With all the training that Kauai County
has been ordered to do on sexual harassment, racial discrimination,
whistle-blower retaliation and now age discrimination, county
employees should be pretty akamai.
But there must be a cheaper way of
getting staff and management up to speed than settling a steady
stream of Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints.
Because the county is in deep financial
trouble — so deep that it's actually surveying Kauai residents on
both customer satisfaction and ways of reducing costs.
Folks are being asked what measures
they support in order to balance the County budget, with choices like
reducing the county workforce, imposing higher property taxes and
user fees, increasing the general excise tax and cutting expenditures
and services.
And if you choose the cutting one, you're
asked what you're willing to live with, and without.
No cops in schools? Fewer
meals served to the elderly? Longer wait for building and planning
permits? Longer response time from the police and fire department?
Reduced lifeguard services? Cuts in the bus service?
Giving less
money to youth activities, nonprofits that provide social services
and “economic stimulus” programs like Kauai Visitors Bureau and
agriculture? Shutting down the landfill and transfer stations one day
each week?
While there is a blank for “other,”
a number of possible cost-savings were noticeably absent from the survey. Like eliminating out-of-state travel. Management pay cuts.
Aggressively weeding out dead wood workers. Reducing the vehicle
fleet.
And carefully scrutinizing Bernard
Carvalho Jr.'s legacy, vision, sacred cow — Holo Holo 2020, which
is reportedly off-the-table in all budget discussions. Surely there's
a bit of fat in there.
What do you think? How can the county
balance its budget and improve its financial health?
Posts
17 comments:
Cut the workforce, privatize the bus, and get rid of all sustainabity useless carpetbaggers. And take off the budget all empty slots nit filled for twelve months.,
Kinda ridiculous. The preacher is asking the congregation for advice. The County saw this coming a long time ago but did little to prepare other than to hope for more TAT money and to propose more taxes.
So now the people need to find the solution for poor management choices. To the guy who loses his job, the county can say, oh, this is what the people wanted. Sad.
1. you can't cut deadwood employees because they are mostly civil service and covered by the union. cut deadwood without a paper trail and thats just more EEOC complaints and sue jobs.
2. by eliminating out of state travel, you're saying you don't want the managers to better educate themselves about the evolving issues in their field. important training (tech advances, etc.) especially for public safety (KFD,KPD,Prosecutors) are on the mainland. i think the 1 trip a year is reasonable..is it 1 trip? plus, not all trainings have the option to participate via online.
3.management paycuts will make the managers go into the private sector because of the pay discrepancy AND qualified individuals will not apply because of the lower pay
4.my understanding is that the county is currently already reducing their vehicle fleet
i'm surprised you didn't think of these repurcussions joan.
why not cut the council pay (they are only part time and get paid about $55k a year!!!), minimize the councils offisland/mainland trips ( I wanna know how much hooser has gone on the county dime), and ask the council to cut their staff. like some of the neighbor islands, each council member has 1 assistant and 1 secretary which cuts down on the workforce. if council wants the rest of the county to cut costs, they should too. lead by example eh?
why not cut the mayors office, do they really need 3 public information people?
you did bring up a great point though...what is the public willing to do WITHOUT. that's the question. the answer is reduction of workforce WILL BE longer wait periods for EVERYTHING from permits to public safety responses, less access to housing initiatives, less access for programs for the elderly, etc.
2:07pm, I think the good thing that will come from the survey is to get a consensus of what the public is willing to do without and thats about it
To carry the State chartered bank idea one step further: what about a "county" state chartered bank, where "banking in the public interest" could be more of a reality> Just think: all county tax revenues could be held in the "Kauai County Bank"instead of being deposited in a private bank and used for its How much money would the tax payers save by NOT paying bank fees and such? How much more efficient would the distribution of county monies be without any private banks in the middle? There are plenty of people in the financial sector who would be willing to seed this idea of banking in the public interest, since the state legistators are too chicken shit to piss off their large donors from BankoH. And a county would not cut out private banks,Among other advantages, giving the KCB the ability to participate in loans originated and led by private banks, which then have more flexibility to manage and expand their loan portfolios. If the county bank can be modeled after the Bank of North Dakota,perhaps millions could be returned to the county taxpayers in the form of dividends,and low interest loans. The Bank of ND has returned to the state general fund over $300 million dollars to the state fund over the past 10 years. If the county could realize even 2% of that savings, it would be a boon to county tax payers. Kauai county would be a model as well! The State of Hawaii should have done this 5-8 years ago: a no brainer. By now, the "state" bank would have strong relationships with all private Hawaii banks. Could it be done on the county level? Why not? There are a lot of talented financial sector folks who are interested in the idea of public banking. Why pay bank fees and other charges to private banks for the privilege of holding county monies? yeah, I know...I am still trying to catch that unicorn in my front yard who craps skittles...
Wadda you think the island banking establishment would say to that? They help politicians get elected and the politicians will protect their interests no matter what. Also wonder, if our county can't even balance its checkbook, how're they going to run a bank? Give you credit with coming up with a solution. This island needs more of that.
How much does the county spend for off-island consultants to prepare lengthy studies which take forever to finish on "pressing issues". If the very well paid managers which we can't afford to lose to private enterprise are so valuable, why can't they come up with a plan? Why is the county continuously retaining Honolulu legal counsel to defend itself? Why not hire competent litigators at the county attorney's office and pay them what they're worth? How about a ridership survey to make the bus more efficient in its scheduling. I see a lot of buses on the road with few passengers.
I think a large problem lies with county staffing that is complacent in the knowledge that all they need do is put in the time and retire nicely. Where is the incentive for efficiency, let alone excellence?
Don't replace retiring county workers in many departments.
KFD maybe a little bloated.
90% cut in out of state travel. These guys take more flights than tvr owners. Online training. Conferences on Oahu. The travel looks a lot more like a perk than something necessary during hard times.
A close look at the taxes large land holders are paying might reveal serious revenue due to misclassification of lands.
Much more publicity over potential government contracts and RPF's. reducing insider advantage on bidding and evaluation of bids results in lower capital improvement costs and public works project costs.
Move funds from marijuana enforcement at KPD to white collar crime and government fraud.
Don't replace retiring county workers in many departments.
KFD maybe a little bloated.
90% cut in out of state travel. These guys take more flights than tvr owners. Online training? Conferences on Oahu. The travel looks a lot more like a perk than something necessary during hard times.
A close look at the taxes large land holders are paying might reveal serious revenue due to misclassification of lands.
Much more publicity over potential government contracts and RPF's. reducing insider advantage on bidding and evaluation of bids results in lower capital improvement costs and public works project costs.
Move funds from marijuana enforcement at KPD to white collar crime and government fraud.
Cut government and let their services be replaced by the private sector.
I suggest charging for helicopter rescue service for totally preventable 'emergencies' like being trapped by a swollen river when going hiking in a flash flood watch or not taking enough water with you up the mountain. Won't solve the budget issue in one swing but will stop the hemorrhage of money for stupidity.
Implement a Huge tax on speculative land sales.
It's like there are parallel universes here on Kauai, with some buying and selling properties like monopoly, making high end real estate deals to the wealthy from around the world, raising the price of housing for everyone, and then all the folks who have raised their families here have a harder and harder time with the housing inflation. Those doing the speculation can well afford the taxes and with so many more visitors coming here, it is hard to cut services or make government smaller.
Who's milking the county of Kauai the most the Mayor, the police chief or the fire chief?
Here's a simplistic solution that every working family understands. NO SPEND MORE DEN U MAKE
Every time a new law is passed it increases the burden on the taxpayers. Laws require enforcement. Enforcement requires rules. Rules require someone's time and effort to put them together. Once in place someone has to be hired to enforce them. Why is it that the answer to our problems is "There ought to be a law!" I suggest we look at the laws that we already have on the books and then commit resource and time to enforce them. Once we have been able to successfully do that then maybe, just maybe, we can afford the luxury of more laws! Or is that too Libertarian?
Get rid of the mayor and his good-for-nothing appointees. Problem solve.
10:11 has something
charge a luxury tax on sales of premium lots, acreage properties, luxury homes, condos, etc. not to be used as the purchaser' full time residence or place of primary business. chunks of our precious island are being sold for big bucks and the only guys benefitting are the speculators and the realtors. what do the island people get? nothing.
Well, according to the morning paper, our budget crisis seems to be resolved. How much of the nail biting headlines were real and how much was part of the plan to get controversial stuff done while the sheep were distracted; we'll never know. But count on some of both being true. Some good folks ended up thrown under the bus for no good reason. So sad.
Post a Comment