you ask question of them.
MS. WONG:
So there will be four people and say 15 minutes presentation by each?
MS. O’HARA:
At max.
MS. GARSON:
Or the representative from Public Works might not necessarily have a
presentation but is there to answer questions.
MS. WONG:
So can you make sure or stay for our questions and answers after your
presentation?
MS. GARSON:
Sure.
MS. O’HARA:
Can we also ask them, because the contracting process can be very
complex, if it can be put into a flow chart, like handout, that we could follow along with
because it can get very complex. There’s a lot of issues with the law.
MS. GARSON:
I can ask them. I can tell you right now, what we have is contract
routing form. That has how it’s routed. What we can do is we can bring you things that
are already in existence but I’m thinking that two weeks, the next meeting is October 22,
in order to get your packets out we got one week. But that might be something if they
can’t verbally explain it to you while they’re here, we can ask them.
MS. O’HARA:
They might already have these things to go. Anything that they do have
developed in the way of the graphic of the flow of contracts and how it works would be
very helpful.
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MS. GARSON:
And there is a state procurement office website that also has links to
various trainings and they have flow charts for how that process works. So, I’ll either
bring them to you or make sure that it’s done by the attorney who is presenting it.
MS. O’HARA:
That would be very helpful.
MS. GARSON:
I think probably a short presentation and then just having them here to
respond to questions will probably be a good idea.
MS. O’HARA:
So, do we want to give them a time on the agenda like 10:45 so that we
can complete our other business? Or how shall we do it?
MS. GARSON:
That’s up to you.
MS. WONG:
Any specific time? We’re starting at 10. 10:30?
MS. GARSON:
The other thing is you have flexibility with your agenda to move things.
It can be 10, and we can put it first, as long as you have Statements from the Public
prior to that, you’re okay.
MS. WONG:
So, for an hour? Hour and a half? That doesn’t give us much time to
make a presentation if there’s four.
MR. ARMOUR:
Maybe hour and a half, and if they finish it up sooner than that’s fine.
MS. GARSON:
But I can just have them all here. They all work together. So they can
play off each other too, if one cannot answer your question the other can. So a short
presentation, each do no more than 15 minutes and stick around for everybody to ask
questions.
MS. WONG:
And in the event Nancy cannot come, do we want to wait until she can
come or just accept the replacement?
MS. GARSON:
I think you accept the replacement. And the other thing is ifthey know
someone who might have information that they want you to hear, they may bring that
person.
MS. WONG:
Anything else to be placed on the agenda for the next meeting?
MS. PROVALENKO:
I think it’s a full agenda.
MS. O’HARA:
In terms of the correspondence, if we can get an update of the logs that
we talked about. We’ll probably have more correspondence coming in.
MS. WONG:
An update from all the reports from the subcommittees at the next
meeting or not yet because we’ll be hearing from them.
MS. GARSON:
I’ll leave that on, Reports from the Subcommittees as a standing thing.
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MS. O’HARA:
Aren’t we going to have discussion on the report that was made today?
MS. GARSON:
Yes.
MS. O’HARA:
So that’s a separate agenda item?
MS. GARSON:
Yes, it will be a separate agenda item.
MS. WONG:
Anything else for the next meeting?
ANNOUNCEMENTS
MS. WONG:
If not, the next meeting of the Cost of Government Commission will be
held on October 22, 2010, at 10:00 a.m., at the Liquor Conference Room, 101 Aupuni
Street, Suite 230, Hilo, HI 96720.
ADJOURNMENT
MS. WONG:
Is there a motion to adjourn?
MR. MATSUDA:
Before we adjourn.
MS. WONG:
Discussion.
MR. MATSUDA:
Do we have, just verbally, who submitted their questionnaire?
MS. CARVALHO:
You mean from the departments?
MR. MATSUDA:
Yes.
MS. CARVALHO:
Well we don’t have an up to date listing yet because Sandy got
some that is not on here, but right now we have, you want who submitted or who
hasn’t?
MR. MATSUDA:
Who submitted.
MS. CARVALHO:
Civil Defense, Corporation Counsel, County Clerk, Data Systems,
Environmental Management, Finance, Housing, Human Resources, Liquor, Mayor,
Parks, Police, Prosecutors, Research and Development and Water. And there’s more
who have submitted but Sandy has to update it.
MS. O’HARA:
Are there any departments that we haven’t heard from?
MS. CARVALHO:
That we have not?
MS. O’HARA:
Yes.
MS. CARVALHO:
Yes.
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MS. CARVALHO:
Yes. We are missing Aging, Fire, Mass Transit, Planning and Public
Works. But some of them have submitted, but I’m just not sure.
MS. O’HARA:
Is the Legislative Auditor’s Office?
MS. GARSON:
I’m not sure that we’ve sent her a letter. However, you could ask or I
would recommend though is that I will send you a link. I believe the audits are online
and that you can look at her audit. I guess she would not be comfortable as a
Legislative Auditor making suggestions based upon her job. Probably be good for you
to look at the audit. I can send you those things.
MS. WONG:
Any other discussion? Is there a motion to adjourn?
MOTION:MR. MATSUDA:
So moved.
MR. ARMOUR:
Second.
MS. WONG:
Meeting is adjourned.
Meeting was adjourned at 11:50 a.m.
Submitted by:
Sandra Arriola
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