HILO — They formerly worked in banking, education, tourism, small business and government.
But regardless of their backgrounds, they came together Thursday with one common goal: to explore county government and find ways to make government function more efficiently.
The Cost of Government Commission, required by charter to be convened every four years, has its work cut out for it considering almost three-quarters of the county budget is tied up in county employees’ salary and benefits set statewide, in payments on bond debt made years previously and other uncontrollable costs.
But it’s ready to give it a try.
“We’ve all had to make course corrections in business because that’s what we had to do,” said Commissioner Jenipher Jones, a former pest control company manager who now owns a dog kennel. “I’d like to see progress.”
David Buehler, former Bank of Hawaii senior vice president and manager for American Samoa District, said he had to make some “gut-wrenching” management decisions during his tenure. Sometimes that’s what it takes, he said.
“Save money or make money,” Buehler described the choice. “I hope I can bring that to the table.”
Public involvement through suggestions and testimony is being encouraged. The next meeting is tentatively planned for April 26.
For many of the eight volunteer commissioners, the new board is their first stint at a government post.
One commissioner, Dayday Hopkins, was previously a longtime county employee, working as an economic development specialist in the Department of Research and Development.
“I know how to run a program with very little money,” she said.
The previous commission, in 2015, said Hawaii County needs to get a better handle on overtime, the use of county vehicles, fuel costs and excess paperwork. Many of the recommendations were also proposed by the prior Cost of Government Commission, which issued its report in 2011.
The County Council has implemented recommendations by the 2011 commission to require financial documentation to qualify for agricultural property tax exemptions. A proposal to eliminate homeowners’ property tax exemption for unpermitted dwellings hasn’t progressed far, however.
The administration has also been trying to implement a countywide technology management plan and make greater use of videoconferencing and other technology instead of travel.
Feedback the 2015 commission received indicated a perception that county vehicles may be misused. To address this, the commission recommended development and implementation of a uniform computer mileage tracking system for all county-owned vehicles. That hasn’t happened.
Recommendations for regional transit hubs for the Hele-On bus system, tying in the island’s airports and other top destinations, are slowly being implemented as part of a $500,000 master plan.
Progress on many of the recommendations of both commissions has been slow. That doesn’t mean the new commission shouldn’t be bold, said Roy Takemoto, an executive assistant to Mayor Harry Kim.
“We want to do it as differently as you folks are willing to take it,” Takemoto told the commission. “All the cards are on the table as far as we’re concerned.”
Haaa, haaa, haaa!
They need more “money”!!
…and by the way, they need even bigger raises cuz
….3/4 of the budget is “out of their control”!
So, the “once hired, can’t be fire” folk need bigger! bigger! salary!
…and lots of “can’t be fired” folk to “manage”!
Haaa, Haaa, Haaa!
What marroons
..but they got their their fingers in the pie!
In another 4 years they’ll be saying the same thing as in the past, the 2018 commissions recommendations has been slow. You can not run government like you can a private business, government is ALL overhead.
That’s not necessarily true, the focus just needs to be more on excessive spending and salaries and efficiencies!! Most big companies have departments that don’t directly contribute to the bottom line but can affect overall company profit if not kept in check..
Your hopes and dreams notwithstanding, our government will never function like free enterprise does. There is no profits to be made to show productivity, no incentives to produce more or get better. Run mostly through the unions.
A budget surplus at the end of the year would show progress..
The only way a surplus might happen is if they raised our taxes and fees WAY up. Take a look at (statedatalab-org) click on hawaii, and you’ll understand the black hole we are going down.
Eliminate the county band….no need frill
Last time they tried to get rid of the band under Kenoi, both Harry Kim and Joe Kamelamela testified against it. Not going to happen.
Here’s a clue….reduce the size of government!
Not going to happen under Harry Kim. Harry Kim increased the size of government his first term and he’s at it again and this time he’s at record pace to break the bank.
With this administration we don’t need R&D. We’re not moving forward we’re moving backwards in time yet the budget is increasing at all time highs. Dissolve R&D and let RSVP volunteers in their 80’s try and recall what the county did in the 70’s. Harry Kim lives his life in the past so why look forward and why have a R&D section.
How about a list of all employees, including management, and look at each job and get rid of all the redundancy. The County will go bankrupt otherwise.
Unfortunately this will never happen, we will never see any genuine accountability for the money spent. The Hilo crowd always has an excuse the biggest insult to taxpayers was when the county blamed the Oahu collective bargaining agreement for their labor cost going up then continued to give everyone else raises so that their subordinates did not make more money that them.
What the west side should think about is a fresh start. We should form our own government and put the type of leadership in place that uses resources wisely and serves the public. There is plenty of tax money on the west side to make this happen and it would meaningfully improve our community.
Probably can’t reduce the costs by getting rid of employees, as most are protected by unions. We can stop hiring, though, and that, over short time will reduce the overall cost of government. We can’t keep growing the number of employees and continue paying the generous salary and benefit packages. Since we can’t cut what’s there, we need to stop adding to the problem.
Rather than focus on making government operate “more efficiently” the commission should instead adopt a goal of how much spending should be eliminated – in phases as necessary – within (say) 2 years, 5 years and 10 years. That way, efficiency become a strategy to save money, not a goal. Kinda like choosing a goal of losing 20 lbs. of weight versus a goal of making your body function more efficiently; too easy to get “lost in the weeds” on minutia versus making the tough decisions that actually get you where you want to be.
When the task becomes, say, “Cut 3% from the Budget within two years in ways that last” (e.g., reduce low-priority/ regionally limited programs employment and operating expenses) then there’s no escape from the meaningful, hard decisions. Efficiency becomes ONE technique, not the entire objective, but the objective of reducing (or capping) expenses is reached (hopefully).
Like: phase out the Hilo (oops, County) Zoo that is virtually useless to 70% of the residents and hardly a thriller in the internet/video age for the minority that actually goes there; drop the County band (somehow the parades will go happily on with the people who want to be in them). These and other programs ought to be rated by a matrix (spreadsheet chart) showing how many people are directly served by the program, what their ages, incomes, and other demographics are, broken down by at least six regions of the island, and how many employees and dollars it takes to do that each year and for how many events (or “days open” or “performances”). Then, the Commission (and the interested public) can weigh in on whether it’s worth it, costs-per-person being extremely high or not, to provide that particular program to that particular “demographic” in those districts getting those services. Surely the departments know pretty well what those demographics are or can provide rough estimates for the Commission’s “ball parking” purposes. If I’m wrong about my views on the Zoo and the County Band, this would show it.
Wouldn’t that be an exciting transparent public discussion once that info was published and invited for comment? If no commission has yet actually caused budget reductions (errrr, efficiency), wouldn’t even a 1% cut be a great start?
Party pooper. Cut The zoo and the band. How about take away the 1.5 million in raises for starters. You must be a real boring person.
Cutting the county band funding would be largely symbolic, as it’s a very small part of the $500 million budget. That said, I think it would send a good message that we need to fund necessities only. The band could easily seek private sponsorship and funding.
You can’t put the genie back in the bottle once she’s out.
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“Save money or make money,” The Government is not a profit center!
And ” almost three-quarters of the county budget is tied up in county employees’ salary and benefits set statewide”….perhaps there should be cut in departments and benefits as well as pensions both existing and new! Big Government is no way to run a state and or country! Profitable businesses and employees making money creates a viable economy.
I agree that Big Government is a only good for those employed by it. We can’t legally cut salary and benefits, as those have already been set. We can, though, stop feeding the fire and stop hiring new employees. The current employees get to keep their raises that have created generous salary and benefits, but they are expected to do more.
This is not a hard math problem. If 3/4 of the budget is for salary and benefits, implement a hiring freeze. We’ll have a natural attrition of employees through retirements and employees quitting. In a short time, we’ll see the total cost for salaries and benefits decrease. The politicians seem to think their hands are tied because of the collective bargaining at the state level, but they fail to see the obvious: stop hiring and the overall costs will decrease.
The unions and the salary commission have done a great job at increasing the cost of government per employee (Mayor Kim’s staff raises upped the cost over $1 million), so we need to make those who are now earning more do more work. In the business world, higher pay usually comes with more responsibility and work load, so let’s apply that to our government workers.
“. . . tied up in county employees’ salary and benefits . . . and other uncontrollable
costs”
If that doesn’t say it all.
“The Cost of Government Commission, required by charter to be convened every four years…”
That alone tells you NO ONE is serious about reducing the cost of Government and controlling taxes. This group needs to be meeting once a quarter and reporting to the PUBLIC on findings, goals, recommendations and results, NEVER GONNA HAPPEN IN PLANTATION HAWAII.