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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-04-26 Cost of Government Commission minutes COST OF GOVERNMENT COMMISSION c/o Office of the Mayor, 25 Aupuni Street, Suite 2603 Hilo, Hawai‘i 96720 COST OF GOVERNMENT COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING MINUTES APRIL 26, 2018 HAWAI‘I COUNTY BUILDING, PUNA CONFERENE ROOM – HILO 25 AUPUNI STREET, SUITE 1401, HILO, HAWAI‘I CALL TO ORDER Chairperson Jones called the meeting to order at 9:09 a.m. ATTENDANCE Present: Jenipher A. Jones, Chairperson Margarita “Dayday” L. Hopkins, Vice-Chairperson *note: arrived at meeting 9:20 a.m. Lenard Allen, Commissioner Barbara Ann Bongo Arthurs, Commissioner Ross E. Birch, Commissioner David A. Buehler, Commissioner Gregory Dale Larson, Commissioner Harry Lee McIntosh III, Commissioner *note: first meeting for Commissioner McIntosh as a newly-installed member after being appointed on April 25, 2018 Genevieve Puanani Woo, Commissioner ____ Also present: William Brilhante, Director of Human Resources (portion of meeting) Dennis Kauka, Jr., Executive Assistant Aide – Office of the Mayor Ronald Kim, Deputy Corporation Counsel Nancy Crawford, Deputy Director of Finance (portion of meeting) Deanna Sako, Director of Finance (portion of meeting) Roy Takemoto, Executive Assistant to the Mayor (portion of meeting) STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC Speaking on item number 5 for the agenda: Alan Okinaka, identifying himself as a retired GTE Hawaiian Tel manager, emphasized the importance of the role a supervisor plays in productivity. He noted the need for supervisors to be well-trained, which directly translates to cost of government. Cost of Government Commission April 26, 2018 meeting minutes APPROVAL OF MINUTES (April 5 meeting) Comments: Commissioner Buehler noted a correction needed on pg. 4 under “Public Outreach Methods and Website” to replace “contact” with “contain”. Commissioner Larson motioned to approve the minutes as amended. Commissioner Allen seconded. Motion approved unanimously by voice vote – 8 ayes OVERVIEW OF COUNTY EMPLOYEES BY THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES (taken out of agenda order)  Department of Human Resources Director William Brilhante relayed the Commission with the numbers of County employees broken down by various categories, types and bargaining units. A spreadsheet of the data was provided, which is on file. o Discussions: What is HGEA? Hawai‘i Government Employees Association union Are these positions approved by the County Council? All approved during the annual budget process. The creation of new positions have been minimal. Growth and decline on number of employees. Over a five year period, the number of County positions have increased by less than 150, which is reflective of population growth. When a police officer goes from regular duty to special duty, there is a different category such as an overtime account and the funds are billed to the contractor, who covers costs. The difference between collective bargaining and Salary Commission positions are that the department heads wages are determined by the Commission. Mass Transit, The Office of Aging and Civil Defense are considered agencies and their salaries are through the “excluded manager compensation plan”. We may want to look at what is referred to as “level of services standards” such as how many police officers are adequate for certain districts, etc. OVERVIEW OF COUNTY BUDGET BY THE DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE (taken out of agenda order)  Department of Finance Director Deanna Sako presented a PowerPoint presentation titled “County Budget 101…Where it Comes From…Where it Goes, an Overview of Budgetary Accounting and the Budget Process for the County of Hawai‘i. The presentation is on file. o Discussions included revenue streams, taxes collected by County such as the fuel tax, the transient accommodations tax (TAT) received from the State, total payroll expenses, public open space lands. 2 Cost of Government Commission April 26, 2018 meeting minutes SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS FROM PREVIOUS COST OF GOVERNMENT COMMISSIONS Roy Takemoto, who was to present this information, needed to excuse himself from the meeting prior to this item. Therefore, the item was postponed. DISCUSSION ON APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY After reviewing the report, recommendations and department responses from the previous the last Commission, Commissioners concluded their best approach is to focus on items that could actually get implemented and reasonable requests to make a difference. An examples of items they feel would not to be productive to work on were anything with collective bargaining involved. Questions Commissioners could focus on: What are areas that are not just cost-cutting but “smarter spending”? Are Departments utilizing technology optimally? What are specific reasons Departments may not be able to take a money-saving recommendation? Are their legal reasons, etc.? Is there a class for the public on building permit process? What criteria will be used to determine cost items we can effect change on? A comment was made to consider the overall population and demographics such as age when proposing technological changes. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 1:10 p.m. 3