HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/10/2015 Finance Department 4/10/2015
DEPARTMENTAL BUDGET REVIEWS 2015-16
DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE
Department of Finance
Honorable Mason K. Chock
Honorable Ross Kagawa
Honorable KipuKai Kuali`i
Honorable JoAnn A. Yukimura (present at 10:16 a.m.)
Honorable Mel Rapozo (present at 9:02 a.m.)
Honorable Arryl Kaneshiro
Excused: Honorable Gary L. Hooser
The Committee reconvened on April 10, 2015 at 9:00 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Good morning. I would like to call back to order
the Budget and Finance Committee and the Fiscal Year 2015-2016 Departmental Budget
Reviews. On the schedule for today, we will be hearing from the Department of Finance
who will be taking us through their various divisions. Let the record reflect we have a
quorum. Councilmember Hooser is excused for today and Council Vice Chair Kagawa will
be departing later this morning and Councilmember Kuali`i will be departing at
approximately 4:00 p.m. As we do each morning, we will take public testimony, but there is
no one in the public. So we get to skip that. For today's review, I would like to call Ken up,
the Director of Finance, who will be walking us through the different divisions...Ken is up
already. Depending on the schedule, I know Councilmember Yukimura wanted to be here
for the IT section. So if we get through the schedule fast and we get to IT, maybe we will
take other divisions, and go back to it when she is here. She will be back around 10:00-
10:15 a.m. So with that, I think you can do your presentation and we will go through the
divisions.
KEN M. SHIMONISHI, Director of Finance: Aloha, Committee Chair Kaneshiro
and Members of the Committee, Ken Shimonishi, Director of Finance. What we have is a
brief presentations which are just the highlights of the Finance Department overall. I
apologize to my Division Heads if I have not covered all of their most important parts. I
just try to glean some of the information to give us a feel of what the Finance Department is
made up of, what are the successes, goals, and challenges, and overall budget that we are
coming before you for Fiscal Year 2016. The Department of Finance, the administrative
mission is to provide effective financial services to the people of Kauai, and to all we serve
by establishing and maintaining a financial system that can properly account for its
activities.
(Council Chair Rapozo was noted as present.)
Mr. Shimonishi: Within each division, they have their own
mission statement as well, but this is kind of the overall for our financial administration.
The Finance Department consists of nine divisions, our Administration which has three
employees, zero vacancies. Our Accounting Division which has nine employees, of which
currently one is vacant and in recruitment. Our Information Technology Division has 13
employees, no vacancies. Treasury with two employees, no vacancies. Drivers' License 13
employees and no vacancies. Motor Vehicle, 10 employees of which one is vacant and
interviews have been completed. Our Real Property Assessment at 19 employees of which
three are vacant. One is for the purpose of TAing a position, two currently are being
recruited and although it is not considered vacant, we have one out on a workers'
compensation claim. Real Property Collections, six employees of which one is on a workers'
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compensation claim and we hope to have that settled relatively soon. Our Purchasing
Division with ten employees, of which one is currently vacant and being recruited. That
was my past position as a Budget Analyst. In total 85 employees within the Department of
Finance.
Some of the successes and achievements achieved in the past...over Fiscal Year 2015
in our Administrative Division was the creation of a Grants Manager position to allow for
assistance to the departments reviewing grant opportunities, and training to assure proper
procedures and compliance. You know, when I first came to the County, Ann Wooton was
the Budget Analyst who trained me in the systems, procedures, the ordinance, the budget
process, and so on. The first year we did the budget and sent the budget in, it was a little
rocky. The predecessor had been here some...I believe 40 plus years and abruptly left
giving two weeks' notice and Ann stepped in to fill that void and together Ann and I worked
to put together the budget. If you look at where we were in the first year, compared to
where we are now, the whole budget process, I think has improved tremendously. But in
improving the budget process, I think we saw a need to refocus back on our grants portion
and to look towards maximizing opportunities that are out there as we continue to seek
ways to turn the County's financials into the best position that we can. Our Accounting
Division Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) awarded the certificate of
achievement for excellence in financial reporting to the County of Kauai for its
Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for the Fiscal Year ending June 2013. The 21st
consecutive year receiving this award and I know that the staff in Accounting worked really
hard to produce the CAFR. The CAFR is only as good as the people that put it together, of
course, are excellent, but I think the point I would like to make is that we really need to
take our time to understand the story that the CAFR is telling us, and how that translates
to our financial decisions going forward. Information Technology, headed by Brandon
Raines. If you have looked at his division presentation, it is very detailed and quite
comprehensive and I am not doing him any justice by these few lines, but some of the
achievements were multiple online initiatives, improving public awareness of the online
services available, County website overhaul, centralized online directory of key County
personnel, and so on. Again with Information Technology, one of the achievements was to
look at the forms management and workflow and completed the research on vendors and
products and developed system requirements to ensure that the County can procure a
solution that meets our needs and maximizes our investments. I think this is a big piece of
what will help us become more efficient. There are just enormous amounts of paper
shuffled between the various departments and divisions and so to try to get a handle on
that would really improve in our efficiencies. Our Motor Vehicle print on-demand program
for all registration renewals. Saves costs and time greatly reducing manual need to stamp
and staple these emblems to the registration. We are now printing it out and it is right
there all coded and labeled properly according to the vehicle. Our Drivers' License Real ID
Act of 2005 in conjunction with Homeland Security which we achieved full compliance in
August 2013. And still with Drivers' License, legal presence enacted by the State of Hawai`i
to verify that a person applying for driver's license is legally present with the State. So
here we have outside agencies kind of dictating on how we have to operate or comply with
these new mandates. Our Real Property Assessment, continue to improve property data
integrity with investments in pictometry and assessment analysis to assist finding
additional property improvements to be added to the assessment list. An area that we
need to ensure accuracy and basically, I think, provide fair treatment to all of our
taxpayers. Real Property Assessment continuing implementation of market modeling,
increasing efficiency and accuracy in assessing residential properties. On our Real
Property Collections we are able to reduce the delinquency rate from 6% to 5.8% a small
reduction, but nevertheless a reduction year-over-year and decreased the amount of
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delinquent taxes by arranging payment agreements with taxpayers or executing
foreclosures, sort of as a last resort. Our Purchasing continued training for pCard users
with particular focus to meet with Department Heads, Deputies, and Fiscal Officers. I
know Mr. Barreira will step-up this training to our Department Heads, Deputies, and
Fiscal Officers given the current circumstances. Challenges. The common theme running
through, I think, a lot of County departments and agencies...not just Finance, but limited
staff and the ability to cross-train and succession training. Unexpected vacancy and
increase in demand with limited resources. Goals and objectives: so when I was offered the
appointment and came into the position, I was asked what do you think...what are your
ideas? And without a doubt, the first thing off the top of my head was we need to improve
the County's financial position or financial condition. Having four years' of consecutive
General Fund fund balance decline is just something that we need to get turned around and
can hopefully make headway in the next few years. In order to achieve that we are looking
to execute the long-term financial plan with GFOA to provide a multi-year financial outlook
and expect to initiate that next month. Also to create a program and process which
provides executive level staffing and labor information to better manage our staffing
resources. We have seen how much it costs us in terms of our staffing and labor benefits.
One of the things that I see that is missing is good information about that to the
Department Heads, to the Administration, and the Council. You know, in any organization
that I have worked at, you have had some sort of labor report analysis. How many
productive hours are we paying each pay period, each month? How much non-productive?
Vacation and sick and so on and that is something that I want to focus on and get going.
We are also looking at launching and implementing a web-based financial reporting
subscription with the organization called Open.gov. That is really fascinating stuff and will
help us to be able to quickly analyze the data. I know that each month Accounting sends
over the financial data as far as the detailed budget report, the revenue report, and that is
great is if you are administering it at a Department-level or a fiscal person looking at that,
but in general, that is really just too much information to be coming across. It is always
available, but in terms of having a good, quick, dashboard for what is happening, it is quite
cumbersome. I do want to point out Open.gov was referred to us by Council staff, Mr. Scott
Sato. We are look at getting that up and running also probably within the next couple of
months. We have loaded our monthly and annual information since 2010 already on the
system and we are kind of in the final steps of trying to get what kind of reports we want
out of this and how does it look like? Goals and objectives for our County to report
accurately and timely, all financial information, strive to promote transparency, streamline
processes, increase efficiencies and consistency throughout the countywide operations. Real
Property Assessment, complete testing and migrate to a new assessment software, procure
field tablets to allow appraisers data entry directly at site versus them having to write
notes on cards and having to come back and do the data entry in the office, and to
implement the ESRI Canada assessment software that was put forth before the Council as
a money bill to identify omitted properties and so on. Purchasing, continued expansion of
electronic procurement and paperless initiatives. Again, any way to streamline our
processes and become more efficient, I think we are all in favor of. The Department as a
whole saw a roughly $200,000 increase in its budget. Roughly 1.8%. In Administration, the
decrease is primarily due to the movement of four positions, Budget Analyst, myself, and
the Budget and Assistant Chief Procurement Officer Ernie, we were moved from
"Administration" into "Purchasing." The other Budget Analyst as I said, Ann Wooton is
now the County's Grant Manager and is moved under "Accounting." The Risk Management
Coordinator position was reallocated to Real Property Assessment and that is making up
most of that decrease in the Administration that you see. Accounting, as I mentioned the
movement of that position accounted for the increase. Information Technology, increases
due to union negotiated salaries plus an adjustment for benefits that was previously short-
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funded or I guess under budgeted in the prior year. The other divisions make up some
small increases in Treasury that is salaries and benefits. Drivers' Licensing, and again
small. Then our Motor Vehicle decrease is due to the reallocation of staff positions. Real
Property Assessment, the decrease is primarily due to the prior year having software
conversion budgeted which is nonrecurring this year. Real Property Collections, a small
adjustment to our staff budget. And our Purchasing increased due primarily to the
movement of the two positions from "Administration." Again, looking overall on the salary
line, a slight decrease for the Department in total. And in operations, a decrease as I
mentioned, software conversion data, and decreased allowance for general liability by
$50,000 and sewer credit by $25,000 and our special projects for the Kaua`i Humane
Society was reduced based on their projected dog and cat licensing projections. This is
actually a wash between expenditures and revenues. It is not an actual decrease overall to
the budget, but a decrease in expenditures in the Department of Finance. And that is my
presentation.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmembers we will open discussion on the
presentation, but if you have any overall questions regarding the total Department, we can
go over those type of questions real quickly. If you can place your questions in the
particular division, then I would rather just go straight into the divisions and hold the
questions off as we are in that division. If there is any questions regarding the overall
budget, if not we will move into "Administration." I think we already have a rough draft of
what was going on. We had our budget presentation packet, also. I do not think Ken is
going to say anything more regarding Administration. If we have any questions, we can go
straight into questions Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: First of all, I thought it was a great presentation,
very thorough, and answered a lot of questions that I might have had or had. And I think
the other Departments watching should pay attention to how you did that presentation and
that is how they should do it. Just in 15 minutes, you went over all where the vacancies
were and the status. It was a very thorough presentation. In one of your slides on the
successes and achievements you talked about the creation of the Grants Manager position
and grants in general. I have a global question in the sense for the Countywide, if we
could...if I could see the County look at especially with Grants Manager position some
compilation or reports of all the grants? And maybe in the future and maybe you are
looking at it, to move into the direction where it is sort of like candled in one place. We do
see pockets of little chunks of money showing up in all kinds of budgets. I guess, if it is
assigned there, maybe it is fine that the money is there, but how we learn about it could be
all-in-one place. How you report to us about it. We know there is a chunk of grants in the
Office of Economic Development and in the Mayor's Office and a tiny one for Good
Beginnings, transitioning to Child Family Services or something, for pre-kindergarten
programs before the Summer Fun programs. Maybe it is because I think of the grants on
both sides, right? We are going after big grants to bring revenue to the County, but then
on the flipside, we are giving out these small grants. It is not really clear what the logic is
and what the process is on how those grants are given out. I think it needs to be consistent,
so we as a Council can see what we are doing more clearly and the public can see what we
are doing more clearly and the public can be aware of the availability of those smaller
grants and how they can access those smaller grants? Sorry, that was like a long question.
Mr. Shimonishi: Thank you very much. You know, one of the
things I did not mention is that we are in the process of also initiating a grants
management software program that Ann Wooton is heading called "Amplifund." I know
that the intent is to do the grants from our State, Federal, and I believe there is a
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component to also administer the in-house grants that we give out, the application process
and just exactly what you are talking about. I am hopeful that the software would include
that component, but I will verify that.
Councilmember Kuali`i: It is not just a matter of the tracking of the data
and everything, but it might be a matter of coming up with a policy of how...what the
process is? And if the Council needs to help the Administration by passing any kind of
process, I would be happy to help with that.
Mr. Shimonishi: I believe there is.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Mr. Chair?
Mr. Shimonishi: An in-house policy on grants.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Yes. Mr. Chair brought up the other day that I
think he was asking the question and might have even got an answer from you over the
ability of the Mayor's Office or the County in general to give out small grants to non-profits
or whoever without a process. Many of these grants have an application and a review and
they get awarded, but some of them do not. I think maybe as a Council, for me at least to
have notification to the public, fair and equitable to the public in the same way.
Mr. Shimonishi: Understood. Thank you.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Other questions? Councilmember Kagawa?
Councilmember Kagawa: Thank you, Chair. Special Projects account,
went down about $57,000 maybe. So trying to get where the changes are. The disaster
trust account? What is that? $75,000.
Mr. Shimonishi: That is in case that we need to access funds on
an immediate basis after an event. We have that flexibility.
Councilmember Kagawa: To use it for Finance?
Mr. Shimonishi: Well, for countywide, yes.
Councilmember Kagawa: Countywide?
Mr. Shimonishi: Yes.
Councilmember Kagawa: Was that the same number about as last year
$75,000?
Mr. Shimonishi: I believe so. I do not recall us changing that.
Councilmember Kagawa: What about these GFOA long-term financial
fees?
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Mr. Shimonishi: That is what I mentioned, one of our goals is to
initiate that contract coming up and then to keep that going forward. I think if you are
asking about the reduction, the reduction comes in the dog and cat licenses, were
overstated last year by the Kaua`i Humane Society about an $82,000 decrease in that line
item.
Councilmember Kagawa: Okay.
Mr. Shimonishi: The sewer credit was previously budgeted at
$200,000. But as I look back at the historical amounts it never exceeded $170,000, so we
shaved off$25,000 from there.
Councilmember Kagawa: Okay. Then I remember the sewer being the
annual payment, like being 660. Now it is 760.
Mr. Shimonishi: The Kauai Humane Society, last year the
Council approved a $100,000 increase to that.
Councilmember Kagawa: Just trying to remember if my memory was right
or not. Okay. Well, we will discuss the Humane Society at some point, at a later point,
right?
Mr. Shimonishi: Right.
Councilmember Kagawa: I will hold off until then. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I have a follow-up question and I have questions
for the Humane Society, but a quick description on the dog license and the cat license
amounts that we pay? What is that for? Or what is it based on?
Mr. Shimonishi: What happened is that we allowed the Humane
Society to I guess, collect the dog and cat licenses. In return, they also get that revenue.
But the money has to flow through the County to the Director of Finance and comes to us as
the line item "dog and cat license" and we end up paying it back out in our Department of
Finance. Only if they collect do we pay it. So it is only the budget of what they expected to
collect in the next year.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: So just kind of a pass-through?
Mr. Shimonishi: Yes.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: It will end up washing?
Mr. Shimonishi: Yes, washing with our revenues and again only if
they collect it, we only pay what they collect.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: This is not a subsidized amount or anything? It
is just the amount that comes in and goes to them?
Mr. Shimonishi: Correct.
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Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions for the Administration? I
have another quick question on "other services." Our expenses increased by about $31,000.
We have a grants management system and financial reporting system, is that software we
are purchasing or annual...?
Mr. Shimonishi: That is the annual subscription on the web-based
software. That is an annual subscription.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: So we already paid for the software?
Mr. Shimonishi: There is no software; it is just web-based.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: If you said it, I missed it. What happened with
the telephone line item that says Countywide costs?
Mr. Shimonishi: Basically all the phone bills come to Accounting
and we process it and pay it out of the Finance Department.
Councilmember Kuali`i: For the different divisions, they do not have the
line item "telephone" you pay it all?
Mr. Shimonishi: Correct.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kagawa?
Councilmember Kagawa: Just need some clarification on the general
liability line item. So the Puhi Metals...Grove Farm liability for Puhi Metals Recycling is
$800,000. So where does that money...who does that $800,000 go to? It goes to the
contractor that is helping to clean up or the consultant, who does that go to?
Mr. Shimonishi: Yes, I believe it is going through the...
STEVEN A. HUNT, Real Property Tax Manager: Steve Hunt, Tax Manager
for the record. I believe it goes to Grove Farm and they invoice us and they get a 15%
management fee for taking care of working with the consultants and contractors.
Councilmember Kagawa: We are talking about the place that still accepts
those white goods, right? In Puhi?
Mr. Hunt: I do not know if it is white goods, but it is the
auto recycling.
Councilmember Kagawa: It is the same site that is accepting...so how are
they cleaning up a place that is still accepting?
Mr. Hunt: That is part of the problem and why there has
not been a spend-down. It is dependent on the price of metals and they have been
stockpiling so to have a market that they are not losing money. Part of the issue in getting
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to the contaminated area, there are stockpiles on top of the contamination. So it has
delayed being able to remediate some of the contamination which is why we lapsed
significant funding because they were not able to perform some of that.
Councilmember Kagawa: How is the $800,000 making the situation better?
Mr. Hunt: Well, it is again an estimate of what is
anticipated to be done in this Fiscal Year. And again it is weather-dependent, site-
dependent and at this point contractor-dependent, which we do not have control of.
Councilmember Kagawa: So we are...it is an estimate, but we are paying it
to Grove Farm?
Mr. Hunt: Only if we get billed for it. Last year we
budgeted $1.3 million and only spent down a couple hundred thousand in work that was
done.
Councilmember Kagawa: I can get this crystal clear, we are paying Grove
Farm as they bill us for doing work on cleaning up the contaminated area?
Mr. Hunt: Correct.
Councilmember Kagawa: But at the same time, we are still putting metals
and cars back on top, in that same area, so it becomes contaminated again?
Mr. Hunt: My understanding is that they are doing that
area at their own risk and taking additional precautions to protect their land.
Councilmember Kagawa: Okay.
Mr. Hunt: So it is not a repeat offense.
Councilmember Kagawa: Once they clean it they hope to avoid getting it
contaminated again and taking the liability.
Mr. Hunt: Correct.
Councilmember Kagawa: Who is watching that to make sure that they are
not...?
Mr. Hunt: That would be Solid Waste. I could not tell you
individually.
Councilmember Kagawa: Solid Waste.
Mr. Hunt: There was an individual named Joe Tatayama
that was actually there monitoring that on a daily basis. But if the work was not being
done, there was no sense sending people there to monitor.
Councilmember Kagawa: Thank you. Great explanation, I can see clearly
now.
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Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Follow-up question.
Councilmember Kagawa: Go ahead. If it is about...you can go ahead if it is
about the recycling.
Council Chair Rapozo: I think I am with you, trying to get a much
clearer idea of what is going on there. So you are saying the contaminated area is covered
by stockpiled junk?
Mr. Hunt: That is my understanding. To just...Finance is
the area where claims come through. We are not the contract managers on this. So if you
have specific questions, I would probably address them to Solid Waste who manages it. I
will do my best to answer based on my knowledge.
Council Chair Rapozo: I would ask to have someone from Solid Waste
because it is in your Department. We need to get those answers because we already have
Solid Waste here and it did not show up in their budget.
Mr. Hunt: It would not, because claims are handled by
Finance.
Council Chair Rapozo: I think it is important that we get that answered
today. I guess my question is, are we creating a bigger problem? I mean, is it legal for
them to stockpile the junk on a contaminated site? If you cannot answer...
Mr. Hunt: I cannot answer.
Council Chair Rapozo: Staff, can we get someone from Solid Waste
that...not just someone from Solid Waste, but someone from Solid Waste that can answer
the questions.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: We will keep that question on the side until Solid
Waste is here. I was going to ask a similar question on why the moneys are in Finance
rather than in Solid Waste? But you answered it already.
Councilmember Kagawa: Can I state my preference? Because I do not
want to hold up the Finance budget over this issue. I think I would like to put that Puhi
site as an item in my Committee. I think to focus on that and to have Finance people
waiting for that issue to be resolved, because I think it is probably going to take an hour or
two to get a clear picture. Because it is been what? A couple of years and we are all not
clear and we should be really clear.
Council Chair Rapozo: It has been longer than a couple of years.
Councilmember Kagawa: Yes as far as the clean-up.
Council Chair Rapozo: The clean-up, apparently I am hearing today is
not being done and that is a concern. So let us do that, get it in Committee.
Councilmember Kagawa: Thank you. Thank you, Chair.
Councilmember Kuali`i: I have a follow-up.
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Committee Chair Kaneshiro: So we will not need them to come today and we
will put it as a Committee item instead. Councilmember Kuali`i?
Councilmember Kuali`i: My follow-up question is just real simple. So the
line item is general liability. There are two pieces. General liability insurance, $750,000
and Grove Farm Puhi Metals recycling $800,000. They are very different, correct? They
are both under "insurance" and under "liability." The first line item, we pay an insurance
company for liability throughout our facilities and what have you?
Mr. Shimonishi: No the first line item is for claims against the
County for property damage and so on as they come through. The actual liability
insurance.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Is it called "self-insurance?" Our own insurance
fund and we pay out the claims?
Mr. Shimonishi: I guess you could refer to it that way as a
deductible.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Okay. To pay out part?
Mr. Shimonishi: Yes.
Councilmember Kuali`i: The first line item is for things in general and
second line item was one specific place that potentially costs a lot. So that is why we have
this big amount of money. But it is just an estimate of what we might need? Because you
did say that prior year...last year was $1.3 million and we spent-down a few hundred
thousand.
Mr. Shimonishi: correct.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Further questions, Council Chair Rapozo?
Council Chair Rapozo: Do you know if we have been receiving citations
or fines for Puhi Metals that we are paying out of this account or any account?
Mr. Hunt: Not to my knowledge.
•
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Next up we have Real Property Assessment.
Questions regarding Real Property Assessment? I will start it off while you get organized.
I wrote down that we have four vacancies but in the presentation it said three vacancies.
Did we hire an Ag Inspector?
Mr. Hunt: No, we are still recruiting for that. I think one of
the vacancies depends on how you classify it. We have one individual who is not there
because of a workers' compensation claim and we do have two Appraiser I positions that
remain vacant at this point. One of them again was moved from Administration, Finance
Administration down to Real Property Assessment and the other is encumbered by an 89-
day contract by Accounting so I cannot fill that. We were trying to accommodate a
shortfall in Accounting when they had an employee go out. It was during a busy period of
time for 1099s so we assisted by giving an 89-day contract. We anticipate getting this back
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in July and attempting to fill it. The other position that is vacant is a GIS II which is that
description is a temporary holding. This was the Appraisal Support Service Administrator.
This was the supervisor that oversaw both tax maps and abstracting. That position is
being redescribed to incorporate both GIS tax mapping and also some degree of title
abstracting. So I am working on a re-description, but because it will be 40-50% of the job
involving GIS mapping, that is how it is being as a placeholder right now. So I cannot fill
it until the redescription and pricing has been completed.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Chock.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you. My questions are on training. I
noticed that you have a reduction. So my question is about...I know you have this new
software...this new system, assessment system. And do you anticipate any training
needed?
Mr. Hunt: It is within the bounds of the contract. So the
training related to the software upgrade will be included or is included in the contract.
Some of the prior training had been misclassified because it also involves travel training.
So we moved it into the appropriate account.
Councilmember Chock: Do you have any other additional training needs
that are on the horizon?
Mr. Hunt: As far as staff development, again, depending on
how our hiring goes, we may have some additional training needs. Some will be done in in-
house and some, we like to attend the IAOA courses which are the International Assessing
Officers Association. They actually have coursework and accreditation towards earning
degrees in IAOA which is the standard for assessors. We do proactively do that. Maui
fortunately has been getting licensed in some of the training. So rather than traveling to
the mainland, we can travel to Maui to do some of our training to get licensure.
Councilmember Chock: And does HR handle any of your training needs?
Mr. Hunt: HR primarily handles training related to
workplace violence, that kind of employee type of trainings, not specific to the job.
Councilmember Chock: Okay. Thank you.
Councilmember Kuali`i: What section?
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Real Property Assessment. Councilmember
Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: It might have been said, but there is a dollar-
funded position, correct?
Mr. Hunt: This position is funded in Fiscal Year 2015 and it
is a position that was tied up because we have an individual who is an Appraiser IV who
has been training as TA to become the Appraiser V Commercial Appraiser, but he is doing
it from his position. He gets premium pay for the work that he does during the training,
but we actually...we cannot fill the position until the transition has been made. So
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essentially one employee ties up two positions. There was no need to have funding in that
position, since we cannot fill it.
Councilmember Kuali`i: For the entire year?
Mr. Hunt: Correct.
Councilmember Kuali`i: But there was also a position transferred in? Is
that why the budget is not less...
Mr. Hunt: Because we are primarily Unit 13, I believe we
have four in Unit 4 and 3. The raises are all factored in, too. So not to mention that even
my position, Tax Manager, was only funded seven months for this year, when I came back.
So it is fully funded for Fiscal Year 2016. So we actually did...not an addition to moving the
position, but also put in all of the raises for HGEA. I think what you are seeing to even
keep it flat, we downgraded several positions. We did have an Appraiser II that vacated
this year and downgraded it back to Appraiser 1. We had a senior-level supervisor over tax
maps and abstracting that we downgraded to the GIS at a lower level, from an SR24 to an
SR18. We have been resetting our salaries to lower levels because we do not anticipate
being able to find someone with that special set of skills to work at those high-levels and
will have to develop them over a period of years to get to that skill-level.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Very good. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any other questions, members? Councilmember
Kagawa?
Councilmember Kagawa: I can appreciate what you just said about trying
to downgrade the positions. I am just troubled, I look at some of the pay of these
professionals, like Appraiser II. For me, it is kind of disturbing it is so low in comparison
to like again, a beginning police officer or fireman making almost double of these kinds of
jobs. I am just troubled. Troubled that we are not incentivizing these skilled positions
that perhaps our children can get educated, but at this kind of pay, I do not see it as an
incentive for them to try to achieve these jobs.
Mr. Hunt: Point in fact, we it had our Ag Specialist go to
Police, slightly because of higher pay, but because of other pressures as well. And we are
now on our third posting for the position and have had no qualified applicants so far.
Councilmember Kagawa: I just wanted to state my thing, it can be a good
thing as far as budgeting and money-wise to downgrade it, but to get qualified, good
applicants, you know, could be working against by lowering or downgrading.
Mr. Hunt: I see your point. It is challenging, but at the
same time, we have fiscal realities and we also have some of these positions are very
skilled. And it is not something that you can hire off the street. We have to develop them.
Councilmember Kagawa: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Council Chair Rapozo?
April 10, 2015
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Council Chair Rapozo: In line with what Councilmember Kagawa was
talking about, what is the requirement for an Appraiser, say Appraiser II?
Mr. Hunt: Appraiser II I believe is about a year of working
experience as an appraiser. Or in a related field. Normally if you start with an Appraiser
1 within a year's time you migrate to Appraiser II.
Council Chair Rapozo: Do any of these appraiser positions require
college?
Mr. Hunt: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: Which one would that be?
Mr. Hunt: I think all of them.
Council Chair Rapozo: They all require a college degree? An Appraiser
I, it is hard to make out because depending on their time, yes? So you have an Appraiser I
making $39,000 and Appraiser II making...I am looking at Appraiser II makes $46,000.
Mr. Hunt: That is a contract position. It is a T-position?
Council Chair Rapozo: Yes.
Mr. Hunt: It is not a Real Property Appraiser II. It is an
Appraiser II. This position came as part of some of the continued reform, if you will, that
required additional work to support some of the legislative changes.
Council Chair Rapozo: Some of the secretaries in the County are making
$80,000, assistants making much more. If it requires college, is that something...a contract
that sets the salaries for these positions?
Mr. Hunt: It is collective bargaining. The SR rating of the
position and the terms the position and the bargaining unit that is negotiated. You can
hire at above step. Obviously you need funding and I would have to come to the budget to
ask for more and sometimes that happens. We go out and cannot find any qualified
individual or find a qualified individual, but will not work for the pay being offered. We
would say it is a hard to fill position after so many months of position to come to you or Ken
to say I cannot fill it because of the pay, can we hire above step, D or E or something to get
us to fill the position.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I have a follow-up question. It is all related. I
am probably going to ask this for all of the departments because it is real clear looking
through the salaries and positions, you guys are hard-strapped. My question is does the
position and salary structure provide for appropriate succession planning?
Mr. Hunt: No.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I figured that was the answer. Maybe in the
future you can maybe try and put a plan together as far as what would be good succession
April 10, 2015
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planning? And kind of step-up because right now looking at, this I do not see much
motivation in people filling these positions. And I am worried, you know? You guys are
hard-strapped for employees and I just do not see the motivation in people wanting to step
in there.
Mr. Hunt: Again, it is serving two masters. I understand
and more so probably than others having been in that position, the fiscal constraints that
we are under. So to incentivize and to have the ability for people to be promoted and to
have that ability expands and inflates the budget. To have the luxury of having succession
planning would mean more bodies. I would have to have apprentice-trainee types to move
up and provide that, but that is added costs.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Yes, and you know, we are here trying to cut as
much costs as possible, but we have got to be...we have got to be reasonable also. And we
need to look at the future and we need to be sure if we start losing employees that we have
people who are willing to fill it. I see a lot in the Finance and Real Property Tax sections
where the amount of people we are serving is doubled the amount it was in ten years and
we still have the same amount of employees. So it really is that you are doing a lot more
with the same amount or less employees. So it is a little frightening for me, going through
the numbers and seeing that if we lose any more bodies, I do not know how we can almost
function as a Department? Although, we are looking at cost-cutting, we need to be
reasonable also and say how do we still provide the amount of services that we need as we
get added responsibilities?
Council Chair Rapozo: I am still trying to understand and I should know
this by now, but when you say the SR22 that is countywide? Or position?
Mr. Hunt: It would come from the bargaining unit, I believe
it is countywide all bargaining unit 13 SR22s are priced the same way.
Council Chair Rapozo: Is it a big range? I see in the Mayor's Office an
SR22 makes $68,000. And in Finance, the SR22 makes $48,000, $20,000 less.
Mr. Hunt: It depends if you are civil servant employee you
have certainly a lot more security with the job and they are priced accordingly. There is
more flexibility, I guess on the appointed than the civil service. Civil service is very rigid in
terms of pricing. You just follow the bargaining unit.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. That is quite a gap, $20,000. In the
same SR.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Just quickly, I am not clear, because you did say
especially difficult to fill positions, possibly at a higher level and mentioned B or E. Would
each like SR22, there is a dollar figure, but it does not tell us whether it is A, B, C, D, or E?
Mr. Hunt: The ones that are vacant are all hiring, I believe
step A, which is the first step. So where we had a vacancy, we basically moved it back to a
new employee starting. As you move up in SR from promotions to higher positions or
length of service, every year you are getting an additional step potentially. Those get reset
April 10, 2015
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and potentially an employee with the County for 20, 30 years in the same SR rating would
be making significantly higher than someone starting out fresh in the first year.
Councilmember Kuali`i: So it does not end at E?
Mr. Hunt: I believe it is F...is it F? F is the final.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Whatever that letter is, it does not end there.
You do not top out. You can still keep adding raises.
Mr. Hunt: On steps there is...eventually there is a top-out, I
believe it is F now, if I am not mistaken.
Councilmember Kuali`i: I guess when we look at this column on what the
salaries are, it is hard to say it is high or low and compare between one position versus
another, unless we know what that step is.
Mr. Hunt: And the length.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Because A is entry-level, if you will. And length
of service, exactly.
Mr. Hunt: Correct.
Councilmember Kuali`i: That might be something interesting going
forward as far as when we look at all of these positions, whether they are occupied or
vacant? To not only see the salary, but to see the grade...the step, as you called it. And
length, length of service. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions for Real Property Tax
Assessment? Councilmember Kagawa?
Councilmember Kagawa: My last one is basically an open question. Are
you open to working with this Council and trying to look at our tax system? If it includes
some members of the community, who have offered to try and help us, and this is because of
the...I want to see now that we took the cap off, is the ad valorem system working? And
working for our people with multiple properties? Local people that may not have that
much cash or what have you? Just to overall look at trying and verifying by use some
examples in certain areas to see if our real property tax system is the way to go going
forward? Or do we have to look at tweaking it a little bit? And some of the thoughts
Councilmember Rapozo brought up that I agree that may be a good route is to use costs as a
starting point. Say if you owned the house ten years or whatever, there can be a
percentage for inflation or what have you But I think that is certainly...I think that was
kind of what California was based on, Prop 48.
Mr. Hunt: (Prop 13.
Councilmember Kagawa: Prop 13. So I wonder going forward, after we get
through the busy time of sending our bills lout and to validate that the system is working as
a whole? Because I can pull out the information...I do not know how to pull out the
information from each area. So are you willing to?
April 10, 2015
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Mr. Hunt: Without over committing and underserving, yes,
I would be willing to serve, but I would like to get through some of our major hurdles of
software conversion and get IAS World...right now are my highest priorities. If we are
talking maybe in the fall, I might have some time then, but not this summer.
Councilmember Kagawa: I accept the date. I just wanted to do it right
here, because I think it is kind of irritating for you guys too, to not be at the meeting and
always hear us say we have got to do property tax reform. We are actually asking the
person who can help us get to that point. Now I can stop repeating myself.
Mr. Hunt: Since 1990, just looking at the RPA ordinances
that have passed, there have been 66 ordinance changes to real property assessment. So I
view the constant flux as reform. It has never not been in reform in my mind. We are
always working towards a better system.
Councilmember Kagawa: I think we cannot really say that last year we
gave it a shot. Because we did it and slapped on how many Band-Aids on this thing? This
year is good, we have not slapped any Band-Aids yet, right?
Mr. Hunt: Right.
Councilmember Kagawa: So we are going to see how this system works
this year. I have not gotten any calls because nobody has gotten their bill yet.
Mr. Hunt: Yes.
Councilmember Kagawa: But the exemptions, as you said, because I looked
at my own case, and whatever you told me, was your gut feeling on these people, in the
Homestead class is probably most of them stayed the same or went down a little bit was
true. But it is still...we have not seen the full impact on the other classes, especially the
ones with multiple homes. Some of them you gave them advice, your office gave them
advice, what route to go to minimize their taxes. So we are really going to see this year the
true effect of the ad valorem system. So I am kind of excited and a little scared. But you
know, sometimes you have got to just let the chips fall. Because if you are not sure, then
you do not want to throw Band-Aids on it if we are not sure how it turns out. You throw on
Band-Aids when it bleeds. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Chock.
Councilmember Chock: Along the lines of this discussion, the last time
we had this discussion, the request was if there are any models or evaluative models that
we can wrap our heads around? Because it is such a complex system. And in order to
determine what is the criteria in determining one, if this is an effective system that we are
moving towards? And I just wanted to know, have we had...do we have anything to look
at? So the request is there for you to look at, but if we do not have a process to evaluate,
then that is really why where we will be duplicating what we have already done.
Mr. Hunt: I think in my initial research in the system,
there are cap systems and ad valorem and not a lot of in between. I think what you have
seen in the byproduct of the cap system, you have seen a tremendous system to fees. So
where property taxes used to be the majority, and have been capped and become a lesser
percentage of the revenue, what you have seen is increase in user fees. Where user fees
April 10, 2015
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may have been 10% of the budget revenue is now 30-35% of the budget revenue. So it is not
like the total costs have gone down. The cost of running government is not going down. So
in order to keep pace with normal inflation, assuming that no expansive services, but just
inflation and normal growth, you still have to generate that revenue. If the cap system
prevents properties from maintaining that pace, then you are seeing the user fees offset
that. California in particular there is legislation to cap the amount of fees that you can
charge too. So there is always the push and pull on the revenue and expense side.
Councilmember Chock: It seems to me, our County has to figure out in
terms of talking about a sustainable budget, how it is that you want to create that fee for
service? And if that is truly the direction we want to go? Because you are going to see
huge disparities that we currently have. But again, kind of for me, in the end, I want to be
able to look at some specific data that says this is effective because...and to have something
to measure and I am not sure that we have that in place.
Mr. Hunt: We do not have that in place right now and
anecdotally, I remember when we were discussing minimum tax increase to $150 this year
and pulling out a budget item like the Humane Society. If you actually took the $770,000
divided by the taxable parcels, that is almost the $25 minimum tax, no police, no fire and
just covering the Humane Society portion was minimum tax. So if we start looking at what
the real property taxes pay for in trying to come up with some sort of allocation, I mean the
average tax bill, just dividing by parcel count would be $26, $27 per parcel. So we have to
look at what you anticipate the property taxes paying in government.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Council Chair Rapozo?
Council Chair Rapozo: Along those lines, I think we know that it is not
working and it is evident by the amount of changes and ordinances that we have done over
the last decade. I do not know...you are talking about your priorities as far as the system
upgrades and so forth. But that is as it relates to the ad valorem system?
Mr. Hunt: It could be used...
Council Chair Rapozo: For either?
Mr. Hunt: We would have some customization if we have
legislation that changes that, but still, the ownership of property, the tax keys, the
assessment.
Council Chair Rapozo: So whatever system we choose?
Mr. Hunt: Correct.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. And I think we have got to get to a place
where the exemptions are stable you know? So that does not change. An exemption is an
exemption and the onus should be on thi� body here and the Administration to adjust tax
rates every year and not exemptions. It is really the political will. Especially Council, we
want to do it in way that is not going to affect us politically and we try to give exemptions,
and that has to stop. Really, we have to work within the budget that is at-hand. We talked
about this year, what was the cut across the board? About 6% for everybody? Pretty much
that was the guideline or the directive was everybody cut 6 percent, some could not and
others could cut more. So, you end up with this number, right? And that is what the taxes
April 10, 2015
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pay for. I think that is what we have to set. You said it right, Steve, the cost of
government will never go down. I mean it just will not for whatever reasons. It is common
knowledge that the revenues have to be increased every year. Is it safe to say that the cost
of living 3-4% every year? Can government stay within that same...if we are expecting the
people to cough up another 3.5-4% every year, the government has to be disciplined to stay
within those confines.
Mr. Hunt: If all collective bargaining was based on COLAs,
but they are not. Also we are having the increase in the resident base, the visitor base, at
some point you cannot continue to operate with your same base employees. I think as Arryl
said ten years ago you had the same count, but you have more properties to assess and at
some point have to add bodies. You cannot hold the line forever and technology is great,
but even that you have people that still work the technology. So we try to hold the line as
best we can, but eventually is the point we have to add bodies.
Council Chair Rapozo: And that is why the system that we spoke about,
based on the sales price, so you have that reset every year. The median price right now of
houses in Kaua`i is ridiculous. That told me we sold a lot of parcels at a very high rate.
That means that that would reset. So those people would be paying substantially higher
taxes than the tax base the year prior.
Mr. Hunt: Well, if that is the case, yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: Yes.
Mr. Hunt: I tend to take some of the media stuff with a
grain of salt because of major properties sold that skews everything.
Council Chair Rapozo: I think it is safe to say that very few properties
will sell less than what they purchased for, less than what we are paying taxes on. I think
generally as the market gets better, where we are going to start seeing an increase in the
property, and I know we will talk about the Humane Society. I guess they are coming up
later, but they were not asked to take a 6.8 percent reduction, right?
Mr. Shimonishi: No, they were not.
Council Chair Rapozo: And the reason why?
Mr. Shimonishi: We just did not get that word out to them and
they are not in a department of County, but a contractor, a vendor.
Council Chair Rapozo: Right.
Mr. Shimonishi: But I think in hindsight we could have
communicated that to them.
Council Chair Rapozo: We will, I will anyway. Because to say Solid
Waste, Police, and Fire, you have to reduce and nothing against the Humane Society, but
what is fair for one is fair...we are all having a rough time. I was just curious if there was
a conscious effort not to touch it or oversight?
April 10, 2015
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Mr. Shimonishi: I think it was an oversight not to ask them to
reduce the budget expectation, but we did not want to put in any increase coming forward.
Council Chair Rapozo: Did they ask for an increase?
Mr. Shimonishi: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: Figure out of 6.8% on their budget, because
really, we have the Police Chief up here talking about cutback all kinds of stuff, accidents,
now complaints are taken over the phone. I do not see why we would not be...and again, I
will get hammered for this, I will. I have a dog and I vote stickers will come out as they did
in past. But we are trying to make ends meet. And I think that is just...I was just curious,
when I saw the numbers, it did not look like it changed. I think we have to take a look at
that. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions for real property tax? I
know as we go through and as we get through the tax season and budget and you have
more time, we can start to meet more on our real property tax policy. I do not know if it
will be through a workshop or Committee meeting, but we can discuss that later. Let us
move on to Real Property Tax Collection. Any questions for Real Property Tax Collection? I
have a question on delinquencies. We are able to lien houses and foreclose on them. I am
sure any time a house is sold, is there a guarantee if there is a lien to collect our property
taxes?
Mr. Hunt: We are in first position.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: So although our delinquent accounts are really
high, it is just a matter of time that on the certain ones that we have filed for foreclosure, it
is only a matter of time for that house to sell and we will be able though recoup our real
property taxes and penalties?
Mr. Hunt: If the house does not sell and depending on the
length of delinquencies, by the time it is three years of delinquent, we are forcing the
foreclosure on tax auction sale. I know it was presented that we have delinquencies and
dated as when the report was done from 6% down to 5.8%. As of March 31, 2015, we are
down to 3.27%. So I think I spoke yesterday, when they asked what the typical
delinquency, I said between 3-4% and this year it is 3.27%.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I have another question. As far as delinquent
accounts, is that residential, commercial, industrial properties?
Mr. Hunt: They vary. Primarily we deal with properties
that have issues with title, landlocked. Those are the ones that people have multi owners
and somebody does not want to pay or argue who has to pay. Sometimes it is almost a
benefit for to us take care of it for them, especially if there is any excess and there are
residential properties that just have fallen behind. I know some of the properties at
Kulana that are far behind that the AOAO now owns.
(Council Chair Rapozo was noted as not present.)
April 10, 2015
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Mr. Hunt: It is a hodgepodge and typically we do not see
many industrial or commercial properties go in there, especially if they are income-
producing. It is vacant land and houses in poor conditions that have fallen into arrears.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any other questions? I think I have the answer,
but I had it for Purchasing, but asked already as far as Collections go, I had another
succession planning question on that one also. Government needs to grow at some point to
accommodate the services or else we are going to lose services. It is really scary to look at
the numbers. I think it is a recurring theme throughout all the divisions and Finance and
instead of asking at every division, I will just say if you want to try to put together a
succession plan...it is really scary to look at numbers with salaries in the $30,000 range and
we need to hire and I do not see much incentive of us getting it filled and I see the burden
on the people that are already getting paid only $30,000 and have to do more work with less
resources. So it is kind of scary for me, looking at it. That was more of a comment than a
question. Any other questions for Collections? Councilmember Kuali`i?
Councilmember Kuali`i: I would add the comment that I agree with our
Budget Chair in that the biggest part of our revenue comes from real property taxes. So the
work that you have to do is critical to the County. So processing, collecting, inspecting,
everything that you do, if we have too many vacancies and that function fails, then the
County fails. And we all fail. So it is important that we figure this out and I am fully
supportive of the Budget Chair's comments.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Those were critical comments. If we do not have
the staff to bill people or reevaluate assessments, we will shoot ourselves in the foot in
collecting our main source of revenue.
Mr. Hunt: Collections actually does have one individual
who is out right now on a workers' compensation issue as well and it will probably linger
into Fiscal Year 2016's budget. We would like to fill that position, but do not have funding
in the workers' comp account and may look at adjusting that in May, if I can get my
Director to approve that.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: I think I have seen elsewhere in the County that
there is that "T" in front of a position?
Mr. Hunt: Yes.
Councilmember Kuali`i: That is because you are trying to take care of a
situation temporarily?
Mr. Hunt: Ts are generally "temporary" and we have
actually had our T for quite some time, because there has been continued work that has
been created through new ordinances. So administering some of those takes additional...
Councilmember Kuali`i: I guess what I am getting at is that I do not see
the "T" here with the account clerks. So if you needed one, I would like to see it there.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Chock.
April 10, 2015
Department of Finance (ss)
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Councilmember Chock: Just follow-up, since you brought it up, what
would the request estimate be for?
Mr. Hunt: At this point, we would have to put moneys in
workers' compensation because right now we would have to pay the claim out of that
individual salary account that would preclude us from filling it, because we would not have
salary available.
Councilmember Chock: How much is it?
Mr. Hunt: I would have is to estimate, but it would not be
more than salary and fringe.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions for Real Property Tax
Collections? We will move on to Accounting. Any questions for Accounting?
Councilmember Kagawa: What page is that?
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I did not have any questions for Accounting. Let
us see if Members have questions? Councilmember Kagawa.
Councilmember Kagawa: So I am clear, the "other services" account, City
and County of Honolulu Drivers' Licensing computer usage. So we use their services to
help us with drivers' license...I like our licenses. I think now they are nice, just a
comment.
RENEE YADAO, Accounting Systems Administrator: Good morning. Renee
Yadao, Accounting Systems Administrator, for the record.
Councilmember Kagawa: I do not know if you heard my question.
Ms. Yadao: Yes, I did.
Councilmember Kagawa: Okay. Just wanted to get clear.
Ms. Yadao: Basically we utilize the City's database system
and that is basically the cost-sharing on County's part.
Councilmember Kagawa: Cost-sharing for?
Ms. Yadao: All the drivers' license accounts and all the data
we use, the software system. We input Various transactions from motor vehicles into the
system. So that is basically our cost-sharing, the County's part.
Councilmember Kagawa: Thank you.
(Council Chair Rapozo was noted as present.)
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i.
April 10, 2015
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Councilmember Kuali`i: Accountant III position, 253, 205 and both SR22,
but the one has a salary of$67,000. And the other has $49,000. Is $49,000 A and $67,000
F? Can you tell me that?
(Councilmember Kagawa was noted as present.)
Ms. Yadao: That is correct. The $49,000 is at the beginning
of the step.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Yes.
Ms. Yadao: And $67,000, she has been here 30 years.
Councilmember Kuali`i: So that is the range there. And the 205 vacant
since 01/31 under recruitment.
Ms. Yadao: Correct.
Councilmember Kuali`i: When do you anticipate hiring?
Ms. Yadao: I just received the list. I have not received a
schedule yet for interviews.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Typically, how long does it take if there is enough
interest?
Ms. Yadao: It depends on how fast we can interview.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Receive the list means a list of applicants?
Ms. Yadao: Yes.
Councilmember Kuali`i: So you have had applicants?
Ms. Yadao: Yes.
Councilmember Kuali`i: For that salary-level and that position?
Ms. Yadao: Correct.
Council Chair Rapozo: Follow-up.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Council Chair Rapozo.
Council Chair Rapozo: Is that something that you control, the time and
scheduling of interviews is that something that your office does?
Ms. Yadao: We have three on our panel and it just depends
on availability.
Council Chair Rapozo: Three on your panel, meaning from your office?
April 10, 2015
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Ms. Yadao: Two from my office and Deputy Director of
Finance.
Council Chair Rapozo: So it is really in your control?
Ms. Yadao: Depends on availability.
Council Chair Rapozo: I know, but you do not have to rely on outside
departments or people?
Ms. Yadao: No, no.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. Thank you.
Ms. Yadao: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions for Accounting?
Council Chair Rapozo: Well, I guess I have one more because of her
response. Is your staffing affecting the availability, I guess I should say? Do you have
enough people? I know it is a tough question to ask today, but I can talk to you offline. I
hate putting people on the spot, but it is really the only opportunity that we have to know.
(Councilmember Kagawa and Councilmember Yukimura were noted as present.)
Ms. Yadao: Right.
Council Chair Rapozo: We do not...I know it is tough, too. Because you
get everybody here. But it is really tough for us to know what the needs are.
Ms. Yadao: Well, it has been challenging. I have been here
shy of five years, and every year it is been covering. So it is been challenging. I do not feel
that at this time, because I have one position down, we do not have enough. So I am lucky
to have a great team, who are willing to dcJ more with less.
Council Chair Rapozo: I am in no position to judge, because I do not
know what goes on in the individual offices, but I see some departments have so many
people and some have so little people. I cannot expect these people to come to us and say
hey, we need more people. I would just hope that the Administration is making sure that
we get adequate support in the places that we need it. And I do not know how we figure
that out here, at this table. But I know that a few years ago we had some issues and we did
get involved a little bit. I am not sure if anything was resolved with that. I have not heard
any more complaints from anyone. But that does not necessarily mean that everything is
okay. And I think, I think we all should be able to tell the Council that we need more
people, we need help. And we can work our way or try to figure out how we can help you
folks with what you need. Anyway, I think I can read between the lines. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: With no further questions for Accounting we will
move on to IT. Thank you. For IT we have IT and the IT CIP. I do not know...maybe we
will just do IT first and then CIP questions. We can go through CIP questions and at the
end, if there is remaining CIP, we will go through the list and look at them individually and
April 10, 2015
Department of Finance (ss)
Page 24
check them off. In the past we went individually through the CIP items, but we will go
through the regular budget first. Any questions for IT? Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: I apologize for my absence up to now. Let us
see, I guess I want to say first of all, that I am very pleased with the IT budget report. I
remember three years ago... was it? When did you come on board, Brandon?
(Councilmember Kagawa was noted as not present.)
BRANDON RAINES, IT Manager: Almost five years ago.
(Council Chair Rapozo was noted as not present.)
Councilmember Yukimura: Five years ago. We had all of these mountains of
IT work that had to be done in different areas, and a dwindling workforce and vacancies.
And to see that you have filled them, even though I know there is still a need for more, and
organized the efforts, the payroll, is ongoing. The GIS or land-based management is
ongoing. It is really, to me, a positive sign of the work that has been done. Thank you very
much.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I have a question, too.
Councilmember Yukimura: Go ahead.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I think I probably know part of the answer, but
in the alternative IT funding / revenue, we have provide value-added services for our
citizens, local businesses, and visitors as one of the things that we are working towards.
What type of value-added services would those be?
Mr. Raines: We are just starting to look at potential revenue
opportunities from the IT perspective and the fact is that the County has a lot of valuable
data and in a position to bring that data to the form for residents and visitors as
services...there may or may not be a revenue opportunity, but maybe just a service as we
move forward. You do see around the country, people charging for things like background
checks and other types of services that is not just necessarily my piece, but all kinds of
information that may be value-added and may represent an opportunity. I am not saying
that that is the case, but we should certainly look.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I know when I think of value-added, thinking of
making it easy for people to pay their bills and might have been along the same lines, too.
I was interested in what types of value-added services that the County would be able to
provide. Thank you. Councilmember Yukimura.
(Council Chair Rapozo was noted as present.)
Councilmember Yukimura: I think it is a really great thought, Chair, in
terms of increasing the efficiencies of the County. For example, people have wondered
about those long lines for vehicle registration and so forth and wondered if people could do
it online? It is not possible right now, yes?
(Councilmember Kagawa was noted as present.)
April 10, 2015
Department of Finance (ss)
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Mr. Raines: Actually...
Councilmember Yukimura: They can do it by mail?
Mr. Raines: It is very interesting that you bring that up
because we did a citizen survey and looking at technology and serving our citizens and what
came back was...one of the questions was if we could offer more services online, what
would that be? And the top two kind of transactional-based things were can I pay my real
property taxes online and can I pay my motor vehicle registration online? Can you add
those? They exist today online and one of our challenges is outreaching to our citizens to
make sure they are aware of that. Currently those transactions exist online. There is an e-
services page, but we have to do a better job of raising awareness of what we already have.
Clearly, if people do not know it is there, they are never going to use it.
Councilmember Yukimura: So people can actually pay taxes or vehicle
registration online with a credit card?
Mr. Raines: Yes.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. And is there any way to put a little
monitor...you know like when you check in for the airlines? A kiosk that people can do if
they just get too impatient with waiting in line.
Mr. Raines: There is and, in fact they have put a little
computer out there in the shared area of the offices. It is gone largely unused. I think the
fact is that a lot of people have the computing power at home with their laptop or desktops
or even their phones. So our challenge is to kind of raise awareness and make that
available and perhaps a more user-friendly way as we move forward with making those
services available. Can we look at a new and improved kiosk out there? Maybe, and that
will be one of the things that we consider. Our previous efforts have been the more
website-oriented type of things.
Councilmember Yukimura: Well, you have identified the problem area is not
the availability of the technology, but they awareness of it. So that is obviously one area
that we could work on. And the other one in terms of the kiosk is if you remember,
Hawaiian Airlines had people out there, to help people learn how to use it. And that, I
think, is a big help. Now in this time of scarce resources, paying for bodies might be
difficult. But it is not a bad thought about a volunteer group, like the RSVP, the senior
retired volunteer program. These ladies actually already sit there in the room, the big hall,
where people come in. And maybe trainir;g them to teach might be a possible opportunity.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Follow-up question, Council Chair Rapozo.
Council Chair Rapozo: I think the awareness part...it says it on the
notice. I just did it online and I paid an extra $3.25 and it is just the most convenient thing,
so wonderful. I do not like pay $3.00 extra. Hawaiian Airlines does not charge you $3.00
to use the kiosk. When they look at efficiencies, the more people they can keep off counter,
and they pay for that, the people are paying for that. So it is costing them money, but they
are doing it. I think that is one way. Yon incentivize online and number one you get more
people to use it and number two you get more people off the road as JoAnn continues to talk
about and I did not have to come in to Lihu`e to get my tax. It was great and several
months ago when I had to do my daughters, I could not get it done, because the lunch break
April 10, 2015
Department of Finance (ss)
Page 26
was not long enough. The line was so long you had two people at the counter, during lunch
hour. So that is a problem. And I do not know how that can be fixed, but to have two
people there during the lunch hour and four people in the afternoon I think makes no sense.
The idea is to get people to do it outside. So maybe you can incentivize it and for me it was
worth it because it cost more than $3.25 in gas to do it from home and it was beautiful and
in less than a week I got it in the mail and it was awesome. Congratulation on that. Going
back to the efficiency part using Hawaiian Airlines as the model and they make enough
money on the tickets that they gouge us on, so they can afford to give back to customer
service. You can put that in the paper, I do not care. Because it is true. So somehow
getting people...I do not think it is the...because it is on the thing. I guess that was my
point. It is on your slip, the thing you get in the mail, that your registration is due. So it is
a matter of getting people to use it. I think when you log on, and you get...you go through
all the information and says now you will pay $3.25, maybe that turns some people off. But
I know we have to pay for that service, too.
Mr. Raines: It is definitely a business and fiscal decision
whether or not you are going to charge the fee? There is nothing to keep us from a
technical perspective from removing the fee.
Council Chair Rapozo: If we waive that fee, what would be the impact
be? Based on the numbers that we have now?
Mr. Raines: I think the usage would go up. My
understanding is that...do you want to answer that question?
DAVE SPANSKI, County Treasurer: Sure. Dave Spanski, County Treasurer,
the fees got up to $300,000 back in 2009.
Council Chair Rapozo: For drivers' licensing?
Mr. Spanski: For real property, sewer, and motor vehicle
registration.
Council Chair Rapozo: I am talking about the drivers' licensing?
Mr. Spanski: We do not do that online, we do motor vehicle
registration.
Council Chair Rapozo: I am sorry, that is what I call "license plates" the
registration.
Mr. Spanski: If we lumped it all together, maybe if I go back to
my notes I would figure it out. Right now motor vehicle registration is approximately 250
cars per month, or 3,000 cars per year. We register 90,000 vehicles.
Council Chair Rapozo: 3,000 per year do it online?
Mr. Spanski: Correct 250 a month average.
Council Chair Rapozo: And our fee is...
Mr. Spanski: There is no fee. We do not charge them a fee.
April 10, 2015
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Council Chair Rapozo: No...
Mr. Spanski: The vendor charges a fee.
Council Chair Rapozo: Whoever, I am paying the County.
Mr. Spanski: The vendor is charging $2.50 no matter if you
pay be eCheck or credit card.
Council Chair Rapozo: They charged me $3.25.
Mr. Spanski: They charged you $2.50 and $1 because you paid
by eCheck.
Council Chair Rapozo: No by credit card.
Mr. Spanski: So it would have been whatever your credit card
amount was. So if you had a $100 bill, it would be $2.50 plus 2.2% approximately.
Council Chair Rapozo: So we do not pay a fee, but they have to collect a
fee, the vendor.
Mr. Spanski: Yes, for keeping the infrastructure up 24 hours a
day, seven days a week.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay. So we really do not have control over that.
Mr. Spanski: No, we do not. Yes, we could say we do not want
to use you.
Mr. Raines: Actually, we have control. We can have the
vendor waive that fee, but we would have to pay it on the back end. We can hide it from the
public and say no, do not charge them the fee, but the fee will be paid.
Council Chair Rapozo: I guess what I am asking if we did that, how
much would the County have to pay to do away with that fee. I am just talking about
motor vehicle registration. Do we know?
Mr. Spanski: I am just trying to tell you when we started this,
the highest we got was...I had the budget $300,000 for overlying credit card and eCheck
fees.
Council Chair Rapozo: Okay, that sill does not answer my question. I
think I can do the math. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: Is it a flat fee for the service or per transaction?
Mr. Spanski: You want to register your car, okay? You want
to pay your property tax or pay your sewer bill, you are charged a convenience fee
...everybody is charge a convenience fee of$2.50.
April 10, 2015
Department of Finance (ss)
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Councilmember Yukimura: Okay.
Mr. Spanski: Then if you are going to pay by eCheck, they add
$1.00. So you pay $3.50. Okay? If you paid by credit card, you pay $2.50 plus whatever, if
it is a $100 bill, 2.2%, you pay an extra $2.20 plus the $2.50 is your total.
Councilmember Yukimura: So you cannot negotiate that...which would
then...the more the transactions we have, the cheaper it is going to be?
Mr. Spanski: You want to talk about negotiations, this is run
by the State government. Any other vendor...
Councilmember Yukimura: This is run by the State government?
Mr. Spanski: By the State procurement. We are on their
contract.
Councilmember Yukimura: I see.
Mr. Spanski: Okay. So if you want to go with one of the other
providers, say the one for the IRS, if you pay with a credit card, you pay $2...their
percentage is 2.49% or 29 basis-points higher.
Councilmember Yukimura: So we are right now using the lowest-cost
system?
Mr. Spanski: Correct.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. So is there a way to equalize things by
making those who come in and use bodies to do the transactions to also pay a fee? It is sort
of like people who park, versus people who ride buss? I mean everybody pays something for
the actual costs.
Mr. Spanski: Do they not already pay that with property taxes
and all of those other things? They are already paying.
Councilmember Yukimura: But not per the use, no. There are property tax
owners who are paying for the people who park...who do not use the parking. That is the
beauty of the user fee it targets the people who use the service. And that is just an
analogy. So my question is can you put a generalized transaction fee on everybody?
Because they are all costing money to have these transactions done and not necessarily full
costs, but offset some of the costs?
Mr. Spanski: I would not want to pass that law.
Councilmember Yukimura: People are already paying, but only those who
use electronic and we are talking about how you use incentives?
(Councilmember Kuali`i was noted as not present.)
Mr. Spanski: When we began paying the fee for the public, the
user rate got as high as 15%...for real property and the charging fee is now down to 8%.
April 10, 2015
Department of Finance (ss)
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Councilmember Yukimura: Interesting. That is the experience with the
plastic bag issue in the public. When they charge $0.05 for a bag, the use of bags drops.
And people start bringing their own bags. 5% makes such a difference in user behavior. It
is really amazing. Because what is $0.05, you know? But it affects behavior. You are
saying the reverse is happening...not the reverse, but the exact same thing. It is affecting
behavior, but in a different way. It is discouraging people rather than encouraging.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I think this is more of a policy decision. So I
think note well taken and I understand that people are paying for a service through real
property taxes and if you are going to pay online, you pay a service charge for the online fee.
But if you come in, we are going to charge you an additional fee, even though you are
already paying real property taxes on it. I understand both sides and I think we can
always have discussion further in a Committee meeting as far as what kind of policy we
want going forward with the credit card charges? It was really eye-opening because I was
going to say that sometimes those fees deter me from wanting to pay my sewer bill online,
but I understand it is not the County charging a fee, but the service fee for having that
available. Thanks. I think we will move on. Any other questions for IT? Councilmember
Chock.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you, Chair. This is kind of along the
lines of goals and objectives. I have been trying to look into how we increase efficiency and
capacity in interdepartmental and across the road here in terms of communication and so
forth? I know you might have been in touch with this Lockheed Martin IQ system. I know
the State uses its intranet forum. Have you had a chance to look at it in more detail?
Mr. Raines: We had some preliminary discussions, mostly in
sales and marketing types of situations at this point. Salesmen coming in and showing us
what they have. So we have done an initial evaluation. It is pretty pricy for what it does
and a lot of it has to do with more constituent engagement. It is targeted more towards
tying incoming and outgoing communications whether it is Council or the Administration
and how they handle their constituent communications. It can certainly help there and it is
helping around the country in different places, but for internal communication it is
probably not really focused on that particular piece.
(Councilmember Kualii was noted as present.)
Councilmember Chock: iI agree, that was my first take at it. But I think
you get the point of what the need is. Because even as a Council we have a hard time with
Sunshine Law, but the amount of work, like with our South Shore Plan. We have so many
amendments to look at just to get through and create an effective system, where we can
communicate and see amendments in progress, I think, would be helpful in moving our
process along. So those are the kinds of things if you could help us look into, I would
appreciate it and would work with you as well.
Mr. Raines: Happy to follow-up with meetings after budget or
around budget.
Councilmember Chock: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions for IT? Councilmember
Yukimura?
April 10, 2015
Department of Finance (ss)
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Councilmember Yukimura: In your narrative, on page 20, "performance
measures" you talked about technical support services in the centralized help desk service.
Mr. Raines: Technical support services. So basically this has
to do with the consulting that we provide we are refining policies. Basically we provide all
of these support services. I do want to focus on customer satisfaction. We have a help desk
ticketing system and we are starting to wrap that in a little tighter policies and procedures
to get more data out of the amount of work that we are doing. Who are the frequent fliers?
What are the frequent issues? And maybe we can take more proactive steps to drive down
the volume by looking at the data and becoming more efficient. I think the team is doing a
good job, but is it is overwhelming on days with the amount of staff and the amount of
requests that come in on a daily system. We are starting to drilldown on the data and do
operational reporting to look at exactly how we are doing it and opportunities for
improvement.
Councilmember Yukimura: Well, it is interesting, because it is analogous to
what we have been encouraging the Police and Fire Departments to do with their calls, to
analyze the nature and source of the calls, to see with limited staff those can be addressed
in other than the conventional ways? So that is commendable. Because I am a terribly
needy user, as you know, and I have noticed a drop in services. Often when we call, people
used to answer, but now they do not and they say they will call back and they do. But what
about the concept...and you might have it elsewhere, I know we did it in the very beginning
when we started to computerize the County, the geeks in every Department that are really
interested and the other day, Codie is not here.
Mr. Raines: Did you just call Scott a geek?
Councilmember Yukimura: This is meant as a compliment.
Mr. Raines: We are very happy that he is here,
Councilmember.
Councilmember Yukimura: The other day Codie from our Office figured out
the problem for me and that is the kind of in-house help that might...as along as it does not
get too burdensome can carry the load with more people. I do not know if that is an option.
Related to that is your...I thought a great idea, you are doing it at a higher-level, but your
Information Technology Steering Committee. I just want to say it seems like a really
smart idea and I am glad you have done it. Then, on your citizens technology survey, I just
wondered is there any cost to doing that? Are you finding it useful? You already
mentioned how it revealed the nature of the blockage to electronic registration, vehicle
registration. You do this annually?
(Councilmember Chock was noted as not present.)
Mr. Raines: No, this is the first time we have done it. What
we are doing is we are actually...we have taken several projects, and defined from those
survey results. We will be working on those and hope to finish those within Fiscal
Year 2016. When that is done, we will probably do another survey to reassess how we are
doing? And see where the opportunities and priorities with our citizens are at that time.
Councilmember Yukimura: So this project name sheet is the projects that
came out of your survey?
April 10, 2015
Department of Finance (ss)
Page 31
Mr. Raines: Some of them are and some are not. You will
see the citizen technology survey is listed there and then it has an asterisk.
Councilmember Yukimura: I see. I want to say this is a really helpful
format to see what...
Mr. Raines: I am glad it is. I struggled with how best to
present the information.
Councilmember Yukimura: Well, you know, for me, it is so clear what you
are accountable for. That you have these projects and how much you finished, and how far
along the ones that are unfinished are? And your commitments to when they are going to
get done. It is really, if we could see this from every Department, that would be really
useful. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i?
Councilmember Kuali`i: I may have missed this somewhere, but the two
top positions E90 and 239. One is named Executive Assistant to the Mayor, one is named
Computer Systems Officer. One is EX-, one is EM3 and one has salary of$96,000 and the
other with $107,000. What are the differences between those positions?
Mr. Raines: The Executive Assistant to the Mayor is myself.
The IT Manager.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Yourself.
Mr. Raines: And the other one is Mabel Antonio, who was
formerly IT Manager and has been with County IT pretty much since the beginning.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Former IT Manager.
Mr. Raines: She is a senior-level IT person who has been
there for a long time.
Councilmember Kuali`i: So you split up the duties?
Mr. Raines: I take over management responsibilities. That
is fully mine. She works on complex technical projects. At this point we have kept the
reporting structure in IT very flat and not introduced any kind of middle layers of
management. That may change overtime, but right now I am handling it and would rather
keep it that way, rather than hiring a manager. It is flat. I am the providing manager for
the entire staff, for all 12 of us.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: I just want to acknowledge Mabel, who is the one
who built the basis of the IT system. When I was Mayor, she worked with the blue-ribbon
committee and basically set up the AS500.'
Mr. Raines: 400.
April 10, 2015
Department of Finance (ss)
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Councilmember Yukimura: 400. The various policies that helped to
streamline the development of the process and given the fact that we are still using the
system, it was well-grounded, but ancient now and I know you have done all kinds of
creative things to make it work. But it has been a legacy, I think, of some good work.
(Councilmember Chock was noted as present.)
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kagawa.
Councilmember Kagawa: Just touching upon KipuKai's question. So the
EM3 is like top management salary?
Mr. Raines: EM3 was Executive Assistant to the Mayor?
Councilmember Kagawa: Mabel's one is EM3. That is management pay,
right?
Mr. Raines: It is a senior management type of pay, she is
managing projects and vendors rather than staff.
Councilmember Kagawa: Managing projects and vendors?
Mr. Raines: Right. So when we have projects internally she
may lead a project while those staff may not report directly to her, she is managing the
project with multiple people working on it. Same thing with the vendor project, even
though the vendor does not report directly to her as manager.
Councilmember Kagawa: For me, it seems to have reorganized, but looks
like the salary did not get reorganized with the reorganization. Right now she is making
$10,000 more than you and you are the boss.
Mr. Raines: That is working for government, is it not? If you
perform well and stay for a long time some of the managers do not make the same as the
staff.
Councilmember Kagawa: I am just saying that it seems that...and we have
got the Human Resources Department now and hopefully we can get the boss to get the
boss pay at some point. The second person should be under the boss pay. I just feel like if
we accept the fact that it is unfixable, we will never fix it and this is one of the areas that I
want to see if we can fix. Where if we in the past move, we had you as the head person,
managing the department. And at some point, we decided that we wanted another person
to do it, then let us give the person who is running it, the management pay and give the one
who used to manage it the secondary pay. I am just trying again to get it right where we
pay a person based on what they are doing. I do not think managing projects is managing
the departments. For me, it is not the same. You are either the manager or you are not
the manager. I have...and it is not a knock on Mabel. I am just trying to get Human
Resources to try and work towards getting it right, and if it is unfixable, then it is sad.
Because we should try to fix it. You fix it when they retire? You fix it? I think sometimes
we do not fix it, they retire and we just fill it. The problem does not get fixed. So I hope you
are listening, Human Resources. When she retires, fix it. Because we cannot have two top
management pay in one spot.
April 10, 2015
Department of Finance (ss)
Page 33
NADINE K. NAKAMURA, Managing Director: Good morning, Nadine Nakamura,
Managing Director. Yes, Councilmember Kagawa, there are a lot of situations in the
County where this pay inversion takes place and that is why we are in a difficult and
challenging, especially in the Fire/Police Departments, where people with long length of
services have a higher pay than those in the top two positions. Why the difficulty of filling
Deputy positions in those departments and in this situation, where just based on the civil
service rules that allow step movements, whenever the union negotiations take place...and
because of the length of service that over time we cannot bring down, but when that person
retires, then we go back to the very bottom step of that pay grade. You can reallocate
maybe from EM3 and go down to SR24, 26 and they start at the very bottom range of that.
This is just due to length of service that civil service dictates the pay increases and we
cannot make changes at this time. But at time of vacancy, that is when that evaluation
happens. The reallocation can take place.
Councilmember Kagawa: Again, I think that was just my suggestion.
Because I understand that we cannot drop her pay because she once was the manager,
EM3. I am saying when she retires to drop it where it belongs, because Brandon is the
EM3 manager now. We are just doing it in another way I guess.
Mr. Raines: I can tell you since I have been in the County I
have filled three positions and in every case I have reworked the position description based
on what I felt the Department needed the most. I will definitely be continuing that every
time there is a vacancy, there is an opportunity to relook at how we are doing and also a
Vacancy Committee at the Administration senior-level. So every time there is an opening I
look very carefully at it and not just the way I might look at it, but the way they might look
at it overall for the whole team.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Thank you. Council Chair Rapozo.
Council Chair Rapozo: Nadine, those two positions are exempt though?
Ms. Nakamura: They are exempt civil service.
Council Chair Rapozo: Both of them?
Ms. Nakamura: Not all of them. One is exempt. Appointed.
And one is exempt civil service. I am sorry, excluded civil service.
Council Chair Rapozo: I guess, I was not going to say anything, but
there was a point we had one IT Manager. Right? Right? We had one IT Manager. You
have to talk because the mic cannot pick you up.
Ms. Nakamura: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: We made a conscious decision to bring in an
Executive Assistant to the Mayor, to add that second high-level management position for
the Department. I think as Ross is talking about, yes it is tough to correct now and we
have to fix it before we make the mistake. You have a high-level manager and we create a
whole new position at some point back in time. I think that is...now we are in a position
you cannot fix it right now. I think that is what Ross is trying to say is hey, when we look
at the Departments, IT is definitely a very high-skilled Department. You need high-skilled
people. If you look at the pay, it shows there, reflects that, because it is all high-pay, very
April 10, 2015
Department of Finance (ss)
Page 34
high-pay and many of the other Departments are not. And you cannot judge the technical
nature or expertise or the importance of a position by the pay. Because as we looked in
other Departments the pay is relatively small, but the County cannot operate without them
as well. HR does as part of their restructuring with the new HR, to look at each
Department and doing management audits to say are we overstaffed? Are we
understaffed? And reallocating resources where they need to be. You know last budget,
Brandon, we had a position that was not filled, and you were having a rough time. So that
is done? Which one was that?
Mr. Raines: 273.
Council Chair Rapozo: I am sorry?
Mr. Raines: 273.
Council Chair Rapozo: So you found the right person?
Mr. Raines: I did and another person with 20+ years' of
experience and hit the ground running.
Council Chair Rapozo: Good. I just wanted to go through a few quick
questions. Website redesign, where are we on that?
Mr. Raines: We did the initial evaluation whether or not to do
that job in-house or look to external services? In the interest of basically doing more with
less, we decided to keep that job in-house. So we are in the process of upgrading our
website platform. Progress over the year, we have rebuilt our infrastructure that allows to
allow these changes for things like websites and anything else that would be public facing.
That part is all procured and done and we are working on the foundation of the website
overhaul. Once the foundation piece is done, we will reach out to individual agencies
because the way we do business at the County is not that IT makes all changes to the
website, but Departmental website editors are able to make the changes on behalf of the
individual agencies. So that is where we are.
Council Chair Rapozo: Well, hopefully, I mean, on or before our last
NACo Conference, I met with up with several designers of websites and I met up with the
one that does Maui's. Maui's is so much more user-friendly. C
Mr. Raines: Civic Plus, yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: I am not sure if that is an option. I am not sure
if it is cheaper to do it in-house. On our Council website, if you click on "Committee
Meetings," if you do not know that you have to click the little plus, you go to the page and
think they did not put it up. I find myself doing that early on and you see the little plus
and you hit that and the window drops down. Is that something that we can fix?
Mr. Raines: Absolutely. What you are seeing is reflected by
having an old platform that has been there for quite a while. What we are doing is bringing
the website into the modern age with additional features to find information a lot more
simply.
April 10, 2015
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Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you for the WiFi access for the public
here. That helps a lot, it really does. Everywhere I would go they would have it, but not
here. Is there any way to keep it longer?
Mr. Raines: Longer?
Council Chair Rapozo: I use the public one, so I do not have to type in a
password, but it shuts off and we go to a caption break and it is off. I do not know how long
the time before it...
Mr. Raines: I will check on that. It should be up for several
hours.
Council Chair Rapozo: I can tell you it is not several hours. It is not
even an hour. It is relatively quickly, probably 15 minutes or so.
Mr. Raines: So you are saying you are getting dropped?
Council Chair Rapozo: Yes and it forces you to go back to hit the "agree"
button. It is not a huge problem, but I would think it would stay a few hours.
Mr. Raines: You are experiencing that with the public one
that we just added?
Council Chair Rapozo: Yes. I want to say kudos to your help desk. I
use them quite often. They have always answered the phone and I always seem to get
Jolene. I ask her, are you the only one working and she says no, Mel, we rotate. She has
been a blessing, an angel for me. I already told her, but you can go back and say it is just
amazing. I cannot complain about the service from the help desk. Thank you very much.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: So excuse me my ignorance what is "Sun Guard
ERP?"
Mr. Raines: It is what is commonly referred to as AS400. It
is our financial system that also has some community functions like building permits and
the rest of that. And ERP is enterprise resource planning.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. I just want to note your statistic that the
same number of IT staff were responsible for supporting...let us see...that is 2005,
supporting 570 end-user computers and they are now responsible for supporting over 1,000
end-users.
Mr. Raines: That is correct.
Councilmember Yukimura: So you have doubled the users and you still have
the same staff?
Mr. Raines: Yes. That was the point basically IT has grown
and that is good, but we are still...and we try to be as intelligent as we can, as efficient as
we can, but it is a great example of the sheer numbers of issues, servers, PCs that we deal
April 10, 2015
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with and it is clear that the number of end users and computers in the County has doubled
while we have maintained the same staffing levels.
Councilmember Yukimura: You also say that the County should consider
hiring two more IT staff and you have explained how you will manage without it, but what
are the two staff that you would hire, if there were the resources?
Mr. Raines: I think I put it in the report, but basically it
would be...
Councilmember Yukimura: Excuse me.
Mr. Raines: One lower-level type of technician and "lower"
not meaning less skilled, but more to help us from the help desk daily perspective and one
more kind of senior IT Specialist that can help move strategic projects forward and take a
complicated project, whether that is software or hardware implementation and push that
forward on their own and manage that from start to finish. So one kind of each, if you will
and following the in-depth challenges that we face day-to-day and some of the more
strategic initiatives we try to pursue.
Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions? If not, we are going to
take a 10-minute caption break and come back for the CIP. We will see if there are any
remaining questions and come back for CIP.
There being no objections, the Committee recessed at 11:00 a.m.
The Committee reconvened at 11:13 a.m., and proceeded as follows:
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Welcome back. We will get started again. I
know we ended a little quick last time, but do we have any further questions for IT,
regarding their IT Department budget? If not...Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: It is just a quick overall thing looking back at
salaries and the top two positions. I would just put forward and I need to find out for
myself but maybe you can find out, too. When Nadine talked about the position goes
vacant, you can go back to the bottom of the scale, and you can even reallocate. I would
look at the use of reallocation and how you justify reallocation? I think it is based on
operational needs. So I think a reallocation could indeed go up or down and it does not
have to be when the position is vacant. So there are decisions made for personnel or
political reasons sometimes, but I would look to see based on civil service of what is possible
and not possible? That is all I would say. Maybe Ernie has an answer already.
ERNEST W. BARREIRA, Assistant Chief Procurement Officer/Budget Chief:
Good morning, members of the Council, Ernie Barreira, Budget and Purchasing
Chief. The difference is if you look at an occupied civil service position, and you want to
redescribe it to create a lower SR level, for example, you could do that and redescribe the
position, but there is a red-circle provision where the salary, you could not bring harm to
the incumbent with civil service status. Likewise, you have more flexibility with exempt
position, but with civil service, to do it as a realignment or future adjustment intention.
You have more flexibility when the position vacates as a result of normal or
April 10, 2015
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anticipated/unanticipated attrition at which point the Vacancy Review Committee kicks in
and you make the significant adjustments as necessary. There would be no immediate
financial benefit in a situation where you downgrade a full-time equivalent FTE that is
occupied.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Even though we do not have an opportunity for
immediate financial advantage, we would have the opportunity of the Administration
showing the Council that it is committed in moving in that direction of making the
corrections. And that gets back to the whole idea about the Vacancy Review Committee,
and how Chair and I and maybe others have talked about we want that to be more
extensive in the sense of position and the Vacancy Review Committee. While clearly we
have so many positions, I think it was 1,111, we are not saying to look at every single
position. Clearly you would look at positions like these. Because it is odd, you know? And
it stands out. Thank you.
Mr. Barreira: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura. I just want to
preface, I know this whole Vacancy Review Committee might be a better discussion in HR.
So I do not want to go too long on it, but Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes. I just want to say that in the situation of
IT, that we have been discussing, I do not think there is any need for correction. I mean,
because the skill-level of the person in the so-called management position is high. Given
the years' of performance, it is probably by private market standards, it is low, the salaries
that are given right now. So I do not think there is anything to correct in this situation.
Now I think it is true that when you have a vacancy you do have to set it at what your
needs are. Especially given the pool of applicants that you are looking at, you would set it
based on their skill-level and so forth and experience. I am assuming that you promoting
someone into a position that has been in the County for a long time, it is different than a
brand-new person. Just to be clear, there is no situation to correct here.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kagawa.
Councilmember Kagawa: I just want to say, I am not trying to cause
trouble here. Okay? SR20, $50,000. SR24, $66,000. There is one $73,000. SR26, there
is $73,000, up to $83,000 and there is a jump to EM3, $107,000. I am not trying to cause
trouble. Okay? When this position gets vacant, let us bring it back down to the SR level.
There is fair justification to say a job should be worth $24,000 just for one person. I cannot
see the rationale. If we are talking about a Department Head who runs the office, and then
there is a difference, okay? That is the job that Brandon is doing. So I am just saying this
is...we have got to fix this at some point. You cannot fix it when the person is live in there,
and this is meant...I do not think any comments are because we do not know what jobs they
do. They do an excellent job a team. IT has come a long way. They are way ahead of at
least my school and our computers and what we struggle with and the programs that we
use. The County's system from when I was working in the County, in 1996 or 1997, we
were backwards back in 1996-1997 and we have, I think, the way our computer systems are
working now and the help we get, when we have problems, is tremendous. So we have
come a long way, and your team, your whole staff is doing a great job. So this is not
about...just bringing up the fact that at some point, if we have a chance to correct the
wrong, let us correct it and let us not just okay, well it is a great opportunity to reward this
employee at some point and give them that big jump. I think that leads to low morale in
April 10, 2015
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the staff overall if we do not fix that problem. I am just saying that Human Resources
watch those kinds of things and if management direction has changed for one reason or
another, and there is a new way of dictating the Department Head, then let us just do it at
that time. I hope we can put this to rest. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i?
Councilmember Kuali`i: And just very quickly, I just want to say that so I
do not know names and personalities of who is in what position and I like it better that
way. It is for you folks to decide as far as the skill-level and the operational needs and
promotions and what have you? But I would say that as far as looking at this budget, it
would be helpful if the SR26, because there are five or six of them and he just mentioned
there are several salaries, if that also said what the level was? And then for me, the thing
one step further would be the length of service. So if someone is newly-hired and has been
with us for a year, it would jump out at me if they are at the F-level and I would ask and
you would say they have 20 years' of experience at another IT place and we hired them at
this level, but it would be an exception. Because I think clearly throughout the County and
here, when you have the Information Technology Specialists I, II, III, and IV, I would like
to see that you are using that to our advantage as a County to maximizing the type of
people that we attract and also getting the productivity, for lack of a better word, the best
bang for the best buck if you will and keeping those employees with morale and all of that
by being in position to give the appropriate advancement along the way. If everyone is
hired at Specialist IV, then we cannot give them the opportunity to grow from I to II to III
to IV and the sort. I do seem to understand now that each of these steps, I mean each of
these position-levels, I, II, III, and IV has steps within them through...so there is plenty of
opportunity to give raises and promotions over time; if we start them, you know, at the
appropriate...I am not saying it is not appropriate, but if we see a little bit more
information, then the isolated instances, then maybe we can just get more information.
Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions for IT? We will move on
to the CIP and I know they provided a very good summary, project summary of all of their
projects. If we have any questions regarding their CIP budget, they only have maybe five
items, six items. Councilmember Yukimura?
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes. Thank you for the planning, zoning,
engineering project. Which we all know has been long needed. In terms of electronic plan
review, what percentage is being done electronically and what are the objectives in terms of
finishing the project?
Mr. Raines: Last time I spoke with the folks in Buildings, I
believe we are doing somewhere between 15-20% on electronic plan review, which is
actually a pretty good step forward in terms of the goals going forward, obviously the
long-term goal is to go more and more paperless. When and how we get there is a deeper
discussion, both with IT and also the Buildings folks in terms of the process and procedure.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: The system is in place already?
Mr. Raines: Absolutely.
April 10, 2015
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Committee Chair Kaneshiro: So if we have questions regarding how many
permits they are processing with the computerized system, maybe we can send a question
to Buildings?
Councilmember Yukimura: I just wanted to know approximately how many
were using this system. And 15-20% gives me an idea of where we are, and this is tied into
the GIS system?
Mr. Raines: Electronic plan review is pretty much an
internet-based portal for submitting plans.
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes.
Mr. Raines: So it just avoids the need to print out seven sets
of plans and walking them down to the County building and chase that paper around the
County. It is all done electronically, both the initial submitting and routing and that type
of thing, communications, et cetera. It does not necessarily tie into GIS other than the fact
that it is associated with a parcel and a structure on that parcel.
Councilmember Yukimura: So it is the central land information management
solution project that is going to allow us to update all of our planning files and zoning files
and real property files as we get new permits and new development on the ground?
Mr. Raines: Right. That whole initiative has to do with tying
our different silos together in terms of we have land information management and Real
Property and we have Planning. We have it in Public Works with the Building folks. We
need to wrap our arms around that and bring it all into one centralized solution. And that
is what we formed a task force to do.
Councilmember Yukimura: And you show this as 40% complete, task force
formed and efforts progressing. That was in your operations.
Mr. Raines: That is mostly getting the plan in place. I mean,
to move us forward over time, to let us say get us to the same place of where Honolulu is,
that is a multi-year effort, but working with the task force to get short, medium-range goals
and long-term.
Councilmember Yukimura: I think our Planning is doing paper files?
Mr. Raines: In some cases, yes and they have an internal
homegrown system we have recently upgraded to stabilize that and allow it to continue to
serve, both how it does now and expand it until we look at it more as an enterprise
perspective across the entire organization.
Councilmember Yukimura: I mean, you know, because in the past, they have
forgotten what the conditions are that were put on to permits. They were not enforced.
They were not included on maps. I mean, there has been this kind of disconnect because
they have been paper files not tied into a centralized system. I am just asking whether that
system is going to be changed. So that we have a better way of tracking our conditions and
permit requirements?
April 10, 2015
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Mr. Raines: Yes, we are looking at digitizing all land
information over time.
Councilmember Yukimura: The goal for this operations plan that you have
mentioned on your list is to develop a plan for that, is that right?
Mr. Raines: Right.
Councilmember Yukimura: An interdepartmental cross-sector plan.
Mr. Raines: Yes.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Members other questions?
Councilmember Yukimura: Your payroll personnel system, what is the
timeline? This is obviously a multi-year?
Mr. Raines: Basically that initiative or that CIP project has a
multi-pronged effort and in the report we go through all of the different pieces and parts to
that. We are in the process of implementing employee self-service. We have already
implemented some interfaces and we are in the process of implementing the on-boarding
process. Beyond that looking at evaluation and time and attendance, so we are making
slow and steady progress on a multi-pronged effort to move that whole piece forward.
Councilmember Yukimura: The self-service to employees will be a benefit for
them, right?
Mr. Raines: Absolutely. The employee self-service allows us
to look at pay stubs online, both current and historical, as well as provide some other
interfaces for demographic type of changes, requesting that of HR. And then also doing
what-if scenarios for changing dependents and things like that? It will allow the employees
to more or less self-serve those functions.
Councilmember Yukimura: And is part of keeping the accuracy that we have
been highlighted in audits?
Mr. Raines: Yes, that is part of the overall project we have
been doing. A lot of progress has been made and folks in HR can better address that in
their presentation, but progress has been made there and having accurate data is key to
having employee self-service.
Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you to for all the support you have given
to this effort. It is a real relief to know it is being addressed in a systematic way. Thank
you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions for IT? Thank you.
Thank you, Brandon. We will move on to Treasury. We will jump to Purchasing. Are
there any questions for Treasury? There are two employees.
Councilmember Yukimura: I have one.
April 10, 2015
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Committee Chair Kaneshiro: We will jump to Purchasing. Any questions for
Purchasing?
Councilmember Yukimura: I just have a comment.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councihmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes. Ernie, I just want to say your succession
plan is very impressive. It feels like a model to me for other departments. On your
performance measures, these appear to be more steps than indicators. I am hoping next
year for any department that has indicators, we are going to get an indicators report. So I
am not sure what the indicators actually are, but I know there has been tremendous
advance, so I appreciate that. Do you have some thoughts about actual indicators? Maybe
these are not conducive to indicators.
Mr. Barreira: You are referencing the succession plan?
Councilmember Yukimura: The performance measures.
Mr. Barreira: Thank you.
Councilmember Yukimura: They reflect very systematic thinking about the
steps that it is going to take to get to your goal. This is really refined-level of asking you to
indicate.
Mr. Barreira: Under leader of our Managing Director we have
moved into this area. I think this is the second year we have tried to discuss...
Councilmember Yukimura: Indicators?
Mr. Barreira: Talking about indicators and performance
measures. So it is a little bit of a new process for us. But I think you are right. When you
make the comment of a guide to achieve the end result, that is the intent in articulating
these points of view listed. _
Councilmember Yukimura: If you were to continue your expansion of
electronic procurement and paperless initiatives, what would you see as the outcome that
you would be 100% electronic...that all procurement would be done electronically?
Mr. Barreira: Yes. Actually, we are very much on our way
there. Partly there and we will be there the next milestone is July Pt where we roll out of
fully electronic procurement system for construction contracts and later in September, our
chosen methodology for goods and service and the reason it is critical, one of our senior
managers Erwin Wright in the Purchasing Division is retiring this December. I remember
talking about it four years ago and thinking it is a long way off, but we are here with him
retiring in a few short months and it is critical we roll out these initiatives under his
leadership for both implementation and succession. So there are specialists that can learn
the skills and abilities to carry on after he leaves us.
Councilmember Yukimura: That is very good to hear. So by this year, you
plan to be 100%...your procurements 100%?
April 10, 2015
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Mr. Barreira: The procurements for goods and services for
construction will be electronic and as opposed to now we let everything electronic and
receive paper offers. It still mandates quite a bit the manpower facilitate tabulations and
reviews. Our support processes, while we are using scannable processes they have to be
signed before scanning method. It is very exciting because this year, working closely with
Mauna Kea Trask, our County Attorney, we came across a Hawai`i Revised Statute Chapter
489E-7, which identifies and sets forth a very aggressive legal precedent, where electronic
signatures and similar signatures are valid under the law. As are wet signature
documents. That could have a significant impact on the way we do business overall and
you could be looking at files and files of paper files now becoming electronic documents now
residing on the cloud, which have a huge impact financially and operational in what we do.
Councilmember Yukimura: Excellent. Are the other counties doing this or is
Kauai leading the way?
Mr. Barreira: No. In this case, Maui...ironically, we were first
to find the government-supported public purchase system, but since that time, the County
of Hawai`i and the County of Maui have rolled it out in different segments. We are going to
be the only fully electronic, where we let electronically and we receive electronic bids. So
that is we are going to set the standard, but the City of course spent millions of dollars a
few years ago to develop an electronic procurement system. And of course, the State has
its own electronic procurement system as well.
Councilmember Yukimura: The State sounds like they are having a lot of
trouble with IT.
Mr. Barreira: We did not adopt the State system to charge our
vendors for a system that would create more efficiencies. It does not make sense to achieve
more efficiencies and charge more. So our system will not cost them a cent to use.
Councilmember Yukimura: The Department of Commerce and Consumer
Affairs does charge for more expedited business registration, for example. So sometimes it
is appropriate. But in your case, where they need to be able to respond to bids, it makes
sense not to charge them extra to do that. Do you know what kind of savings we are
amassing from going paperless?
Mr. Barreira: The mail budget alone dropped more than
$20,000 from when I first arrived. Of course the mail is always a challenge and trying to
reduce the mail. Our operating expenses have dropped as well. It does not show as clearly,
because payroll has been to aggressively increase it seems to have taken away from the
savings on the operating side. It is a much leaner operation, less paper, less time involved
in processing the work of procurement. And the savings in time, just alone the pCard, an
electronic process. We used to process 8,500 purchase orders a year and that general
analysis from the National Institute of Government Procurement says it costs about $97.00
for every purchase order executed. We are down to less than 5,000 with the pCard
initiative and the transactions comparatively speaking is on $17 a transaction. So in those
relative terms, there is tremendous savings in time and moneys. When we did our
assessments for paper, the amount for the County overall has dropped significantly.
Councilmember Yukimura: Is there not a down-sizing of the amount of space
that you need to store paper?
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Mr. Barreira: Yes, and because of that we have been able to,
with the help of Council, to create for space for other important resources.
Councilmember Yukimura: If it is already submitted by paper and...I am
sorry, electronically transacted, the archiving you do not have to do and the storage also
becomes easier?
Mr. Barreira: Yes and just recently we implemented
procedures on retention for electronic records. Because even for the Council you only
require approval after two years as opposed to seven years for paper documents. So it is
going allow us to...it will be electronic and removal of the electronic files will be freeing up
space.
Councilmember Yukimura: You are cutting the time that the period in which
electronic data is kept?
Mr. Barreira: It is already in the law. It is two years versus
seven years. Already within the County's authority, if you look at the retention form we
have to execute when we seek your permission to dispose of records. It is defining the
electronic records as two years as opposed to...as to records that have electronic backup can
be held two years as opposed to seven years. So it expedites the process of removal of those
documents.
Councilmember Yukimura: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Council Chair Rapozo.
Council Chair Rapozo: You are not saying that the electronic records are
being destroyed after two years?
Mr. Barreira: No.
Council Chair Rapozo: The paper records?
Mr. Barreira: Associated.
Council Chair Rapozo: That have electronic backups can be destroyed?
Mr. Barreira: Yes. The only records, Chair, electronic records
of disposing will be those that are redundant in our operations.
Council Chair Rapozo: So no matter what we destroy, there is some
record of it?
Mr. Barreira: Yes, sir.
Council Chair Rapozo: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions for Purchasing? We will
move on to Treasury. Any questions from the Members? I have a question. With only two
employees, do you have a succession plan? Are you starting to cross-train anyone?
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Mr. Spanski: Who? Who would I cross-train?
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I am just asking.
Mr. Spanski: That is not my department. You have to take it
up with my boss. They have been on notice that I am retiring and the whole Treasury
Division will be retiring in 2017. There are probably five others, the combination of Motor
Vehicle and Drivers' License. So that would be 7. You have a total staff of 25. You will be
losing 30% of your staff.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I think that goes to my questions I have been
asking all day about succession planning and it is concerning that Treasury has two
employees that will be retiring in 2017. I do not know what our plan is, but we better have
a plan in place to try and accommodate those types of positions of people retiring and
getting people in and trained up. Any other questions for Treasury? Councilmember
Yukimura?
Councilmember Yukimura: Well, I would like to ask our Finance Director if
he is developing plans for that and of course he has only been on-board for what? Less than
a month, Ken?
Mr. Shimonishi: That is correct, 18 days to be exact. It is funny
how...
Councilmember Yukimura: Maybe we should ask the question next budget.
Mr. Shimonishi: It is funny when you get the position and you
start counting the days. I now know why Steve had a calendar with the red lines going
across each day. Yes, Dave has made that aware to us. We are definitely looking at
seeking ways to try to come in with new temporary positions or some way, shape or form to
get that area covered.
Councilmember Yukimura: I know that I think it has been for at least two
years that we have been told there has been some...there is some effort underfoot to look at
even changing Human Resources rules, if we have to, in order to allow for that kind of
position-training. But I have never heard of any results from that effort and maybe
because there has never been an organized, like with your motor pool, there is not an
identified project to actually do this. It is not a problem that is only in Treasury or
Finance. So maybe an organized effort to address it might be worthwhile, or a pilot project?
I do not know whether Human Resources and State rules and laws allow for a pilot project.
How do they do it in the private sector? They just have more positions?
Mr. Shimonishi: I am guessing you have the flexibility of bringing
someone in new to cross-train as the person is there and to be able to have that. You do
not have the issues with civil service, authorizing position numbers.
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, but the civil service system arguably should
evolve to allow that, because that is good human resources practice.
Mr. Shimonishi: I agree. It is what it is.
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Councilmember Yukimura: Well, maybe we will make a request to Human
Resources to develop a system for succession training. For lack of a better phrase right
now. Because it seems like somebody has got to start working on this problem, and
Treasury might be a great pilot project. Because Dave has been here for over 20 years and
has run that office really well. When things are done well, you do not notice, right? It is
only when you have problems that you notice. But it is going to be a major change and
major shift and it will be so important to find someone of his quality and background to
continue and it would be helpful if he could train them for at least a year and not much
time is left. Anyway thank you for raising the issue, Chair.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Council Chair Rapozo.
Council Chair Rapozo: Dave, what is your office responsible for?
Because some of the members have never heard your presentation and have never sat down
with you and I think Councilmember Yukimura hit it on the head.
Mr. Spanski: The title is Treasurer. So in a normal area they
would have a team. Not a Drivers' License Clerk, not Motor Vehicle Registration Clerks.
It would be a team, we are the only County in the State, the only County in the United
States, organized this way. So however to get to your point, I am in charge of cash
management, making sure we have enough cash flow to maintain. I am in charge of
investment management. And we are also in charge...well, personally I am in charge of
debt management. Now the accounting, there are eleven bank accounts, reconciling all of
those and you have things coming in over electronic form coming into accounts. Who is
that? Is it Police? Is that Prosecutor? Is it Solid Waste? You know, we have to identify it.
We have got it cleaned up a little bit, but there is a lot of leg work that is involved with
that. So with that, say for example, the only Treasurer I am familiar with, who was the
last one in the State of Hawai`i to move out, they used to oversee Drivers' License and
Motor Vehicles. He now is on the Big Island and has a staff of six. He does not oversee
Drivers' License or Motor Vehicles. Now in the other counties that have a Drivers' License
and Motor Vehicle they have an Administrator higher than my level to oversee those. City
and County of Honolulu, they have two more under him to oversee.
Council Chair Rapozo: So you oversee Drivers' License?
Mr. Spanski: Correct.
Council Chair Rapozo: And you get no assistance?
Mr. Spanski: There is a Chief Examiner. If you look at the
organizational chart, I can sit here honestly and say I have never issued a driver's license
or issued a motor vehicle registration, but I am their Administrator. Again, we have been
fortunate to have good supervisors at that level, you know? Every once in a while and it is
usually when there is a human resources problem, but as far as the technical job, I can
answer some questions, but I have never issued a registration, I have never issued a
driver's license.
Council Chair Rapozo: How do you guys get...how do you get it done
with two people?
Mr. Spanski: Because we have worked at the ability of ten.
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Council Chair Rapozo: Right, and at the expense of succession training?
Mr. Spanski: There has been no...we have both been here long,
you know? We are maxed at vacation. So mandatory you have to take your vacation or
lose it. We do not take sick-leave. She has been there longer than me and has almost
three years of cumulative sick-leave and I have two years' of cumulative sick-leave. So if
we took those, you lose five years. So it is who you have in there. You hired us to do the job
that we said we would, and we are.
Council Chair Rapozo: I think there is a huge imbalance in the size of
the staff in different departments, I think. And we have seen it year after year after year
and you have departments with, I believe way too many people that should be doing more
with less and we have departments like yours, the Treasury. I would think it is probably
one of the more important departments in the County. I would just think so. But you
know, I know Ken, you are so new, poor thing, but they hear this every year. Maybe you
have not, but somebody has to do something. It is, I think, Arryl, your first time as Budget
Chair and from day one his concern was succession planning. What if you decide to leave
next year? Whatever, I am tired, God forbid you just leave, then what? We are going to
grab two accountants to be Treasury? What is going to happen? We have to start looking
at that? Dave never complains or argues nothing, just does his work and maybe you are
right, JoAnn, because it is going so well we do not notice.
Mr. Spanski: I do argue with directors...well, not argue, but
stress my point.
Council Chair Rapozo: Well, for those who have not seen your
presentation, to have it so they understand your depth of knowledge in Finance. It is
incredible. You are going to be one tough cookie to replace. So we are going to have to
start concentrating on that. Ken, I guess that is something that you have to start looking
at. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: I would like to suggest that you flush out your
mission statement. Because it would help and I am sure that you are referring to the core
of your work by the words "prudent financial management," but it really helped when you
said you are responsible for cash management, investment management, and debt
management. That really helps us understand better what your department does and your
work. Because those three things are super substantial. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: We do not need to work on the mission statement
now.
Councilmember Yukimura: I would like to see it next year, because it tells us
and it is informative and tells us what you do and this statement minimizes.
Mr. Spanski: How much time have you got?
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I did not mean now, in the next two years, but we
can work on a mission statement later, but not now.
Councilmember Yukimura: Not now.
April 10, 2015
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Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Chock.
Councilmember Chock: I keep hearing the question about mission
statements. I have got to say, I have read all of them, and they are all coming from
different places and I feel there needs to be some continuity to the larger vision and mission
of our County. The way I see mission and vision, are a little bit different in terms of the
outcome that we want to have in the future and how we get there? I think it is a little bit of
discussion that needs to happen, if we are going to move in the direction of working on
these missions and visions because some do not have a mission even. So that we are
moving in the same direction and creating them with specific purpose and clarity and not to
just have one and I see that happen often in these arenas. I will not see anything else
about it Chair, but I do have another question. The question, Ken, you talk about...and I
know this has been an issue in the past about limited space. Has there been further
discussion on the movement of that? I know we are trying to get Planning in their own
space. Where are we on that? Because as I read here it is an issue for the Finance
divisions?
Mr. Shimonishi: I have not been up to speed on the space needs in
my 18 days. But I know that gets old. I think it is probably something that we should
circle back with Planning and Public Works and Keith Suga on how we revamp that whole
area.
(Council Chair Rapozo was noted as not present.)
Councilmember Chock: I think this body keeps going back to what about
this space that we have across the street here? And what are the plans? Because every
time we ask the question, it does come back a little bit different. So I know there is a
majority of this is for storage, but I have also heard most recently County Auditor and other
things. I just wanted to get clear if it is a broad request to get an update on that? Thank
you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I believe the County has a plan and they might
be updating the plan. I do not think the plan included the Big Save area, but I think they
are working on a plan to include the Big Save area. Maybe we can stay abreast on that as
we move forward, once the plan is ready. Any further questions? Councilmember
Yukimura?
Councilmember Yukimura: Page 33, you talk about the long lines and that
has come up before. I just wondered if you folks have been discussing strategies for
reducing the lines? Or whether you think it is just a necessary evil...I know end of the
month and so forth.
Mr. Spanski: Right. Right now it is a necessary evil. If I
could give you some background, and pardon me I am going to read.
Councilmember Yukimura: Well, that means you are prepared.
Mr. Spanski: Vehicle registrations have increased 104%.
From 1987 to 2013. In 1987, 46,000 vehicles, in 2013, 96,000.. That is just motor vehicles.
In 1991, sewer collections began at 13,000. They are now at 25,000 in 2013, an increase of
91%. In 1992 tipping fee coupon issuance and collections began at 2,300 along with landfill
payments currently at 840. In 2001, bus pass issuance and collection began, currently at
April 10, 2015
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3,800. In 2010, commercial refuse collection currently at 195. In 1987 the headcount was
8, two State-funded and six County-funded. In 2015 the headcount is 10, two state-funded,
eight county-funded. This is an increase in staffing of 25% in 27 years with a volume
increase of 275%. Last full term hire was 2007. The increased volume of registered
vehicles equates to doubling staff or six additional personnel. This does not take into
account additional mandated duties since 2001 of sewer, sewer bill processing, tipping fee
processing, and bus pass processing. Work volume on average has increased 10% per year.
It is really spiked in those years. Again, if you take it and average it out it has been 10% a
year. Area has been chronically overstaffed for years leaving employees overworked and
demoralized after years of neglect which may be contributing to the absenteeism. We
consistently continue to receive numerous walk-ins, phone calls, and complaints criticizing
the Department for inadequate public service.
Councilmember Yukimura: Can we have a copy of that? Thank you, Dave,
for painting the picture so clearly. Do you have a proposal for how we could address those
problems in terms of an organization and estimated costs?
Mr. Spanski: No, not at this time.
Councilmember Yukimura: Is that something you could work on?
Mr. Spanski: When? I have to do a mission statement...and do
what I have been doing.
Councilmember Yukimura: Most division heads are responsible for those
things.
Mr. Spanski: I understand, yes. I cannot give you a deadline.
Councilmember Yukimura: No, but you are raising a really important
question, and when we keep talking about cost-cutting, we are ignoring the real need for
proper staffing. And so by giving us this data, you have helped us get a perspective on
what we need to see that we are ignoring and overlooking, which I do not think we can
continue to do.
Mr. Spanski: What that was from, that was my write-up to the
Vacancy Review Committee. Because I had a vacancy in the motor vehicle section. We
had a retirement. So that was my...to explain, because you will see other things in there. I
want to preface, read the "background" portion. My return on investment to the Vacancy
Review Committee to maintain, not to take that position.
(Council Chair Rapozo was noted as present.)
Councilmember Yukimura: Right. Right. There are probably other
departments that have similar situations and they may not be as articulate or as data-
based as you have been in making your case. But you have definitely done that job. So I
imagine you convinced the Vacancy Review Committee to keep your position and allow you
to fill it?
Mr. Spanski: That is correct.
April 10, 2015
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Councilmember Yukimura: Yes. Okay, very good. Well, see what your
question led to. Thank you for this. Obviously we cannot address it today, but we first
need to know what the problem is. So you have helped us understand that. I think that is
all I have for Treasury.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. We will move on to Drivers' License.
Any questions for Drivers' License?
Councilmember Yukimura: Well, I know in Drivers' License as you have
explained there has been an increase in burden because of these crazy requirements.
Mr. Spanski: I guess my reference in the reading was to the
motor vehicle side, but it is also in my write-up about the Drivers' License, just the
increase, you know? The Federal and State mandates of how they process a drivers' license
now, just increased the time processing.
Councilmember Yukimura: Right. In asking for documentation that people
cannot get overnight?
Mr. Spanski: Correct.
Councilmember Yukimura: Whether it is passports or divorce decrees or
whatever, right?
Mr. Spanski: Right.
Councilmember Yukimura: I know I have dealt with that in my own family.
So yes, I do not have any other questions, just an acknowledgment about the extra work
you folks have had to do also.
Mr. Spanski: That should be normally pointed to their
supervisors and they do a really good job of helping everyone to understand.
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, they do do a great job under adverse
circumstances or difficult circumstances.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I know this question...the answer is probably no,
but did the Federal or State provide any incentive for us to...I mean monetary incentive to
follow their additional requirements?
Mr. Spanski: Yes, like the surveillance that is being done is
being paid by the State and Feds. So we have gotten funds for that. We will get more
funding... Kaua`i is the first one in State to be ID-compliant.
Councilmember Yukimura: Wow, congratulations.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I will stop assuming then and saying no. That is
good. Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: A follow-up, you are talking about surveillance
equipment to keep track of what is going on in...?
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Mr. Spanski: Right, inside, even as far as the back office, to
make sure there is no tampering or anything like that.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. Well, congratulations and thank you for
extraordinary work, especially given the short staffing.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions for Driver's License? We
will move on to Motor Vehicles. Any questions for Motor Vehicles? I have a quick
question. I did not take good enough notes to think of it as Driver's License or Motor
Vehicles, but why is Motor Vehicles collecting the sewer fees?
Mr. Spanski: One-stop shop.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Just convenience for where they are in the
building?
Mr. Spanski: That was the idea. I think back...you know,
prior to even me getting here, when I got here, we just started taking the sewer bills, I
believe. I think was just the idea of one-stop shop, because I do not know, but you are
coming here, let us make it to do all of this with one thing. When we had dog registration,
you could come...before we even had real property collections, all in the same building, but
that is just how it evolved. You guys are collecting, why do not you collect that? But this is
an unfunded mandate. Management forgets that you started out small, but you got big.
And they do not take into consideration the volume. Just like something you mentioned is
getting done and as a water balloon, you can only put so much water in and it will burst.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I told myself I would not repeat myself, but it
seems that the recurring theme through the division, we have had held the costs, but the
amount of services have increased and how do we continue to maintain that service with
that amount of staff? When I was thinking about it, I do not know if it should be there or a
different location and you have a certain amount of trained people to do that and it takes
off the burden of other employees doing other duties. Who knows what the cost of that
would be also? Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: Well, as someone who was there when we created
that room, and actually stopped the long lines that were overflowing at the Hale Kaua`i
Building. The idea of the one-stop convenience and also cashiering security so you would
not have money collection everywhere. To have a centralized system where you have these
protections or these internal controls was part of the idea. And I think it has a lot of
rationale to it, but I am just thinking as Dave is giving us the big-picture; that there is sort
of this internal services that could be paid for by the different systems. Just like we do the
County Attorney's services are allocated back to the department. You know, maybe sewers
and bus and others have to, in their budget pay for that collection service that is being done
by Treasury.
Mr. Spanski: I think that was the idea. If you go back and
look at the tipping fee coupon ordinance, there is in there the resources would be available
for collection. But it never materialized.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay. So that is one way to look at it, if you
begin to think of more staffing. And it is cost-effective because Solid Waste might have to
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pay for half a position, and sewers for half a position. If you can put it in one position
somewhere else.
Mr. Spanski: Now we go back to...
Councilmember Yukimura: Getting trained in cashiering.
Mr. Spanski: Where are they going to be sit? Where are they
going to be?
Councilmember Yukimura: Space.
Mr. Spanski: Yes, space. Even to try to help us now, the only
place like we have a vacant office, I could put...as soon as I get fully staffed in Motor
Vehicle, back up to 10. We are at 9 now and back up to 10, so I could put two people in the
office. I do not know what the OSHA requirements and how much space you need for
people?
Councilmember Yukimura: If Planning could move to a bigger space that
would be your expansion space. That makes sense.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: I definitely agree with the points that
Councilmember Yukimura was making, in that the actual cost of providing the collection
services needs to be borne by the people you are collecting it for. The other parts of the
County that you are collecting them for. I see that there are several positions that are
dollar-funded. So you know the idea about being understaffed and needing more positions.
Have some of these...there is like five or six in Driver's License and two in Motor Vehicle.
Mr. Spanski: If you look there is an asterisk and that they are
State-funded.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Okay.
Mr. Spanski: So the State pays for those positions. They are
filled.
Councilmember Kuali`i: They are filled?
Mr. Spanski: Yes. I am only vacant one position in the Motor
Vehicle registration area.
Councilmember Kuali`i: If they are filled, and we pay them, why is there
not a salary?
Mr. Spanski: The State pays for their salaries.
Councilmember Kuali`i: The state reimburses?
Mr. Spanski: Correct.
April 10, 2015
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Councilmember Kuali`i: We are getting money from the State to cover
those positions, but I do not think it should say a dollar, should it? Should it not say the
salary?
Mr. Spanski: It is the State paying for it.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Does the County pay $1.00?
Mr. Spanski: No, we do not pay anything.
Councilmember Kuali`i: We pay zero.
Mr. Spanski: Correct.
Councilmember Kuali`i: So it should be zero. And the asterisk that says
"State funding." So we do have those positions?
Mr. Spanski: Correct.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Just paid for by the State. And do we get an
annual commitment for those positions?
Mr. Spanski: In perpetuity since I have been here. I think
they transferred over in 1986 or 1987. It was before my time, but I think I have documents
that they converted from the State taking over for the counties and they would pay for
certain positions.
Councilmember Kuali`i: We can count on it?
Mr. Spanski: Correct.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any further questions? If not, I am inclined to
take lunch and then come back with Kauai Humane Society as our final item at...say we
will be back at 1:30 p.m. and take the Kauai Humane Society and that will be our final
division. Okay? Thank you. With that, we will take a lunch break.
There being no objections, the Committee recessed at 12:10 p.m.
The Committee reconvened at 1:31 p.m., and proceeded as follows:
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Welcome back. Next up we have Kaua`i
Humane Society. Please step up. And just state your name, for the record.
PENNY CISTARO, Executive Director, Kauai Humane Society: Penny
Cistaro, Kaua`i Humane Society, Executive Director.
CATHERINE VILLARREAL, Controller, Kauai Humane Society: I am
Catherine Villarreal, the Controller.
April 10, 2015
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Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any questions from the Members? No questions?
We are done.
Ms. Cistaro: Okay, thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I have a question. This is the first time I saw
the Kauai Humane Society's budget. There is an audit every year that is done.
Ms. Cistaro: Yes.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: And results, is it eventually shared with the
County Council?
•
Ms. Cistaro: Yes.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Councilmember Chock.
Councilmember Chock: When is that report due?
Ms. Villarreal: The auditors are on-site in September, and we
normally get the report in November and submit it to you guys within two weeks of getting
the report and it is also available on the website.
Councilmember Chock: Okay. So we would not hear from you in some
months.
Ms. Villarreal: We just got the one from four months ago, yes.
Ms. Cistaro: We can send you another copy, if you would like?
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Any other questions from the Members? They
are just checking over their notes. I am sure there are more. Councilmember Yukimura
probably has questions. Should I take a five-minute recess? We will take a five-minute
recess, because I know there are going to be questions and if I stop it now, I do not think we
are doing anybody justice, because we need the questions answered anyways. Let us take a
5-minute recess.
There being no objections, the Committee recessed at 1:33 p.m.
The Committee reconvened at 1:38 p.m., and proceeded as follows:
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: We are back from our short recess, just getting a
little reorganized. I had another question actually on the facility improvements. Is there
any type of...who is responsible for the building, parking area? And is there an account set
up to be reserving money for it? If there is money available for improvements to the
facility?
Ms. Cistaro: Part of our facilities maintenance, so there is
facilities maintenance for grounds, building, and miscellaneous repairs. That is built into
the budget every year.
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Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I am talking about more things, like, replacing
the roof, or having to redo the asphalt? I am not sure how your budget is set-up. It is
better to budget for these things now and reserve it now then to take the one-time hit when
the item comes up. Say the roof needs to be replaced in 20 years, our budget will be $1
million now and that year it will be double, maybe $2 million to replace the roof.
Ms. Cistaro: We do not have a capital budget at this point.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Okay. Any other questions? Councilmember
Chock?
Councilmember Chock: Thank you. Thank you to you folks for being
here. I wanted to see if we could get a little bit of update on some of the things that were
passed last year in terms of the barking dog ordinance and the licensing that was invested
in from the County has progressed? Would you be able to provide a little bit?
Ms. Cistaro: Barking dogs has done well from March of 2014,
when it was passed, through March of this year, we have received a total of 40 barking dog
complaints. 14 of those were closed with education. Five were closed for various reasons,
they gave the dog away or they moved away. And we issued nine citations. The rest
remain open insofar as we have not heard back from the complaining party. They never
mailed in their log sheet. So whether the problem resolved and they did not update us, but
it is actually much less than what we had anticipated receiving. So we are averaging about
4 complaints a month.
Councilmember Chock: One in four we are having to move on a citation
and the cat licensing?
Ms. Cistaro: Cat licensing is on-budget and we had...let me
see, for the first nine months of the year, of this Fiscal Year we had budgeted a little over
$11,000 and we are just over $10,000 on revenue for cat licensing. We are basically
on-target.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Are there any additional revenue sources that
the Humane Society gets? Looking at the profit and loss, there is the Kaua`i County
contract and then the cat licenses, dog licenses, impound fees, and straight boarding. Do
you receive additional grants or revenue to help supplement the financials?
Ms. Cistaro: We receive...the organization runs on
contributions, grants, bequests, so there is additional funding to the Kaua`i Humane
Society and the Kauai Humane Society uses its money to offset the cost of the contract
because the County contract of $760,000 and then the revenue that is generated through
the impound, the board, and the licensing still does not cover the full cost of the program.
So this year we are subsidizing at about $111,000 is our projection. Next year, we are
projecting that we will be subsidizing the contract to about $136,000. Because it is an off
license year for dog licensing. Dog licensing renewal is every other year. We just enjoyed
that December through March of this year. We had the renewal, we got those in, and so
next January through March is a non-renewal year for us. We have also, in one of our
budgets we over projected what we would receive on board, stray boarding. This budget is
a little more realistic, because we have found that for us, we use it as a bargaining, because
people will come in and say well, I cannot afford the board, and so we negotiate the cost of
April 10, 2015
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the board. So that we can get the animal back home. So that is part of what we put into
the contract.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: As far as the grants go, I know the financials
right now, the budget is showing a negative $136,000. Do the grants and fundraising that
you do, does it reach $136,000? Or do you have grants that you receive every single year in
a certain amount?
Ms. Cistaro: No. We apply for grants throughout the year,
and those are not to fund the County contract. Those are to fund our programs. Our
spay/neuter assistance program, our food bank program, our camp programs for kids, our
outreach, and our adoption programs.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: So those expenses are not shown on this?
Ms. Cistaro: Those are the Humane Society expenses or
revenues and not the County's.
Ms. Villarreal: You did receive an E-mail from me with a
combined budget, the really long sheet with KHS and the part you have folded is the
additional revenue coming into us. Our revenues also include the Blooming Tails retail
shop, as well as the front desk, the revenue from adoptions, and any retail stuff we sell.
Ms. Cistaro: We have an agreement with the State to provide
the quarantine or direct-release program for animals coming into Kauai. We also do
private boarding, and those are all revenues, services, that the Humane Society does
outside of the contract.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i?
Councilmember Kuali`i: Hi, thank you for being here. I have a couple of
line item questions basically. On the line item "50219 audit expense" is that an annual
audit?
Ms. Cistaro: Yes, it is an annual audit. It is a complete
agency audit and the cost is split between the County and the Humane Society.
Councilmember Kuali`i: I see that for the current Fiscal Year the split
was $9,000 to the County and $4,000 to KHS as a total, for a total of$13,000. How do you
determine that split?
Ms. Cistaro: 80% of the work that we do is through the
County contract. 80% of the animals coming into the shelter are strays.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Okay.
Ms. Cistaro: Not all of the splits are at that proportion. It is
usually...it can vary with staffing, what is charged to the County. My salary, I think is
25% is charged back to the County.
Ms. Villarreal: We have several departments which do not affect
the County budget. It depends on cost and how much is related to the County contract.
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Councilmember Kuali`i: So along the same lines of that audit amount,
how about the outside professional services?
Ms. Cistaro: Outside professional services includes some of
our staffing costs, and outside professional services?
Ms. Villarreal: If we have to send animals to the vet that is
outside professional services, anything that we have to hire somebody else to handle it for
us pretty much.
Councilmember Kuali`i: I saw the breakdown for this Fiscal Year.
$17,000 and $40,000. Some of it is a split, if you hire a consultant?
Ms. Cistaro: A lot of it is our employee costs in professional
outside services. Because we have an outside service that handles our medical insurance,
dental, vision, the payroll, our HR, all of that is in the outside professional services. So the
KHS has more employees than the County contract does and that is what...
Ms. Villarreal: The total organization budget for next year out to
professional services is $44,000 of the $16,000 allocated to the County.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: Just so I know that I understand, you are saying
this year the subsidy from the Humane Society to the County is $111,000?
Ms. Cistaro: No, that is this current Fiscal Year is $111,000
and next year will be $136,000.
Councilmember Yukimura: Right. So this Fiscal Year it is $111,000?
Ms. Cistaro: Yes.
Councilmember Yukimura: And the projection for this coming Fiscal Year is
$136,000?
Ms. Cistaro: Yes.
Councilmember Yukimura: What was it last year? I am just wanting to
know if it has gone down or up?
Ms. Cistaro: It has been going down. The first time that I
came before Council it was close to $400,000. And I believe that...I do not remember what
we ended. $286,000. I do not know off the top of my head. I apologize, what we ended at
June of last year.
Councilmember Yukimura: All right. So if you could just provide that as a
follow-up.
Ms. Cistaro: I can.
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Councilmember Yukimura: In your memory, it is and certainly $400,000 to
$111,000 is going down.
Ms. Cistaro: Yes.
Councilmember Yukimura: And then it is going up a little bit in your
projection?
Ms. Cistaro: Yes.
Councilmember Yukimura: Is the biennial dog license fees have to do with
this coming year?
Ms. Cistaro: Yes. So our expenses are projected to be 4% less
this year than last year. However, our income is projected to be 7% less. Which makes up
that $25,000 and that $25,000 is through licensing and boarding.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay, but the decrease over time in the deficit is
partly due to the increases that we passed for licenses, both for dogs and the cat licensing
that we initiated as well. That is helping to bring down the deficit?
Ms. Cistaro: Yes. As is there has been a decrease in some of
our expenses. There is also a decrease in the number of animals coming into the shelter.
So that is reflected in there.
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes. 80% of your animals are?
Ms. Cistaro: Are strays.
Councilmember Yukimura: Are strays. And what do you account the
decrease in animals coming to the shelter to? What is causing that?
Ms. Cistaro: Well, more animals are being serviced. The
spay/neuter program is providing a great assistance. There are programs set up at the
shelter to help people keep animals in their home, rather than surrendering them for
financial reasons. We have the food bank. We have the low-cost spay/neuter clinic along
with the vaccination clinics that provide wellness to the animals. So that they are able to
stay in the homes. And we have a very robust microchip program for identification, as well
as the licensing program.
Councilmember Yukimura: So what you are suggesting is that the animal
control is getting better.
Ms. Cistaro: Animal control is getting better.
Councilmember Yukimura: The control of the animals and these are
unwanted or unowned animals is going down?
Ms. Cistaro: Yes.
Councilmember Yukimura: Well, that is a good sign.
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Ms. Cistaro: And our spay/neuter clinic is maintaining, if not
increasing its stats with the number of animals coming in.
Councilmember Yukimura: So we are spaying and neutering more animals
than in the past?
Ms. Cistaro: We are holding study, averaging 1,200 a year of
the public animals and feral cats, the numbers of surgeries for feral cats is increasing as
well. And would and we would like to think that people are being more responsible with
their animals
Councilmember Yukimura: Definitely long-term the increase in
spay/neutering should manifest in that.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Chock.
Councilmember Chock: In regards to the shortfall that you folks are
experiencing $136,000, is that what you said? What are your plans to address that this
budget period?
Ms. Cistaro: We are going to continue to do the fundraising,
increase our efforts. We are looking at additional grants for our spay/neuter assistance
program and our food bank program, which would take some of the financial burden off of
us. We had requested an additional sum from the County this year because it was an off
budget year. Last year we did not ask for an increase, but again, we are in the situation
that if the County continues to fund as it has in the past, we would absorb the cost of the
excess.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i?
Councilmember Kuali`i: In looking at last year's budget compared to this
year's, the new coming year, you are on-track for this current year for your salaries and
wages? The County's share to be $548,000 is that correct?
Ms. Cistaro: For this year, yes...well, payroll and benefits
were at currently nine months of the year $497,000 and we are on-track.
Councilmember Kuali`i: For next year you are projecting $760,000 or no?
What are you projecting for payroll? $669,000? No, what are you projecting?
Ms. Cistaro: This year, Councilmember, we are projecting this
year at $728,000. For the upcoming year we are projecting $690,000. It is actually
decreased by 5%.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Is there any other report? I thought years ago
we saw, like how the positions breakdown under the contract that the County is paying for?
And what is the quantity of each? The deliverables?
Ms. Villarreal: I can certainly provide that. I was not aware
that you needed it.
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Councilmember Kuali`i: Yes, sure. We are looking at the budget for the
year.
Ms. Villarreal: We do salary breakdown by Department, which
has the positions, as well as each one.
Councilmember Kuali`i: And break apart the County piece, versus the
rest? Definitely I want to see that.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I know you answered part of it, but I am still a
little confused how we separate the expenses between the County's portion of the Humane
Society and the Humane Society portion of the Humane Society, I guess? I am looking at
the double budget and I know there is an 80/20 split.
Ms. Villarreal: It is not 80/20 down the board. Audit expense is
60/40, electricity is split 50/50, most of the salaries is split 69/31%, animal food is split
24/76%, it just depends on what the item is and how the expense is allocated.
Ms. Cistaro: We have a breakdown based on a matrix of how
many animal care techs does it take to clean "X" amount of animals? That number I think
is four employees to care for that volume of animals. So four employees are charged to the
County. One veterinarian technician is charged to the County for the medical side of that.
A proportion of the veterinarian's salary is broken down because we have one vet who is
doing three different tasks. There a proportion of her salary and we can give you that ratio,
but each position is really different. We take in 80% of the animals that we take in are
County animals. When we are looking at something like medical supplies or food, we are
breaking it down accordingly. It changes through the year and we try to look at that
quarterly, when we are sending the financials of the split.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I think the split would help. For me, it seems
like some numbers might be a little arbitrary. Like, utilities, 50/50. If you are saying 80%
of the services are from the County, then why would it be 80/20?
Ms. Villarreal: Because we have the SOS program housed in our
building to complicate it even further.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: For me, I think it would help. I am new, so I do
not know how the split goes, but it would help to kind of get a little better understanding of
how the splits are made? Why they are made for certain items?
Ms. Cistaro: Sure, we can provide that information.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: Your food bank expenses, are they costed to the
County?
Ms. Cistaro: No.
Councilmember Yukimura: It is just the food that the stray dogs...?
Ms. Cistaro: That the animals at the shelter, yes.
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Councilmember Yukimura: So that food bank service may be keeping some
dogs from being abandoned?
Ms. Cistaro: Being surrendered to the shelter.
Councilmember Yukimura: Surrendered to the shelter.
Ms. Cistaro: And that is being paid through grant money, the
food bank food.
Councilmember Yukimura: So there are activities that you are not charging
to the County that are actually helping to lessen the number of stray dogs that you are
having to keep?
Ms. Cistaro: Yes.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay.
Ms. Cistaro: Then added into that the County...the first
budget year I was here, the County wanted to pay for just the services that were required
by State law. So the County no longer provides any funding for the adoption program. So
that is a cost that is fully funded through the Humane Society. Spay/neuter as well. You
shifted last year and the $65,000 that was being given to the spay/neuter program shifted
into the contract moneys. So the $760,000 is entirely for the contract, but we still provide
spay/neuter services to the community, whether it is at low-cost, subsidized, or free.
Councilmember Yukimura: Right, and you are funding it through other
sources?
Ms. Cistaro: Yes.
Councilmember Yukimura: Non-County sources?
Ms. Cistaro: Non-County sources. The County gets great
benefits from the Humane Society whether we would have the contract with the County or
not. The County is benefiting through our education and our outreach programs, our safety
net programs...safety net programs. Those are part of the Humane Society that is a benefit
for the community, that is not being charged to the County.
Councilmember Yukimura: Right, even though...is spay/neutering of stray
dogs paid for by County funds or not?
Ms. Cistaro: No.
Councilmember Yukimura: Arguably spay/neutering is an animal control
function.
Ms. Cistaro: It could be considered that.
Councilmember Yukimura: Yes, and arguably we are by law required to do
animal control, the County is responsible for either doing it ourselves or contracting with
an entity that will do it.
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Ms. Cistaro: Correct.
Councilmember Yukimura: But you are saying that you are paying for...from
other sources...I mean because I think there is a certain concern, we always want to make
sure that you are using County money to do the animal control part and not using the
County moneys for other things.
Ms. Cistaro: Correct.
Councilmember Yukimura: But, in fact it is kind of been the other way
around. Where you are actually subsidizing some of the animal control activities.
Ms. Cistaro: Correct.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay.
Ms. Cistaro: One of the things that we do provide is when
someone comes in to claim their stray dog and they want to have the animal spay/neuter,
but cannot afford it, we will cover the cost of the surgery and that gives them a double
benefit paying for the cost of surgery and license fee that they are required to purchase is
decreased by $35.00. So there is a huge savings there for the person, and that is part of the
animal control program, but it is one of the costs that we absorb.
Councilmember Yukimura: Because you are encouraging them to take or
keep the animal, which then prevents you from having to euthanize it? You are actually
minimizing the costs to everybody, both the actual monetary costs and the humanity costs.
Ms. Cistaro: Then to further answer your question, sir.
When the split can become very complicated when we get dogs in that are part of a cruelty
case through the animal control contract and we have those dogs for three and four months
or nine months. And so we are paying for all of the costs of that animal, or in the case of
Soares we had the dogs for nine months, we were providing them flea treatment heart-
worm preventative and food and care for nine months. Then we have dogs that come in by
law required to be held for nine days wearing identification and the dogs that do not have
identification only need to be held two days. So there is a wide variety of housing costs and
trying to break out all of those numbers when we are getting over...we are getting close to
2,000 dogs a year. The split can become very complex in trying to figure that all out. We do
need to look at how do we do this on a percentage basis? Unless you want us to charge
individually per animal and then the cost to the County could be exorbitant.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I was just trying to get my head wrapped around
it, because it may seem arbitrary. I did not know if we had it in our agreement that this is
the split for these things.
Ms. Villarreal: I have only been here since August and I am
struggling, too. I am only starting to see the big picture.
Ms. Cistaro: It has to stay big-picture, because if we look at
charging individual animals or this cluster is going to be here for six months and we would
charge, then it gets very complicated.
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Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I am okay with the big-picture stuff. Still, I was
trying to wrap my head around how you get the percentage, which needs to be determined
somehow.
Ms. Villarreal: The percentage, a perfect example is our payroll,
36 people on staff and we have an entire Department that gets completely charged to the
County and four other Departments that the County does not pay for at all. It is literally
positioned Department-by-Department and that is a simple breakdown and I will send you
our salary breakdown.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i. Follow-up,
Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: When you said Soares nine months, I think you
need to explain it is a mandate to keep these animals until the case is settled, right?
Ms. Cistaro: Yes, they are considered evidence in the cruelty
case.
Councilmember Yukimura: So it is an obligation that we have to pay for.
Ms. Cistaro: Well, it is wrapped up in the County fee, in the
County contract. We do not get additional revenue if there is a large-scale cruelty case and
we have to house the animals. And that is in the contract.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i.
Councilmember Kuali`i: I think earlier when I was asking and you said
you have detailed report. The more valuable thing is the summary report, if you will. And
when he is talking about the big-picture, unless we ask you the right questions, and you
answer, we do not even know what that is so I would request in the future and maybe you
can you can do something for this year is to provide that big-picture, and it is just maybe
summary narrative of a page or two that breaks down the basic programs and services that
you provide? That you provide jointly with the County? That you provide on behalf of the
County alone? Because it is only County-funded or that you provide by the Humane Society
alone?
Ms. Villarreal: That is certainly something I can create for you,
this afternoon or Monday.
Councilmember Kuali`i: That would be great.
Ms. Villarreal: No problem.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: In terms of narrowing the deficit, do you
have...an acknowledging it is more our responsibility or at least a mutual responsibility to
narrow that deficit. Do you have any suggestions as to how we can do that? I mean, I
guess we could just pay you more, right? For the services? Pay completely for the
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services? Otherwise, we would do a periodic increase in fees just so that we do not get into
that? Because it was what? 25 years or something, since we raised the fees. And we do
not want to get into that situation. So if we can do small increments that people do not
even feel, is there any of that being thought about?
Ms. Cistaro: I am not inclined to look at raising our fees to the
public. The license fees are adequate for the norm. You know, what we look at best
practices, our impound fee and our board fee, they are set. And I really would not want to
increase costs back to the pet owners. So at this point in time, and maybe down the road
we would look at that, but over the next two to three years I do not think this community
could sustain another increase from the animal control program. And I do not think that is
in the Humane Society's best interests or the County's best interests to be passing costs
back to them. I think that the County, when we passed...when the County passed the
ordinance to increase the license fees, to do the differential in the impound and the board
fees, I think the County at that point really stepped up and did what it needed and we have
a very good structure as it stands. That was what the County needed to do at the time and
that still stands.
Councilmember Yukimura: Okay.
Ms. Cistaro: There is not...I think that we were in a situation
for whatever reason, where the Humane Society for years and years was subsidizing the
contract without fully disclosing information to the County or...I was not here...I do not
know. But when I came in, two years ago, $400,000 a year to subsidize the contract was
unsustainable and it cost the organization dearly, and we are in the process of rebuilding
and I think that the program is improving. And we can continue to sustain the licensing
renewal. It did extremely well this year and prior to us having it, there were not renewal
notices sent. So we are having an impact with the program. I think that the fees that are
there, I do not want to pass that cost back to the community.
Councilmember Yukimura: That is very good to hear your clear explanation.
And to also observe that the quality of your programs is improving, as well as your fiscal
soundness. I appreciate your leadership, Penny and I see some of the long-term programs
that you are supporting through grants or whatever are really going to impact the animal
control burden for the County.
Ms. Cistaro: It is trending that having safety net programs in
place does reduce the number of animals coming into a shelter and providing services in the
community. We have food banks on the North Shore, and in Kapa'a, at the shelter. We
have a behavior help line and we now have dog training so that we can help people deal
with what problems they have, rather than just giving up and surrendering the animal.
Councilmember Yukimura: So you are increasing the capacity of owners to
take care of their dogs.
Ms. Cistaro: And cats.
Councilmember Yukimura: And cats, excuse me. I think I will leave it at
that.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I knew we had questions. Any further questions?
Councilmember Kuali`i?
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Councilmember Kuali`i: I think in many ways when we look at it, the
community is paying for the service in different ways, you know? The community that are
strong supporters of the Humane Society and contribute are paying that way. The
community that has direct services and pay a fee to you, they are paying that way. The
County's subsidy or the County's contract with taxpayers dollars, so it is the community
paying. So it is all the community paying, but it is a matter of how you are balancing it.
You know how you pace them together and it can be tricky in the sense of what the
particular services are. Because even with the County at-large, we are trying to have it
where people are paying reasonable amounts for the service that they get. So you are
confident that all of the different services you are providing, you are maximizing them out
and should be charging and collecting for those services?
Ms. Cistaro: Yes.
Councilmember Kuali`i: In these line items, like it seems that the biggest
revenue-generator, if will you will, is private boarding...is your capacity in your side of the
budget, the $103,000, is your capacity to house and board fully utilized?
Ms. Cistaro: Not on a regular basis.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Is this a service that actually is available to the
public? Like if you go away on vacation and you can house your animal there for a period
of time?
Ms. Cistaro: Yes.
Councilmember Kuali`i: I have heard of private entities.
Ms. Cistaro: It is private boarding and we ask that you be a
member of Humane Society and it is one of the member benefits that you can board your
dog or your cat at the Humane Society.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Let us tell the world.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I have a follow-up question on the private
boarding. Does the revenue we make cover the expenses of boarding the animals?
Ms. Cistaro: The revenue from the County?
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: The revenue that you make. Does the revenue
that the Humane Society makes cover the expenses of boarding the animals?
Ms. Cistaro: Of private boarding, yes.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura.
Councilmember Yukimura: Do you think the drop in the number of strays is
also due to the improvement in the economy?
Ms. Cistaro: Potentially, people are able to afford their
animals.
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Councilmember Yukimura: I mean, I know...we know it is happening
nationally and I think we have seen signs here also. So that is something that we
experience as part of the ups and downs of the economy. So if the economy were to go down
again, you would see an increase of strays, right?
Ms. Cistaro: We would see an increase of abandoned animals
or animals being turned into the shelter, yes.
Councilmember Yukimura: Right.
Ms. Villarreal: Exactly to your point in a recession in 2010,
there was a 21% increase and 2011 down 9%. 2012 down 30% and this past year down
17%. So quite dramatically in the last year.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Kuali`i?
Councilmember Kuali`i: In the basic programs, because I do not
necessarily see a line item. Does the Humane Society retrieve and dispose of any dead
animals?
Ms. Cistaro: Yes, we do. We pick up dead dogs Countywide.
And we have limited pick-up service for dead cats on the side of the road. We share that
with the County and State.
Councilmember Kuali`i: So people can call for that service and where is
the line item that pays for it or it is just staff?
Ms. Cistaro: That is in the field services.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Field services.
Ms. Cistaro: Yes, and it is also in the cost of the crematorium,
the incinerator.
Councilmember Kuali`i: The interesting thing is, from our standpoint,
you know we are serving the community in all these different ways, but it would be good to
see the big-picture of how the programs break down, so we can tell our constituents what
we get for the $760,000.
Ms. Cistaro: And that is outlined in the contract as well.
Councilmember Kuali`i: Yes.
Ms. Villarreal: It is also on the sheet that I sent you last week.
And those stats we update on website as well.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Council Chair Rapozo.
Council Chair Rapozo: I guess the only concern are the complaints that
we received that they call the Humane Society and they have got to wait. We are closed for
the day. We will come tomorrow, so there are some situations that the Humane Society
does not respond after-hours.
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Ms. Cistaro: We respond to emergencies after-hours for sick,
injured or animals depressed, animals creating a safety hazard or animal that are
potentially dangerous. That is what we respond to after hours.
Council Chair Rapozo: No dead animals.
Ms. Cistaro: We are not going to pick-up a dead animal. We
do not have the staffing levels to have someone on 24/7, on-call.
Council Chair Rapozo: It has always been my concern and of course I
appreciate the Humane Society and what they do for the island. I have been told by many
people that the County could never do it for that price. But there is going to come a point
where the County is going to have to consider it because the services are limited. When the
law was passed, it was really the Humane Society was to be contracted for what the County
used to do...what the County is responsible for doing in the way of animal care or animal
control. It was limited to dogs. Over the years it has evolved into a much larger focus. I
am not opposed to that. I think what KipuKai talked about when the public asks what we
get for $760,000 and we tell them and they say I called last week and they are not coming
out or for whatever the case is, they are not picking up dead animals, which used to be
common. That was the function. That was pretty much a big function of the Humane
Society was to pick up any dead animal on the road. So that is one of the limitations that
we have today; that I am not sure how we are even addressing that? I do not know if we
are sending over Public Works or just leave it until it is run over enough so it is part of the
pavement. But at one point whenever they were called, they would come and pick it up.
That is non-existent anymore.
Ms. Villarreal: Just for clarification, that used to be a County
function and not a Humane Society function.
Council Chair Rapozo: At one point before you were here, the Humane
Society picked them up.
Ms. Cistaro: We do pick up dead animals on the road. We do
not go specifically to pick up dead cats unless we are driving by it.
Council Chair Rapozo: Right. Are there limited hours of picking up
dead animals?
Ms. Cistaro: It is during our regular business hours.
Council Chair Rapozo: That is my point. Most animals are hit at night.
The dog sits on the road until the morning.
Ms. Cistaro: If we get the call, we will go in the morning to
pick it up.
Council Chair Rapozo: Yes. I am saying it is one of the things that is
very difficult to explain to constituents, they are the ones that called and told sorry, we are
not coming out that. That is all I am saying. We have to make a decision what we are
going to do. Either we limit the services, because I do not know what is the increase...the
request this year, how much more were you asking for?
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Ms. Cistaro: We asked for $100,000?
Council Chair Rapozo: More?
Ms. Cistaro: Yes.
Council Chair Rapozo: Right and I said earlier in the day, we have
asked every department in the County, that with the cuts come limiting services to the
public. I am not sure what happens to our services from the Humane Society if, in fact,
you do not get $100,000?
Ms. Cistaro: As I said earlier, we will continue to function as
we are currently functioning. We are not going to cut services, because we have no services
to cut. We cut services two years ago and we cannot cut our services back any more than
they already are, without having an impact on the community and the animals. So we are
respectfully requesting an increase. If the County does not provide that, we will maintain
the current services. We will not cut.
Council Chair Rapozo: I appreciate that. Every department head has
said the same thing.
Ms. Cistaro: Let me point out, we are not a department of the
County. We are an independent contractor with the County.
Council Chair Rapozo: I understand. And I understand that. But
nonetheless, the money has to come from somewhere.
Ms. Cistaro: I understand that.
Council Chair Rapozo: It comes from our taxpayers and to give you
$100,000, we have to get $100,000 from somebody else. That is how it works. It is difficult
for us to tell the Police, hey you cannot have that and tell Fire you cannot have that and tell
everybody you cannot have that. It is a very tough position to be in.
Ms. Cistaro: We realize that, we are doing budgeting for the
Humane Society right now, because our budget starts July let as well. So I am doing the
same balancing that the County is doing on a smaller scale.
Council Chair Rapozo: I do appreciate what you have done, I really do.
Ms. Cistaro: Again, two years ago, there was a $400,000
subsidy and the Humane Society has regrouped and moved forward financially.
Council Chair Rapozo: Before you came, I think shelters held on to
animals a lot longer too and that added expense to the operation.
Ms. Cistaro: There was a lot of various things.
Council Chair Rapozo: So I commend you for reducing that gap. Thank
you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Councilmember Yukimura.
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Councilmember Yukimura: I want to also thank you, Penny, for the time you
have spent working on dangerous dog ordinance changes, feral cats. Chair, you know and
have been tracking that. You know, these are major public policy issues around animals
that we cannot ignore. Especially the dangerous dog ones, we know we have had several
really difficult situations lately. So just want to say that in all that you have been doing,
you have also been very gracious with your time, and expertise, in helping us work on that.
They are still works in progress, but Penny has always been there whenever we needed her,
with statistics and vast knowledge about how these things work. Thank you very much.
Ms. Cistaro: Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: I was thinking about and I wanted to clarify my
question on the private boarding. You receive money for the private boarding? Do any of
the expenses for the private boarding end up getting allocated to the County's section? It
stays with the Kauai Humane Society?
Ms. Cistaro: It stays with the Kaua`i Humane Society.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Thank you. Any further questions for Kaua`i
Humane Society? No further questions. But I knew we had questions. We were here a
little longer.
Ms. Cistaro: I expected more from Chair Rapozo.
Council Chair Rapozo: It is no different than last budget. That is why
the budget sessions are going quick because there is no excessive spending.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: Thank you again for coming out and answering
all of our questions.
Ms. Cistaro: Sure. Thank you.
Committee Chair Kaneshiro: At this time, I would like to recess the
Departmental Budget Reviews and reconvene at 9:00 a.m., Monday, April 13, 2015. We
have the reviews for the Civil Defense Agency, Office of the County Attorney, and the Office
of Economic Development. Just a reminder, the budget session starts at 9:00 a.m., but we
should be present at 8:30 a.m. for an event that we have in our calendars. So Monday we
need to be here at 8:30 a.m. Thank you.
There being no objections, the Committee recessed at 2:24 p.m.
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